what is stagnancy?

[A note: Some days, my writing feels less like a curated, thought-out article and more like raw, unfiltered brain vomit. A plate of spaghetti thrown and spattered on the wall, rather than a painting on a canvas. I suppose there are more similarities than differences between the two, but regardless, today is one of the former. Enjoy.]

In a recent article, I talked about the thing I MOST want to avoid in my life: stagnancy. But beyond throwing out a few dictionary definitions of the word, I have yet to define what it actually means in application. In real life.

So here are some tenets of stagnation that I’ve fleshed out, based on my own (in)glorious experiences.

• You feel dead in the water. Set on a track that you don’t feel you have a say in. Maybe you’re out of college, a few years into your first job, and you look down the road and see 30 more years sitting behind a desk, unfulfilled, until you can finally earn enough to retire. That’s not living. That’s stagnancy.

• Emotional corrosion. I’m going to lump a few things under this umbrella term of “emotion corrosion.” At its essence, though, what that means to me is your emotions and mental health are haggard. They’re withering and poorly regulated. Here are some of the contributors:

  • chronic stress

  • bad relationships

  • toxic social media habits

  • frequent comparison to others instead of focusing on your own journey

  • loss of connection and belonging to a community

• High anxiety and fear surrounding the things that scare you (but that you secretly wish you could do or fantasize about doing)

  • this could be self-limiting beliefs

    • a non-identity (”i’m not a runner”)

    • a false societal expectation or norm (”women don’t need to lift heavy” or “I’m too old to do that”)

  • it could be a sunk cost fallacy: that you’ve already invested too much time or energy in whatever you’re doing right now, and therefore you’re hesitant to leave that behind in favor of a better option.

  • fear of judgment from others

  • past experiences dissuading you from trying something again

• Lack of play and spontaneity

  • You don’t try new things. There’s no space for experimentation or curiosity

  • You feel high friction to do things that are outside of your work life and ingrained daily routines.

• Lack of leverage

  • You have no asymmetrical input : output ratios. No ability to create time or space for yourself

  • Within this, there’s a certain lack of diversification

    • Here’s an analogy. A good stock market portfolio is one that’s diversified—it’s a basket of different stocks from different sectors and industries that creates insulation and insurance against downturns. If all your stocks are from 1 specific sector, what happens in the event that that sector goes down? You’re screwed. But if you’ve cultivated a diverse array of components, you’re set. I think of the real-life parallel as being equipped with different marketable skills and experiences that allow you to adapt and create leverage in your life.

• Lack of awareness - you’re swept up in the flow of life without INTENTION

All of these are things that I’ll expand upon as I write more, but for now they form the skeleton of a stagnant existence. And if you made it this far, I’ll let you in on a little secret. They’re going to form the backbone of something bigger that I’m writing—a book. Stay tuned for more.