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F' that "end of decade" stuff
Nov. 14th, 2019 03:22 pmFor a while there were memes going around Twitter of the form "There are X days left in this decade; what have you accomplished?"
This set ALL my hackles up. Year ends are arbitrary. Decade ends are equally arbitrary; they just don't happen as often. No one should measure themselves by such an arbitrary thing.
Sure, I get that it's wise to reflect on one's accomplishments and for some people I know "I'm still alive and a functional human being who's good to be around some of the time" is a giant effort and I appreciate those friends, too, and very much want them to continue being around.
Me? My biggest accomplishment was that I don't seem to have utterly ruined my children in the last decade. This was not at all a certainty at many points. But anyway, back to the rant.
One of the important things I try to keep in mind is that endeavors take their own time. If I'm working on a thing, or you are working on a thing, then trying to get it done by some arbitrary deadline is likely counterproductive. I have a personal love-hate relationship with deadlines in my regular life. They can be good motivational tools but we hates them we does, Precious!
I was pleased to see that - at least in the Twitter circles I frequent - the first wave of memes was soon followed by a series of affirmations of the form "you are a good and valid person regardless of accomplishments" and "don't force yourself into measurement based on someone's external notion of accomplishment" and generally disparaging arbitrary deadlines.
You call it a bubble; I call it a carefully curated group of inspiring humans.
This set ALL my hackles up. Year ends are arbitrary. Decade ends are equally arbitrary; they just don't happen as often. No one should measure themselves by such an arbitrary thing.
Sure, I get that it's wise to reflect on one's accomplishments and for some people I know "I'm still alive and a functional human being who's good to be around some of the time" is a giant effort and I appreciate those friends, too, and very much want them to continue being around.
Me? My biggest accomplishment was that I don't seem to have utterly ruined my children in the last decade. This was not at all a certainty at many points. But anyway, back to the rant.
One of the important things I try to keep in mind is that endeavors take their own time. If I'm working on a thing, or you are working on a thing, then trying to get it done by some arbitrary deadline is likely counterproductive. I have a personal love-hate relationship with deadlines in my regular life. They can be good motivational tools but we hates them we does, Precious!
I was pleased to see that - at least in the Twitter circles I frequent - the first wave of memes was soon followed by a series of affirmations of the form "you are a good and valid person regardless of accomplishments" and "don't force yourself into measurement based on someone's external notion of accomplishment" and generally disparaging arbitrary deadlines.
You call it a bubble; I call it a carefully curated group of inspiring humans.
