Noblesse oblige (3)

[netpositive]

We, so tired of all the darkness in our lives...

Some years ago, I realized that the concept of

Comments

“noblesse oblige”

[starfyrone]

Yes, it can be terribly destructive.

It forces you to endure when you know others can't.
It forces you to do when others are content to be idle.
It forces you to excel when 'good enough' would do.
It forces you to be patient with others,
even when they don't deserve it,
because "one must make allowances for lesser beings".

And it forces you to realize that as hard as you try.
As much as you strive.
It could always have been better.
You could have done more.

[squishydish]

A few years and a couple of jobs ago, I was always being the hero, doing massive unpaid overtime to keep the work up to what I considered professional standards, and my health and personal life slide further and further under. It was extremely disheartening to realize that not only was no one else doing the same or willing to substitute for me, but nobody even appreciated what I was doing. I was working flat-out, all the time, and they took that for granted and kept loading *more* stuff on, and told me "work smarter not harder" -- really adding insult to injury, the way they assumed I was being inefficient! All this is to say that although I can't really provide any helpful advice for you, I do sympathize with your situation.
Also, I thought your Joe Jackson framing was really neat.

[ladymondegreen]

This resonates with me on so many levels. I feel like I've been suffering a level of empathy and intellectual burnout mostly caused by being a bad fit for the current description of my job and the expectations that are being heaped on me.

I grew up with a lot of the same expectations and assumptions you outline here, and I've often wondered what it would be like to put down the mountain, so over the last five years, I've been experimenting with staking a claim on my own time, and trying out healthier thinking and positivity where I had previously resorted to upset and resentment. I find it's working better for me, though slowly.

I wish you much good luck and renewed energy.

[whuffle]

A good set of insights, if hard to swallow at a personal level. We're not taught how to just be and find it satisfying. We are taught that we should constantly be striving to be better, do more, earn more, become powerful. What does that power and money get us? I think that's the question at the bottom that we need to answer for ourselves in order to be able to start quieting those voices. Because if we are earning enough and we have a level of power with which we are satisfied, do we truly need to be more? Or is it just going to add an unnecessary weight to our shoulders?

[phoenix_glow]

Sounds like a lot to ponder. It is possible to change in very small steps. I read a really cool book about that not too long ago
One Small Step Can Change Your Life: The Kaizen Way by Robert Maurer. You might check it out if it strikes your fancy.