Avoid Rabbit Holes
The internet is one giant rabbit warren (and in case you didn’t know, a warren is a network of interconnected rabbit burrows), and it is sinfully easy to head down one and then just keep going and going and going and going.
I don’t know if we think we’re going to reach some end point or pop out in China.
But, if you keep going, you eventually reach a Blair Witch-type realization that you are actually going in circles – the same information keeps reappearing, over and over and over again.
I’m not suggesting you avoid the internet – just search with purpose.
Or, if you really must go hole-diving, set a timer.
Beware the Hypnotic Scroll
Have you noticed that there is something strangely hypnotic about scrolling?
It’s almost like a slot machine in a casino.
Maybe the content you REALLY need is hovering just below the bottom of your screen.
Probably not, but, you never know… but you better just keep scrolling to find out.
It STUNS me how many times I find myself caught in this strange hypnotic behavior.
Sometimes I am even aware that I want to stop, but feel strangely compelled to continue.
Beware the scroll. It will suck you into its hypnotic vortex, eating up the minutes of your life.
Don’t Spread Yourself Too Thin
So many projects, and they are all good ideas, and it’s impossible to choose, so you just kind of try to do it all. It’s absurdly easy to do this.
Don’t. It is not a profitable way to live.
Success is rooted in getting deeply involved in just a few things and really devoting yourself and your time.
The grass is NOT always greener.
Stop peeking over the fence to see what your neighbor is doing.
Focus on growing your own garden.
You’ll harvest a much better yield.
Stop Believing That There Are Hidden Paths to Success
This is not Candyland… with the magic gumdrop bridge that lets you skip way ahead of your competitors.
And stop listening to anyone who says there is.
They don’t exist.
Period.
So, you can comfortably filter out all the charlatans who claim that there is, while simultaneously reclaiming the 4 minutes it would have taken you to read their article to determine that for yourself.
There are “smart” paths to success, but no magical rainbow bridges.
(This is hard – I know. Our psychological make up as humans is geared toward HOPING that there will be shortcuts. We are such damn optimists at heart!)
Listen to smart people who give sound advice. If it sounds too easy, and too good to be true… it is.
Don’t Be a Consumer of Useless Information – Filter and Block It
Learn to filter and block useless information.
Easier said than done because there is so much useless information these days.
And all of those useless bits of information that are trying to saturate your brain… you don’t need 99.99 % of them.
In fact, those useless bits of information will water log your brain and make it difficult (if not impossible) for you to absorb the really important information.
So develop your internal filters.
Block what you don’t need.
For instance… if you don’t check your social media feed for a week, do you know what you will miss?
NOTHING.
Exactly NOTHING.
Scary, right?
The same things that were being posted for the week you missed were posted the week before, and the week after….
Get comfortable with this idea… you are not missing out on anything.
Everything about social media is designed to make us believe that we are missing out, or falling behind.
It’s a giant f**ked up web of FOMO.
This is a lie.
It is a sneaky lure to make you keep checking… and checking… and checking… while the minutes of your precious life tick away.
(It is EXTREMELY rare that you would actually miss something of real value. In the event that something REALLY important happens, everyone around you will be talking about it anyway, so don’t worry…you won’t miss out.)
You might also like
Comment
Yes sometimes you just want to stop scrolling but then you can’t because of very strange kind of compulsion to just kept on scrolling. It happens with me sometimes.