This habit of yours will ruin your life
You are not even aware that you are slowly forming a habit that will eventually control your behaviour unconsciously and ruin your chances of success in any field.
In turn, once you have identified the habit, you can transform it into your most supportive friend.
In today’s society, many forces are constantly fighting for the attention of the masses. More content is created every day than you could ever consume in your lifetime.
Moreover, this content is set to hyper-evolution, i.e. through algorithms that perform an (un?)natural selection, the content becomes more and more appealing and addictive.
However, this rapid technological development also has its dangers.
Through decades of living in a social environment, we have developed what are called copy neurons, which aim to mimic the feelings of those around us.
These neurons give us a 4d experience when consuming content by empathizing with the emotions of the actors.
What’s the problem? When you hear a good success story, scroll through attractive Instagram profiles, or watch someone play your favorite video game better than you, you subconsciously identify with the actor, and it feels good because you feel like you’ve accomplished something and succeeded.
After the short-lived dopamine rush combined with the feeling of having achieved something and being successful, you quickly realize that you haven’t achieved anything, and you hit a low.
Just as watching porn destroys motivation for dating, our intrinsic motivation for success in any field is destroyed by replicating the feeling of success through the lens of others.
And that leads you deeper and deeper into the reinforcement loop of mindless content consumption.
How to transform the habit
I’m not saying you should stop consuming at all. There is a lot of helpful content out there. Rather, I’m saying you should consume less and more consciously. Think of consumption more as a research phase that is backed up with action.
What makes the habit of mindless content consumption even stronger is that it’s a cross-domain habit, meaning it doesn’t matter if you consume Instagram stories instead of producing them yourself, watch the ups and downs of stock prices instead of launching a startup, or read content about self-improvement instead of improving yourself through action — all of these choices feed the habit and make it stronger in all other categories as well.
Every action you take is a vote for the type of person you wish to become. No single instance will transform your beliefs, but as the votes build up, so does the evidence of your new identity James Clear - Atomic Habits
Not only does this make the habit so powerful, but it also gives us a loophole on how to change the habit.
Instead of having to immediately eat the biggest frog in the room and reverse the habit, you can start with small bites.
Here are some changes you can introduce into your life that will slowly change the habit.
- Stop watching others play video games — play them yourself, maybe even stream it or create your own games.
- Stop mindlessly consuming blog post after blog post (or videos and books) — start taking notes after each lesson that may one day even become a blog post or book.
- Stop scrolling through Instagram — let others scroll through your feed.
- Stop watching stock charts of companies you have no control over going up and down — start your own business.
- Instead of watching people do sports — do sports… you get the idea.
- Instead of consuming magicians, pick up artists, standup comedy or whatever weird stuff you’re in, become a producer yourself.
Yes, your creations will suck at first and no one will want to consume them. But that’s not the point. The point is that you need to change your habit and set creation as the standard.
What will happen
We all know those kids who want to perform on stages in front of millions, make viral YouTube videos or become CEO of a good company - heck, maybe we are those kids. People fall in love with results instead of progress and think they’ve found their passion.
This is because they consume as others live this lifestyle for them.
What they don’t see, however, are the endless hours and hard work that had to be invested to reach that destination. After years of dreaming, these kids then realise that they are not enjoying the journey, but only dreaming about the destination.
When you start creating instead of consuming. You’ll find out if you can fall in love with the process and find true passion through it, or if you’re just jerking off to the results.
Summary
It’s a tough road to go from consuming and dreaming through the eyes of others to actually doing. Many things you thought you had a passion for, you might lose.
Maybe you’re not a natural manager, maybe you’re even suck at it and only dreamed of being in charge. And that’s okay.
Shift your reward source from the artificial, steroid-based one you feel from consumption to a process-based, intrinsic, and real one.
Aim for a ratio of 95% creation and 5% consumption — remember this is a target.
It’s a huge step down (like going from watching porn to using your imagination). But it will gradually make you happier, and with increasing success it will eventually overcome the rewards of consumption.
Thanks for reading to the end. Follow me if you want to have more action motivating content like this on your home page and leave a clap if you liked it.
Here are some action based books that will help you along the way — consume them mindfully ;)