How to work from home and not become a vegetable!

Wow! They are paying me a great salary but it is a ‘work from home’ opportunity: I wonder ‘how that works out in the long run’!

Working from home can be easy or difficult – it all depends on our belief. We may get a work from home opportunity without even asking for it; or we may actually ask for it thinking that – it comes with lot of freedom. But lot of freedom comes with fear of inaction, boredom and isolation.

Our thoughts determine: how we measure the success in our life? Some may measure the success in money and the chaos that goes behind earning money, while some may measure the success by living a simple life, yet living with lot of passion!

For instance: You may want to drive a Porsche car and crack business deals, but it appears that you don’t have the sales aptitude! What do you do? – Rather than struggling with sales – you might as well work on something which will give more meaning and satisfaction to your life!
This post is about finding the passion to work from home and in the process not become a vegetable. We will focus on some of our worst fears: inaction, boredom, isolation and even the fear of going bonkers!

Discovering the real meaning of work at home life
It is of primary importance to find meaning in ‘what we do for a living’. Yes, I know – ‘meaning is not readily available’. Meaning is not available in motivational books, quotes or movies! Yes, a motivational quote or movie can be meaningful, and inspiring for a single day, but you are back to being unmotivated the very next day!

The cycle of being motivated, and then frustrated continues because the real meaning lies in between ‘feeling motivated’ and ‘feeling frustrated’.

We often try to jump to conclusions. Oh! I am so happy today or Oh! I feel so sad today. The fact is we are too focused on the state of your mind. The best way to tackle such an ordeal of meaninglessness is to ‘live in the moment and focus on our work’. ‘We will find happiness when we become part of the work flow’.

The problem starts when we become too analytical about our life. We think, think, and think, until our thoughts begin to break us!

And we don’t want to toy with our belief system and accept defeat that too even before beginning the fight! There is a humorous adage: too much of analysis can lead to paralysis. Well, not to be taken literally, but it does make sense. This is because we as humans are ‘beings of our action’.

Let us study this observable fact of thoughts & beliefs by answering some questions:

Did you ever find yourself being violent after watching an ‘Action Movie’? Yes, this happens because we are either too inspired with the fight sequences or too brain-washed during the movie!

Did it ever happen that – one moment you are in divine happiness, and in the other moment you begin feeling miserable! Yes! Our moods change but we don’t necessarily witness ‘how it happens’!

Did you ever think about ‘why being silent amidst a group of talkative people can make us feel awkward?’ Yes, this can happen especially if we don’t like to talk too much. Everyone is talking about this and that, and then the awkward question comes up – why are you so silent? Are we doing something wrong?

Do you ever start to feel like a rock after sitting idle for some time? Yes, because we gradually start to live a particular ‘State of Mind’ – Active or Inactive.

It can be observed that we instantly adapt with certain people or a certain state of mind that those people represent. For instance: if someone shouts at you, or talks rudely with you, then you respond with an equally rude tone, or you yell back at that person.

Thus, it should be noted that in every moment we represent a particular state of mind, and this phenomenon tricks us into thinking that ‘we are that state of mind’.

You say to yourself: I am feeling burned out which means I am not good at anything; I am feeling lazy which means I am lazy.

We are in a hurry to conclude our life on the basis of ‘things that happen or don’t happen to us’. The problem is ‘we tend to react a lot to events, objects and people’, and this tendency leads us into thinking on the extremes: ‘Oh! The whole world is bad! or I should stop caring’!

So, working from home can get challenging, if we are unable to stop the trail of negative and unnecessary thoughts. On the contrary, working from home can be a rewarding and productive experience, if we focus on our work by giving our best effort.

One thing is for sure – Our mind in its ordinary state will never stop thinking and we can’t make it stop! A thinking mind is part of our consciousness and a thinking mind is ‘what represents life’.
But, we can calm our mind with practice. Deep breathing exercises can help us to calm our mind, build patience and we can become more productive at doing work and daily chores.
Thus, leaving aside all of our apprehensions – there is nothing that can stop us from being a productive ‘work from home’ resource.

A fear of loneliness or isolation can be gripping, but this fear won’t bother us if we are regular with our daily routine activities and business related ‘work from home’ activity.
Life is not just about survival; life is about living in every breath with growing passion!
We should aim to evolve and get more and more productive from time to time.
Our ability to act is what ‘keeps us going’,
And life is all about ‘moving forward’,
One step at a time!