TUESDAY TIPS: April 1, 2014: Power down to achieve your goals.
Over the weekend, I was at a restaurant with friends, and one of the many TVs in the joint was playing cartoons for the kids. I noticed one kid looking, literally hypnotized, at the screen. While his parents were probably offering up prayers for his continued silence, and their continued beers, I was fascinated by the look on his face. Those cartoons owned him.
Honesty compels me to admit that I also love cartoons–ATHF, Bob’s Burgers, Squidbillies, just to name a few–but seeing that small face enraptured by the screen, and the not-so-small faces of adults enraptured by the screens of their smartphones…hmm. My tip for this week is not fun but it is necessary: if you really want to achieve your goals, and change your life in some way, you’re going to have to become better at disciplining yourself and controlling how much you spend online.
That goes for me as well. Right now, I’m forcing myself to read Bleak House by Dickens…well, “forcing myself,” is a little much; of course it’s wonderfully written and I’m truly enjoying it. But I am forcing myself to spend less time online looking at kitten videos, for example. (Such is my shame.) I’m forcing myself to read more and write more and have more real world fun. (Part of this is also as a compulsive self-employed person, if I don’t put limits on myself, I will work 20+ hours a day every day. Many clients have received business emails from me at 3:30 or 4 am, which makes them feel a little concerned. For themselves. Is their coach insane? You say “insane,” I say “disciplined.”) So I am trying to become better at turning things off.
And if you’re trying to change your own life, you’re going to have be the disciplined adult in your own seat. The Interwebs, unfortunately, make it super easy to procrastinate and avoid doing the difficult work inherent in changing our lives. 7 years ago, when I was starting this business, if you think I didn’t waste a lot of time online watching AdultSwim, you’d be very wrong. I knew I had to make a change, but I had no idea what the hell I was supposed to be doing, and oh look…Squidbillies!
Thus, I urge you to learn from my mistakes and wasted years and commit to being online less, and connect more with yourself. Sure, sometimes people need to just zone out and self-medicate with videos of cats running into walls. Or, Star Wars cats. (Jedi Cats). But humans are primarily (emotional) creatures of habit. So if you consistently train yourself to self-medicate, instead of dealing with the (normal) issues causing you to self-medicate, you can waste years of your life watching cat videos. You can spend years of your life furiously commenting online about other people’s lives, as you effectively ignore your own. Don’t do it. Don’t cheat yourself. You deserve your best.
You’re going to have to force yourself to disconnect for even 45 minutes a day, so as to have the focus and energy and attention necessary to craft your goals. True, achieving your ideal job, for example, won’t magically make your life perfect. But at your ideal job, your brain will probably have more interesting and rewarding things to do than waste (bored) hours on Facebook or YouTube. Think of all the time you spend online–and trust me, I’m no better, if you people saw my browser history, I’d be mortified–and think about all you could get done if you committed that time to yourself and your talent and potential. #gettowork
Want some help getting to work? Of course you do! Like my business Facebook page, “Carlotaworldwide Creativity Yenta,” and shoot me an email at carlotazee@gmail.com!