Dimensions of a Person
just a collection of memories? Or something more intangible?
I was recently excited to get a prize from McDonald’s Monopoly game. It was a very valuable prize for me, because for some reason, I couldn’t get myself to find value in the 5.99 monthly cost of it.
Do you know what it is? It’s streaming service subscription to paramount plus free for 3 months.
It’s a funny statement isn’t it? that’s how much a latte costs. And I have on average of about 30 to 40 lattes of the pumpkin spice lattes a season. Despite this, I still couldn’t find value in subscribing to another streaming service.
Any idea why I couldn’t find value in it, yet it is the most valuable prize for me? That in itself is a very big oxymoron. How can I find value in what I couldn’t get myself to pay for?
Let’s continue the story, perhaps we can find some insights.
Why is it valuable?
Growing up, I was a TV screen addict. Sometimes the rest of the family got sick of it, that I couldn’t share TV time. I monopolised it pretty much from the time I got home to the time I was pried off it by my parents as a punishment or other means, metaphorically speaking.
I was also an avid video game player later on, which also required a TV. I remember times when I would haul my computer across a whole neighbourhood to have LAN parties with friends. Remember these? Yes, I was one of the nerds who did it.
My level of participation was severely limited because of the strictness of my parents, as most south Asian parents of that generation were. I don’t think I’m nearly as strict, but I still picked up some of the strictness habit. However that’s another story.
Why all this back story? 2 of the shows that I loved to watch were Star Trek. Also one of the games I used to play was Halo. If you haven’t guessed yet, all new star trek shows are on Paramount+. So is the new show by showtime. Guess it’s name? Halo.
The value is that I wanted to watch these new shows for forever. It required subscriptions to cable or related streaming services in Canada to watch legally. I hate the way Canadian broadcast industry works.
Even Netflix (which hosts at least 2 of the shows in the US) didn’t have these shows in it’s catalogue for Canada. On a trip to Bangladesh, did I even find out Netflix had those shows.
Why couldn’t fork out for the value?
Time is the true finite resource in the universe.
Basically, 3 months gives me time to watch these shows over spread out period of time. That is the basic logic. Three months free gives me a chance to watch these show without worrying about cancelling it for 3 months.
Why am I thinking about cancelling even before I bought the streaming service? Simply because I have zero interest and zero extra time to “find shows”. I don’t care about TV as much as I used to.
I have life to worry about. Family to take care of. Now a house to take care of too. Time is a luxury for me, and I have to pick and chose where to spend it. I am not rich with it.
Time is the true finite resource in the universe.
Read that one again.
Time is the true finite resource in the universe.
This is why I couldn’t find value in this. If I bought it one month, I’d have to buy it in at least 3. I don’t have time to binge. I don’t have time to spend to watch a series of episodes of a TV show, no matter how much I loved it.
My time is way more valuable to spend worrying about “remember to cancel that subscription” or “dude, watch the next episode, the month is almost up. It’s not the 5.99 that’s important. It’s the amount of time it will suck out of me.
We all have a set amount of time on earth, and most of us don’t know how much that is. So if you find yourself doing nothing, but you find that doing nothing is valuable to your mental health, it’s time spent wisely.
However, if you doing nothing, is leading to deterioration of your mental health, your future, your family relationships, your …?
Be honest with yourself. Is what you are doing, or not doing, worth what you are about to lose?
If you are about to gain something, what is the cost to you or someone else for your gain?
Will you gain greater control over your allotted time so you aren’t giving it away for something that doesn’t matter?
Play is important to mental health. Friendships are important to mental health. Family is important to mental health.
Guess what else is true. Work is important to mental health. Time all alone is important to mental health. Time just sitting there doing nothing and staring into space is important to mental health
Guess what all those things are also important for? Your future success. Remember this lesson from the graduation speech by Apple’s co-founder.
You cannot connect the dots going forward, you can only connect them backwards.
— Steve Jobs
The true dimensions of a person
When watching any of the shows above, I always noticed, that someone or multiple people had ideas, and the teams came together to resolve the problems related to the predicaments they were in.
In the end of the episode, everything came together. There is a great lesson in that. It shows that everyone goes through hard times. If the hard times aren’t over, that means the episode isn’t over, and we go into additional episode, or episodes that resolve it in the end.
We as people are worry warts. We worry about the littlest things, but fail to see how we all come together to solve the problems.
The team you are on at work. the team you are on in the sports league. The family you have. Your closes friends circle. One time or another you all came together to resolve a mutual problem.
Life is not unlike these shows. I loved watching thing end in happy ending, until the next episode. Just like good times and bad, it’s a cycle that happens in the shows and real life.
How we handle it, what code we apply is as diverse as the individual in your “group”. This cycle is what generates community. It is what makes you a human being.
It is the truth dimension of a person. It is the grit, the sadness, the happiness, the anger, the frustration, the perseverance, the failures and the successes. These are what defines us, and these will always be what makes us who we are.
