Table of Contents
What is Moonlighting?
Moonlighting is doing a part-time job(or a second job in the evening) when one is already employed with a company and is working for the company in a day job.
“It is my life, why anyone should have a problem with what I do in my free time?”
The problem of perception and perspective
One of the common resistance that one may create is, why should anyone bother what one does in the time that belongs to him? People choose to go to parties, some spend time with the family, why then it should matter to anyone if one chooses simply to work in his free time and earn extra money?
This is a subjective reality and an absolutely valid question. This can also be a great topic of debate and argument. The problem is that an objective truth(or a theory, or core science) and multiple such correlated domains produce one outcome. Often people see such an event from one dimension, which is called a perspective.
Watching a front-view photo of a Pyramid and a brown bread sandwich will appear the same in the front-view perspective. This doesn’t either make the Pyramid a sandwich or a sandwich like a pyramid.
Within a subjective reality(personal observation, thoughts, experiences), anything is always skewed toward what we feel is right. We often end up looking for evidence that validates our belief system rather than being open to real scientific knowledge. This is a critical limitation of the human brain. Therefore, even though we tend to believe that we are rational, we often are not, because our brain needs to spend a lot of energy to correlate multiple dimensions, think through the dimensions, stitch the dimensions, and then create a reality that is absolute and unchangeable.
The problem is unless you lower the resistance of the brain, real knowledge will not be obtained and you will always end up being driven by a limited perspective or perception-driven belief system which will come back to hurt you. So, you have to first eliminate “my views”, “in my opinion”, “another perspective”, and “I believe”. Make your brain fluid and let the knowledge get in without analyzing such knowledge. Then leave it to the subconscious brain to process all the knowledge(from the objective truth you gather), and information(the subjective reality) and come up with an absolute reality for you.
Self-test of Bias
Simplest Experiment:-
i) Calculate 4x9=? Done? What's the answer?
ii) Now Calculate 499x944=? Done? What's the answer?You have to go to the next page to find the answer because you obviously would be searching for the rest of the information even before finishing the above task. So, finish the above task and go to the next page.
Proof of Instinct-driven brain
i) When I asked you to calculate 4x9, you invariably spoke out 36.
ii) For the next task of calculating 499x944, you invariably used a calculator (or google calculator) didn't you?
In the first case, you used your habit brain, in the second case, you used your smartness. But, in either case, you had no control to stop your instinct of calculating.
In either case, you did not stop and ask why you must even calculate 4×9. What will your metabolic system and brain get for the answer?
This is the habit brain, where we often do not understand that what we think is our rationality is out of our control, and the brain works rather instinctively. In this case, you ended up with the calculation, because people(and in all likelihood your parents) have always judged you and you always wanted to do better than others in life.
If you really did the two calculations, then you may very well understand at this point that your behavior is governed by your entire life from childhood till now, and you have been always compared with others, and wanted a better life than others, scoring more marks than others, getting a better job than others, earning more money than the others.
Thus, your perception of who you are is more or less governed not by who you are, but by what you are and what you have. This is called self-objectification. And when you objectify yourself, you detach yourself from your emotions. You try to act like a machine.
We will come back to the drawbacks of being a machine later, but for now, learn a little bit more about your brain.
Understanding Your Habit Brain
You wanted to see the result and use your smartness and hardworking to accomplish the task. This is a habit. Whenever someone says, “what do you think about this” you will actually start thinking, irrespective of whether thinking about that is relevant to you or not.
This habit is formed early in childhood if your parents are unhappy. Irrespective of what you did, if they were not satisfied and gave you conditional love. Whenever you achieved something or did something, they smiled or else remained serious. They must have told others how hardworking and smart you are.
Once these patterns are developed in early childhood, the brain implements the same patterns all your life.
Why Moonlighting
Due to the brain’s pattern of working more, achieving more for more love, and pushing more for better milestones and goals in life, the brain takes on any and every task.
Your brain now would want to do more and more, to get more money, status, etc., and you will convince yourself that “it is the age to do hard work, as more gain will make your old-age easy.”
And the way I manipulated you here, other Shepherds will take advantage of this very weakness of your brain. Shepherds would know your childhood struggle and desires and thus will lure you to work more.
The problem with Moonlighting
The brain can feel anything physical, including money. The brain can earn money. The brain only looks for the dopamine released when you gain something(like earning money). But that gain is a feeling of pleasure, not an emotion of happiness.
The law is you stop feeling if you start feeling the feelings instead of feeling emotions
Only emotions can be felt. Emotions are average feelings of stored memory of associated and connected events in life. Disconnected works would reduce your rest. Besides, they will not be correlated in the brain.
A lack of emotions will cause depression and inhibit dopamine. That means the very hard work you are doing for pleasure, will prevent you from feeling the very pleasure you are chasing.
Machine, Energy, and Overworking
If you have been working like a machine, chasing more victories, money, and more stability, then you already know that machines need the energy to drive them. This energy is supplied to us by our metabolic system, which is responsible for helping us to extract energy and micronutrients from our food. Whenever energy is burnt(like lighting a candle), you know that heat is produced. More machine working needs more heat and increased heat(like extreme summer) always lead to inflammation. (You can move your finger quickly in between a candle flame, but if you keep the finger there, it burns. Right?)
So, the more you work, the more your internal organs get inflammated. Do you have any of the following symptoms?
- Hair fall?
- Allergy?
- Irritation?
- Indigestion?
- Constipation?
- Lack of sound sleep?
- Tiredness?
- Lack of concentration?
- Pimples or raches in the skin?
- Dry mouth and dry skin?
If your answer is Yes to more than 30% of the questions, then your body is overworking and not getting rest to recover from the inflammation. The inflammation reaches the brain, and thereafter you would stop feeling anything, including yourself.
Answer an honest question.
Do you feel yourself?
Are you happy with yourself?
Your answer to the above two questions would be sufficient to tell why moonlighting is so damaging. Because after a stage, the inflammation is irreversible. Why?
Cortisol deficiency and outcome
Hormone Cortisol is like the coolant of the car. When you are accelerating the engine for long hours, burning more petrol, and pushing the engine, the engine oil and coolant protect the engine from overheating and cease. What if you drive your car at full speed with low engine oil and coolant?
Our body too has limited cortisol. Once you overpush your body, after a time it exhausts, and then your body collapse in no time.
Females by 27 and males by 35 will exhaust the cortisol needed for over-pushing. Cortisol is expected to last for 60-70 years. So after this age, you will suffer prostate enlargement, ovarian fibrosis, anxiety, hypertension, and cancer risk.
Take Your Call
Have you really been born to be a machine and die early by overworking? Is that how you see yourself and your life? Do you really think you have no right to become happy and live a long life?
Life is about satisfaction and happiness, not about pushing and pleasure.
Take your call wisely. It is your life, your choice, and your decision. The consequences will be yours too.
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