News Diet Update and Reflections

It’s been something like 9 days since I gave up reading the news and all forms of social media feeds. And it feels… strange!

The first thing is that it’s really odd just how quickly something that seemed so important and relevant can feel so completely distant and irrelevant.

I’m speaking, of course, of the pandemic. So far I’m fortunate enough to not have suffered any losses personally or professionally as a result. And my day-to-day is virtually unaffected, since I already stayed at home most of the time to work even before the pandemic, and most of the activities I do for fun aren’t really impacted either.

So in any given day, it really feels as though there is zero impact to my life as a result. And when I’m not reading about it or talking about it, eventually it ceases to feel important.

I’ve also been extremely productive during this time. In addition to having more time to do things, I also feel better and am more motivated.

So I’m really starting to wonder about the actual cost of reading and caring about the daily news.

Clearly I’m not advocating total ignorance, but really, the vast majority of news has no impact on me at all, and of the remainder, I typically have no ability to change.

So ultimately, the rewards of keeping up every day are virtually non-existent, but the cost is extremely high.

While I think I’ll still check in from time-to-time, I think I just need to acknowledge that following most news is just another form of mindless entertainment with no benefit other than killing time; just like social media, most television, and (in my humble opinion) sports viewership.

I am better off without it.

Going to Get Back into Focusing on One Thing

Since early on when I went to Mexico, I haven’t focused on my “One thing” that I’m supposed to be focusing on. I have times scheduled into my calendar to do it, but I haven’t done it!

The world’s been crazy and so has my life, but this isn’t really about excuses. It’s just time to move forward with all of my plans.

Last week was my first one back home, and I really wanted to work on developing good habits. I think I did that.

This week I’m just furthering that along and also getting quite a bit of things done around the yard.

Next week, it’s time to get back into doing my “One Thing”.

It’s what will carry me through, and what will truly lead to success. I need to focus on it every single day if I want to accomplish what I’ve set out to do.

I need to start by going over everything I’ve prepared in terms of the plan. Then when I’m reacquainted with everything, I need to execute.

Keep in mind: virtually all of my future success rests upon me doing these things now. So do it!

New Habit – Getting out of Bed When I Wake Up

I’ve spoken at length in the past about how important habits are and how I should constantly be developing them.

I don’t think I’ve really been focusing on one in a while, and it’s time to start!

At the moment I’m doing a good job of waking up without hitting snooze. I’m also on a news diet and am avoiding Facebook and other sources of current-event information as well.

And Imgur is blocked on my phone.

So there isn’t much pointless entertainment left on my phone, which means I don’t even have anything to do in bed after I wake up.

Why not just get up?

I’ve wanted to do this for many years, and I think now I’m finally ready for it. It will add a ton of productive time to my week, and will let me finish things way faster.

So, I’ll do it! I’ll post more about it here as I progress.

News Diet – Feel so Much Better

I’ve decided, for the time being, to just completely avoid the news. And also the Facebook news feed and all other types of social media.

And you know what? I feel so much better!

Historically I had more or less followed this strategy but with the pandemic I feel back into following-up on everything.

I can see why smart, well-educated people who keep current on things are always so pessimistic! The news makes you anxious, all the time.

And Facebook just makes me angry. So many people just believe and spread the most insane, baseless crap.

But when I’m not consuming any of it… I feel great!

I’ve come to a bit of a realization, too: the news, and keeping up on current events does not improve my life literally at all. I have no control over them, but they have tremendous control over me.

I do, however, have control of many things in my life. I can focus on me and on building my business and my friends and family. And those will only lead to good things.

I’m not saying I shouldn’t ever learn about current events or anything (though I AM saying that maybe I don’t ever need the Facebook news feed…), but I think the vast majority of “content” I consume should be from books and other reputable sources that actually give the full picture instead of just fear-mongering and showing me all the idiots.

I can insulate myself from those people just by doing really, really well in my own life. Finding my own success will be the way I drown out the things I have no control over anyway.

It’s really quite amazing how quickly I started to feel less anxious and happier after avoiding the news. If I’m reading this in the future, I hope I remember that!

I’ve Always Been Restless but My Interpretation of that has Completely Changed

I feel like I’ve always been quite restless. I’m always thinking about the future and my current state and get a bit antsy.

But in the past, I feel like it made me uneasy and anxious. Now it makes me feel motivated.

So what changed?

I wish I could say it was some huge, profound realization inside myself that allowed me to break old scripts and get out of self-destructive patterns.

But it wasn’t at all.

I owed a lot of money before, and now I don’t. That’s it.

More specifically: I owed a lot of bad money like credit card debt, and it wasn’t really going away at all. It wasn’t growing much but it was still always this huge burden that made it feel like I wasn’t succeeding at all.

Recently, after a string of good financial moves, I’ve been able to quickly pay off a ton of debt, including all credit card debt. Every month, I’m able to pay everything down to zero on personal cards and in my business. I also paid off my student loans completely.

And it’s made all the difference.

In the past, I’d be thinking about the future and just worry about all the debt I had, and how it’s been years and I still hadn’t managed to really get control of things financially. It always just felt like this specter I couldn’t get away from.

And when I started feeling that way, I feel like it just turned to general anxiety and actually crippled me from getting things done and really succeeding, which probably kept me in that state a lot longer than I should have been.

But now that’s gone! I’m running a massive surplus of cash every month which I can use to pay off anything or even start investing. Whereas before it felt like I had no opportunities at all, now I can do anything I want!

And so when I feel that familiar sense of unease, I’m interpreting it as excitement and a sense of unlimited possibility in the future, and that’s actually quite liberating and motivating. Suddenly I feel like if I really focus on something, I can really take this business off the ground and do whatever I’d like with it.

That’s a great feeling.

And it really just comes down to interpreting how I’m feeling differently, not even necessarily feeling differently. I think the Buddhists would have a lot to say about that, but it’s still a really interesting thing to experience myself.