The problem with trying to fix only one thing

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It's very easy these days to get caught up in a consistent loop of wake up, go to work, come home, do some few things and repeat the next day hoping desperately for the weekend to arrive. Today is Monday and one reason a lot of "People hate Monday memes" exists online is because Monday is the beginning of that loop.

But we know very well there's more to it than that. It is no surprise if you think if you just fix your career, then everything else would just fall into place, but that's not really how it works.

You can get promoted, but if you're not sleeping well at night or your friendships are in the dumper, then you still feel terrible. The truth is problems have a way of bleeding into one another, if you have a difficult week at work, that bleeds into how you deal with your spouse and kids if you have any, or I could say your friends and relatives.

Plus if you're not getting enough exercise, it's really hard to get motivated to do anything else.

I see this pattern or perhaps I'm just starting to see it. There are lots of people who, like me, tend to focus on one part of their lives and fix that. They focus entirely on changing jobs or exercising to look more fit. But if you only fix one small part of your life, you can't really see and even experience the bigger picture.

There's a concept of the four pillars which is a good way to map out your life and what you put effort into. There is the career pillar, the relationship pillar, the health pillar and the self esteem pillar, but if I'm being honest, I don't know that it matters what order you work on them.

Screenshot attributed to InfoSciHub on X

The biggest thing for me is if you ignore 3 pillars but focus on 1 pillar, you just end up unbalanced.

You don't have to be perfect in every area of your life all the time, nobody can keep up with such a lifestyle, it doesn't even exist. The goal should be just not to completely ignore the other 3 pillars. It all adds up little by little. I drink water every day, I text a friend every day, I don't hate myself all day.

I know we can agree on the fact that life today, generally speaking has become a real mess and everything has a connection to something else in your life. There's no easy way to figure this out. But it's life and you don't have a choice than to live it or die. Having balance in your life is necessary even when you don't think it's possible.