GREYMUTTER: Have you noticed how these days when you ask just about anyone how they are doing, the answer that invariably comes back at you is, ‘I am so tired!’
HAVE you also noticed it? These days when you ask just about anyone how they are doing, the answer that invariably comes back at you is, “I am so tired!” Tiredness everywhere! In fact, as I am typing this, I am slumped over my desk yawning.
What’s going on? I mean for crying out loud, the way time is flying, days should be shorter and we should actually have MORE energy, but no … I sometimes feel burnt out when my morning alarm goes off!
Then, as some bright spark once said, it’s not a case of waking up and saying, “Good morning, Lord” … but rather, “Good Lord, it’s morning!”
Maybe it’s because I have been working too hard of late. Work has been so tough that I – a man – had to learn to multitask. These days I can work while I weep!
But seriously, nowadays working too hard has become synonymous with having a job – unless you’re one of those office “multitaskers”. You know the people I am referring to, those guys who hang around the office, earn a fat cheque and have the superhuman ability to be able to waste time, be unproductive, and procrastinate all at once.
I suppose that unrelenting rising prices have made it so the average working stiff has to work hard just to keep their job, just to make monthly ends meet … which is becoming tough these days.
So to save myself from that torment of agonising over why my ambitions are not being realised, I have adopted a new mantra. It goes: “If at first you don’t succeed, redefine success.”
But all the silliness aside.
I have been thinking seriously about this weariness epidemic in our society and have been wondering if it has anything to do with the fact that we are eating healthy meals but not burning off the energy, the calories, that we are consuming. I mean where does that energy go? Especially if one’s job is sedentary!
Recently I read a quote from a book published back in 1897, where the author suggested: “If physical exercise were combined with mental exertion, the circulation of the blood would be quickened, the action of the heart would be more perfect, impure matter would be thrown off, and new life and vigour would be felt in every part of the body.”
New life and vigour nogal! But we don’t have to reach back that far. Modern-day researchers have suggested the same thing. One study showed that just 10 minutes of moderate walking significantly increased energy levels in sedentary adults compared to a control group that remained inactive.
Additionally, the article highlights something called an “energy paradox”, where the more energy you expend through physical activity, the more energy your body generates via improved mitochondrial function.
You know the old saying: “If you don’t use it, you lose it”? Well, I guess it applies to energy too.
But let me get back to work. I still have ambitions, even at my age. After all, I started out with nothing and I still have most of it. But maybe that’s because of my work ethic.
Allow me to explain my work ethic this way: A bus stops at a bus station. A train at a train station. And on my desk, I have a work station …
