Blahhhhhs and Counter-Blahhhhhs

When I have a hard time getting up in the morning for the entire week, it’s a blahhh sign. Blahhhhh means a lot of things - boredom, irritation, agitation, loss of focus and drive. It’s an inevitable mood, I guess, for everyone who has a routine to follow every day. I know I’m blahhhh when all I look forward to every start of the day is the end of the day.

Is it unhealthy? Of course, many will say yes. Most people will tell me that I should redirect my energy to something more productive to shake away the blahhhs. But how will I do that, when the mere act of thinking about the entire day already irks me?

To a certain extent, I believe that yes, being in a blahhh mood is not healthy because it robs you off the enthusiasm in the things that you usually enjoy doing. But I also think that having blahhhh moments from time to time enables you to gain a better perspective of yourself- your character, goals, and priorities in life. But I will not justify here my blahhhs, I wanna indulge in blahhhs and acknowledge the fact that I’m experiencing blahhhhhs a lot of times lately.

Blahhhs actually don’t just come out of nowhere. It’s a form of emotion which was developed through time, and due to several circumstances:

• When most of the time you are forced to deal with things that are beyond your control
• When you can always predict what will happen and what will be asked of you to do
• When you question yourself if you are doing enough even if you know that you’ve done enough
• When you feel mechanical and robotic of the things that you are doing
• When you start feeling tired because you see that other people do not do much but they can do away with it
• When you catch yourself daydreaming of the person you want to be and the place you want to be, which is of course, not the person you are now and the place you are in.

Fine, I complain and whine a lot. But honestly, I just can’t force myself to feel oh so good about the daily grind at work. Perhaps lately, 85% of the time I know what will happen, and how I will react to things and to some people. And when I feel this, I don’t over react anymore because most of the time it seems de ja vu to me – like I’ve seen this, nothing totally new. This only means, that I’m close to being jaded already.

Being jaded, for me, is the worst form of blahhhh- you just take things as they are, and you don’t feel the drive to make things better at all. You just want to accomplish what you have to do, enough of the bright and out of the box ideas. Your line of thinking is, why take on more work when you yourself is heavily loaded and you can barely comb your hair?

While I’ve been blahhhh recently until today, I’m still hoping that I can regain my excitement with a lot of things at work. You don’t need to push yourself to be more motivated – motivation is not forced upon you. You don’t even have to concentrate more – this may stress you more. And most importantly, you don’t have to pressure yourself to like something just because you have to simply because you will always have a choice. You know that if it’s too much, and you’re not happy anymore, you just have to get out. So as long as you are not getting out, then you still believe that things will eventually be better, and become happier for you.

So for the meantime, if you still decide to stay where you are, then take things as they are. To free yourself from unnecessary blahhhhs, I think you just need to learn to choose the things and people that you will allow to drain your energy. Here’s how:

• If it’s beyond your control, let it be.
• If you can’t handle it, ask help.
• If you don’t want to do it, propose compromise.

It’s easier said than done, I know. But if you think about it, you are worried a lot of what others will say about you. But have you asked yourself what you really want? While at work we don’t get to always choose what we want, remember that there are two essential things that you should do to make things lighter – to simply accept things as they are and to continue exploring for more opportunities beyond work- not necessarily a new career, but perhaps new activities that you will enjoy that are not work-related.

In the morning as you face your computer at work, just look in the mirror and say: “Matatapos din ang araw na ito. Countdown: 9 hours! ”