More Creation, Less Consumption
Posted by Qrystal on January 13, 2017 at 12:58.
Category: Life. Tags: .
I was just reading my twitter feed for the first time in a long time (weeks, at least, and the time before that was probably weeks before that, and so on, for years) and I got reminded of a few things. It inspired me to come here and write, which I’m pretty sure is a Very Good Thing.
One thing that occurred to me is how society can be quite amusing and interesting at times, and that I’d like to see this part of society more. There are some great people out there, doing great things, and it can be inspiring to be aware of them. I also remembered how nice it was to have conversations with people all over the world, from the hyper-local to the farthest reaches. We all have things in common with everyone, and it’s wonderful to experience this. When I think about this, I am swept away with the urge to reconnect to digital society. It’s quite likely that I’m immensely lonely.
Another, much more serious, thing I realized was that the internet is overloaded with depressing things. And I’m not just talking about the bad news and the fake science and people being awful to one another or bashing the great things some people have accomplished. I even mean the same inspiring things that I mentioned as positive in the paragraph above! How sad it makes me, to feel depressed by things that are clearly inspirational.
More Fun, Less Stress? Not quite.
Sometimes I feel I can’t take it anymore and so I retreat into pure entertainment and pretend that fun is all that matters. It’s easy to think this way with a nearby four-year-old showing me how it’s done, but at the same time I know I need to teach him more “real-life stuff” by example, by… well, making a life out of my time, rather than merely filling my time with activities and arbitrary knowledge of miscellaneous things. Not to disparage knowledge or understanding, of course! These are important supplements to what I’m talking about here.
So I know I need to consume less from “out there” and create more from “in here” (picture me tapping my head, or even my heart). But it’s so hard. I think I have a huge burden of dismay weighing upon me and making everything harder than it actually would be if I just jumped in.
Here, though, in this blog, I can practice jumping in! I am already practicing calling myself a writer, but until I actually write more often, it’s basically a lie. I don’t like lies. Therefore– I must create more things, more often! And in order to do this, I must reduce the amount of time I am spending consuming information/entertainment created by others. I must also make sure to remember how much FUN I have with writing! That’s why I want to do more of it!
Less Congestion, More Flow
It doesn’t help that I have other tasks weighing on me as well, but I know that getting through those will come in time, too. Like any traffic jam, eventually the congestion will abate and everything will begin moving, with appropriate attention to safety and efficiency.
Hmm. I like this traffic analogy of why the things I want to do aren’t yet happening: there’s just too many things trying to merge together and so it’s hard to move anything forward. Furthermore, I can now see that there is a lot of (emotional?) fog permeating the lanes, making it very difficult to coordinate an improved flow.
I’ll have to let this thought percolate awhile, and see how I can shift things smoothly. For now, though, posting this is going to be medicine for some of what is ailing me.
More Appreciating, Less Pretending It’s All Me
I’d like to thank Mike Mandel for creating his Navigator system, which I am currently employing to improve my life in literally every way I can think of. (Yes, I really do mean literally, because it is so easy to apply to everything.) This post’s headings are inspired by his system, which is why I feel I must mention it here, but that’s all I feel comfortable saying about it right now. I don’t want to give anything away about it, because the brilliance of it is best appreciated direct from the source!