[bctt tweet=”Our emotions are like water. No matter how hard we try to keep them out of the other parts of our lives, they get through.”]
Compartmentalizing has two major flaws. It is a mental form of multi tasking and it creates emotional dams.
When we see ourselves multi task, the focus is on how many things , but you often miss just how much energy expended on overhead. Doing multiple things at once isn’t free, and you pay the price of juggling by being worse than if you gave them your full attention. When I compartmentalized, I saw this happen and I haven’t been aware of the consequences until recently.
You can champion bad habits, and I loved to champion my compartmentalization. For me, it meant that I could experience different social circles, but the overhead was rarely being myself. When I was younger, I tried to separate the geek side from things I thought were socially acceptable. I became good at both sides. If I got in a conversation about basketball, the civil war, or the Konami code, I can engage.
I got to understand trends, even while having a social life, but internally I suffered. The cost of compartmentalizing was a disconnect that weighs on me right now.I got to experience a ton of things, but since I never fully invested in anything, I missed opportunities to connect fully with people, and I regret that.The gap between the two groups of friends is huge. The friends from either side have never met, to this day. But even more, I missed an opportunity to connect with myself.
[bctt tweet=”Doing multiple things at once isn’t free, and you pay the price of juggling by being worse than if you gave them your full attention.”]
I haven’t stopped as an adult. I compartmentalize daily and now more than ever, I see the problem of the emotional dam cracking. Our emotions are like water. No matter how hard we try to keep them out of the other parts of our lives, they get through. The walls represent wasted energy and even worse, they hold the emotional water until it overflows or the dam cracks. For me, when the dam bursts, I work towards self sabotage until I get the dam rebuilt, which takes energy and leaves me in a worse place than when I started.
By being honest, and taking down those walls, that water can drain safely and we save our energy.
From the desk of Adam Thomas 