Allowing oneself to become entangled in the web of tasks and responsibilities of mundane life practically seals, for as long as this state lasts, the possibility of the mind realizing how much is being wasted. This can only be realized later, with luck, when the waste has already been consummated. The positive side of the situation is that learning usually requires the mistake to be experienced personally; that is, first the slip, then the lesson. Without temporarily wasting itself, the mind does not assimilate the concrete consequences of doing so. But it so happens that, after a certain point, what was instructive has either been assimilated or proven innocuous, and the mind has either decided to transform itself or accepted to lock itself into an endless cycle of repetition.