Addressing Escapism

Nowadays, it’s far too easy to escape. We all know this. Escape can be a valuable tool to help remove yourself from a difficult situation, providing temporary relief. Sometimes we just need to get through a day; however, when our escapism becomes habitual, day after day we escape more than we do progress.

Since these blogs are all notes to self, what is it that I’ve been running from? What do I need to address?

I’m running from sapoots, ironic enough. Operating sapoots comes at a cost—the cost of time and attention I could be putting elsewhere. But the issue is not a lack of passion or desire to keep this train moving, it’s that I’ve made the mistake of not setting realistic goals.

The unrealistic goal is this: Grow sapoots as fast as possible to as many followers, while maintaining authenticity and growing organically. Theoretically, I could be working every second of the day. There is no satisfying the “as much, as soon as possible” model. It’s an ever-growing list of things that need to get done right here, right now. It’s a frame of mind that allows for greedy productivity.

This is the source of my stress, and as a result, my escapism has been stacking. Let’s make sense of this to plug up the leak.

It’s a vicious cycle: If I avoid doing work on sapoots, I feel stressed. If I do work on sapoots, I convince myself I’m not doing enough, thus feeling stressed. If I escape the stress by doing things other than sapoots (mainly watching YouTube), it makes me feel guilty for not doing the work. There is no winning here.

In my last blog, I talked about the balance between relaxation and work. In this blog I reference the need for distinct boundaries on where your effort is being placed: Either you are fully in work mode or fully in relax mode. Don’t cross-contaminate.

By changing the timescale for how much growth I expect out of sapoots, I can reduce the stress I place on myself, allowing for a clean, consistent effort towards this project. I’ve charted out exactly how many followers I’m aiming to hit by each month. This allows me to breakdown precisely how much work needs to get done PER DAY, which is very important. Knowing precisely when I’ve done enough work delivers immense utility, allowing me to “clock-out” and begin to finally relax. This relaxation reduces stress, stripping the need for escapism.

We are all affected by the goals we set for ourself. The weight of an infinite goal (infinite followers, as quick as possible) is too much to bare. Be careful of infinite goals.

So, I pose the questions off to you: Have you been escaping recently? If so, why? What are the factors leading to this escapism? Is it stress? If so, is this stress unavoidable or malleable? It’s clear that my stress was malleable. Some stress isn’t. All stress has solutions, some easier than others, though I advise everyone to take a break from the escapism to confront your stress. How can you reframe your goals, responsibilities, or other forms of stress to make it more manageable? What are you losing by pressuring yourself to work more.

Best of luck. Stress sucks, but you don’t.

Til next time,

sapoots