The situation seems to be going worse, that performing level two tasks feels highly difficult and level three tasks seems quite impossible.
Right, the readers still have no idea about these levels. I should take some of my precious time to explain it to them.
Now that I've explained it to them, I'm pretty sure they already understood. What? You're saying it's still too vague for them to understand? How troublesome, but for my precious readers I shall devote them more of my precious time so that they'll be able to understand.
So as you can see, in level 1 tasks, we are simply following our biological inclinations of eating, sleeping, drinking, and sheeping, these are the basic survival tasks. For the basic social tasks, for me they're attending classes and doing house chores. It may be different for others, for you, it may be attending board meetings and signing million dollar documents. Or it may be something as simple as going to job and doing your work. All tasks here at Level 1 requires little energy and thought, they're just procedural tasks we have mastered for decades that it's possible to perform them in full autopilot. We can do them even if we are depressed, hallucinating, or dying.
For the level 2 tasks, they are the daily work we do everyday that requires some conscious effort and attention on our part. For me, they're about completing homeworks, exercising, cleaning, and making crypto trades. They're sometimes difficult but most healthy people do them without any resistance. Most of the time, these tasks are simply born from evolving social expectations and cultural roles we bear in this society. We won't die if we don't complete them but it would make us feel really miserable and isolated if we do not try to do them. Depressed and sick people can find it extremely difficult to complete level 2 tasks.
At the level 3 tasks, just as what you predicted, it's about creating stuff and doing art. Now, art has a lot of definitions so we'll add one more: it's about making an individual contribution to the world, regardless whether you have an audience or not. So whenever you think you are creating something new or doing something for the world, then you are doing a level 3 task. It is almost impossible for depressed and sick people to perform level 3 tasks, if they do, it's usually because they suddenly got a revelation or they were using all their willpower to do it.
Lastly, the level 4 tasks are most difficult tasks that requires us to assert ourselves, declare what we want, and believe in what we think is true, often resulting in one changing their own environment and carving their own destiny. People who strive to complete these tasks are extremely rare, they are usually people who were lucky enough to have a good childhood, recently completed therapy, or experienced some kind of miracle. Those who freely makes friends, approach strangers, and do everything to get what they want are the people who do the level 4 tasks.
So as I've said before, I find myself having great difficulties finding the motivation to do the level 2 tasks while the level 3 tasks of writing and talking to online people feels impossible unless I use some of my willpower like I do right now, writing an article like this.
It's been ten thousand centuries since I've written my last article, the only reason I was able to write now is because I feel like I'll need to chill down for a while and troubleshoot my mind to see what's going on. At this time of the day, I'm usually sleeping or reading webtoons, I had to sacrifice my precious afternoon nap just to write this! Still, I have no regrets.
Life is difficult, relative to my own biased expectations and perceptions. If I won the lottery, I probably would say that life is easy. If I suddenly experienced some positive miracle, then I'll say that life is easy. Unfortunately, I didn't experience any of those things, I've always received the short end of the stick. Therefore, I will say, life is difficult, just like an impatient whiny child who didn't get what they want.
I... I still remember the old days, where I was still very young, hopeful, and energetic. *Coughs blood That day, I never once thought about getting any money, finding rabbits, or escaping somewhere. I was simply happily content with my life, inside my simple room, binge watching gintama episodes and playing Roblox on the computer. I was happy and peaceful. *Coughs more blood Sometimes, my parents would go out and we would have the internet cafe all to ourselves. Right, I was playing pirates of the caribbean and devil may cry during that time. They were truly fun games.
These days, I've gotten really old and wrinkly. I'm having so many worries and fears. There's not a single day that passed where I didn't think about getting money and rabbits to escape from this place. I didn't imagine a day would come where I would become a disabled cripple, disabled by my own fears, crippled by my own pain, guilt, and despair. What else is there to life for such an old person like me? What is there for me to look forward to, except to experience my eternal slumber?
Actually, there's a lot of things to look forward to! First of all, just as I expected, when I reported the junk food to the company for having awful flavor, they said they're going to deliver something to me as a token of appreciation! They'll deliver it within 1-4 weeks they said. I think it would be a box full of junk foods, an envelope containing a romantic love letter, and a briefcase full of cash! Hahaha just kidding, maybe not the last two things.
Furthermore, I noticed that my pattern recognition skills have leveled up! I can now see the true structures behind the seemingly random charts, allowing me to make crypto trades with 70% accuracy! Besides I've devised a beautiful plan that will allow me to get over 2000% profits in the next week and make me a millionaire before the end of tbis month! AHAHAHAHAHA once I managed to get rich and escape this place, I will be able to become more miserable in a much larger, isolated, and expensive place! Ugh I can't help but drop my yogurt when thinking about it.
Finally, it seems that my creepy psychology skills have leveled up as well! I have now better prediction systems that will allow me to predict people's behavior and responses with at least 75% accuracy. That's not all, I also gained the fun and exciting ability to hide the darkest meanings in the most innocent ways! This will allow me to fully express myself despite any restrictions through the use of normal metaphors that no one will suspect.
Well, even if there are a lot of things to look forward to, that doesn't change the fact that I still want to attach a sponge into my eyes and keep throwing my pen to the wall until it breaks. I've taken too much mental damage these days that I might have caused a severe injury to my soul.
At this point, I feel like a glass cannon who gets tired and injured easily, who would binge read manwhas at the slightest amount of stress. Still, as a glass cannon, whenever I have to do something, I do it with absolute concentration that it's already finished before I even started. I've always been that way, taking a lot of damage by myself and being incapacitated quickly, yet being able to fully recover after a while. Unfortunately, self-regeneration can be many more times painful than taking damage. That's just life.
Another thing I noticed is the value preservation hypothesis, where I learned that people, even the most depressed and neurotic ones, are able to hold on to a few important values despite having their minds being constantly ripped apart. Even if they have lost their sense of reason or turned into lifeless dolls, somehow, they are still clinging to something important on their hands. Even if they lose their memory, even if they have forgotten why they keep on holding to it, they'll keep holding it and take it to their graves, as if it's the most valuable thing they gained during their lifetime.
For me, the values I have been preserving since childhood are freedom, creativity, and generosity. This means that if I ever had children, students, or subordinates someday, I would always encourage and support their freedom even if it means I will have to lose them. I will always take care not to see them as my exclusive possessions. If my children wants to leave home and abandon their family, I will wholeheartedly support them and try my best to make them aware of their decision without persuading them to stay. This is the first virtue I decided to preserve in the deepest corners of my soul.
It applies to my own freedom as well, such that even if everyone in the world were to disagree with me and discourage me, I'll keep my mind and tongue sharper than an obsidian knife, even if that same knife would cut through me. Humans have always been afraid of sharp things being pointed to them. That does not mean I will dull my blade or discard it, it simply means I will design my blade to look like a toy, something completely harmless and cute. When someone says it's too strong, I will not make it any weaker, I will simply control my force and make it look softer than it really is.
As for creativity, you already know me, I'll keep thinking of unique solutions and answers regardless of how weird, creepy, and impossible they seem to be. I'll never set a limit to what I can think and believe in. In the case of generosity, I simply believe it is only normal to let people drink in my river of wealth as long as they don't contaminate it or claim it as their own. Poverty is believing that you will lose something by giving to others. My wealth is like the endless skies above, regardless of how many people the raindrop falls, they can never exhaust the sky.
So what about you? What virtues or values do you preserve in life? What is something you will never forget even if you lose all your memories? Make sure to keep these treasures close to your heart and no one will be able to take it from you.