Stop Being Only a Human Doing, Become a Human Being Again

Give yourself the right to do unnecessary things that you enjoy.

The emergence of the Internet has created a world where it has never been easier to make money. With a smartphone and an Internet connection, you can become a content creator and expect to make money day after day by providing value to others.

Of course, the definition of value is relative when you see how some people earn money by creating videos that seem useless. But if they are making money doing this, they are probably fulfilling the expectations of thousands of people.

In the writing world, there have never been so many opportunities to make money by publishing articles, ebooks, or books.

Every day you are urged to produce more

Not a day goes by that you don't see an article about how someone has managed to create a great system around their work that now allows them to live off their passion. This person writes a lot of articles on the first days of the week to profit the following days by letting his work bring him money in a practically passive way.

The notion of a content catalog comes fully into play here. Even if you stop writing for a while, your old posts can continue to earn you money if the platforms' algorithms continue to highlight them.

The key is there with that “if” with huge consequences. You can build such a system around you only if you manage to give the algorithms of these platforms what they are looking for. Since you won't be able to do it the first time, you'll get into an approach of always more.

Since you can't earn enough money from the articles you write, you will try to increase the volume of your productions. By writing more articles, you will earn more. That is your reasoning. Reasoning that makes sense. The volume will allow you to grow as a content creator.

In the process, you'll have more garbage, but you'll undeniably progress.

You will seek to increase your productivity to produce more and more

To keep up, you'll be forced to turn yourself into a human doing constantly seeking to optimize its productivity. The goal? To do more and more with your twenty-four hours a day. Because no matter what, you will never have more than twenty-four hours a day at your disposal.

This fundamental reality is the same for all of us.

You will therefore build a routine of good habits, which I also frequently advocate, to optimize your productivity. In this way, you will be able to find a better balance between your private and professional life while reaching your goals, each time higher.

Because as humans, that's how we are. After reaching the $100 a month mark, you'll aim for $200, then $500, then $1,000, and so on... Without ever really stopping to aim higher. While aiming higher isn't a bad thing, it may push you further into the human doing trap.

You were looking to be more productive to have more time for yourself, but in the end, you will choose to use that extra time to produce more. It's hard to set limits for yourself, and I know something about that.

Without even realizing it, you will break all the initial rules you set for yourself. You will even start writing on weekends to produce more and more. Always this human doing syndrome. From one article a day, you will go to two, then to three, then to four...

You will reach your limits, but you will continue as if locked in a downward spiral.

You will end up feeling guilty when you try to be just a human doing

You will even end up feeling guilty on the days when you decide to produce nothing and rest. You'll feel bad on the nights you feel like watching a series on Netflix instead of reading a book. After all, all the great entrepreneurs in the world spend their time reading books all the time according to what the personal development articles tell you.

If you do anything differently than them, you may not succeed. This fear will prevent you from doing unnecessary things. You will always have this feeling that you have to constantly exploit every moment of your life to produce something. Either produce content or deepen your knowledge and then produce more.

You get the idea. I've been plagued by this syndrome for a long time, and I think I'm unfortunately not the only one.

By dint of feeling guilty on the rare occasions when I wanted to disconnect completely by doing useless things, I realized the irony of the situation. I started to produce content to help others, and eventually, I got trapped in a system where I can't even help myself properly anymore.

That's when I realized the importance of becoming a simple human being again.

You must regain control by accepting that it is necessary to be a simple human being from time to time

Producing content instead of being a simple consumer of content is indeed something important to achieve great things in life, but you have the right not to do it constantly.

You have the right to leave this race for productivity, for more and more, not to be a human doing, but to become a human being again.

A human being who just wants to enjoy simple things without thinking about the next content he will produce. A human being who just wants to enjoy a "useless" series on Netflix to clear his head.

A human being who wants to enjoy a hike in the mountains to clear his mind and think about nothing. That's what I invite you to do if you have managed to read this article so far. Take back control of your life by really putting the cursor where it should be between your normal quest as a content producer and the reality of life as a human being.

Accept that some days you will produce nothing and do useless things, but so much fun. This will not change anything in the long term for your future success, but it will bring you great benefits in the short term. Benefits that will eventually reflect positively on your life in general.

It's up to you to take the plunge and become what you are: a human being.