The Life of a Consumer

You get stuck consuming when you don’t see the possibility of creating.

97% of people spend countless hours consuming content each day.

Heres what happens:

• Forget what they’ve watched

• Didn't know why they’ve watched it

• Not entertained

• No change in actions, behaviours or perspective.

A waste of time.

We are born to create, but everyday we settle for consumption.

The life of a consumer

Each day feels the same

Living zombies - dictated by screens, news, socials. Constant input with little output.

Consumption, consumption, consumption.

Ideas, insights and inspiration fall short to the vicious cycle of cheap dopamine.

Paying little attention to what is coming in

Everything is programming.

What you watch, who you spend time with, the place you live. All contribute to who you are.

Since the day you were born, unconscious programming has influenced your every thought, action and emotion.

How many of your opinions are TRULY your own.

Have you ever taken time to really think about what you believe, and more importantly, why you believe it?

The answer for the majority is NO.

Constant consumption imbeds outside perspectives, without time to contemplate our own.

Society at present is set up to keep you distracted.

In the time of the Hunter gatherer, you must stay focused to evade predators, hunt prey, and hold your bearings.

If you can't find shelter, food or brotherhood. You quickly become prey.

Distraction = Death

Without focus on creating the life you want, you will live the life someone else wants you to live.

In the passenger seat of your own life

This is the reality for the majority.

Graduate, get a job, live pay check to pay check. spending what limited time you have left to cram in relaxation, play, socialising and life admin.

If thats what you want, then by all means. Carry on.

This is not the newsletter for you.

Most people know that deep down they have the potential to create the life they dream of - if they dare to dream.

But settle for the generic blueprint laid out. Live to work.

Giving up on dreams,

On themselves.

A spiritual Death.

My Experience

I’ve always wanted to create and share those creations with the world unsure of how that would manifest. But I was scared. Caring too much about imperfection, judgement, not being “good” from the start.

The feeling of lack was sickening. Knowing I could contribute more, be more. Questioning ‘what if’ stopped me from trying, only looking at the negative:

“What if I fail”

“What if i’m judged”

You know the rest…

Pessimism outshone optimism.

Fuck fear.

“What if I Succeed!”

Never again will I let crippling insecurity stop me from trying.

If you do nothing you know the outcome.

Trying, opens the door to opportunity.

Intentional living - the blueprint

Use life design to create your desired outcome:

• Understand where we currently are in the process

• What goals (and micro goals) are needed to reach the outcome

• Where there are gaps in our knowledge

Essentially we are laying out a roadmap.

You have a flashlight (attention) in a dark tunnel (journey). The exit (end goal) is far off in the distance.

Point your torch on the exit, the illumination gets lost in the Abyss.

We must use the torch to light the steps right in front of us. Keeping sight of the exit.

Do this long enough, you are doomed to succeed.

If you only focus on the next steps without the end goal in mind, we can walk in the wrong direction

focus only on the exit and next steps are unclear. potential dangers or treasures missed whilst stumbling through the dark.

Checkpoints

Micro goals provide milestones along the way. Sprinkling hits of dopamine along the journey. If the goal is big and the journey long, it can be disheartening without smaller goals along the way.

Example: running a marathon for the first time. For someone who hasn’t trained long distance prior. The milestones would look like:

Week 1 - 1km

Week 2 - 3km

Week 3 - 5km

etc...

breaking goals into smaller, manageable steps makes completion feel easier and progression visible.

Awareness

How intentional are you with it your attention?

The average human in the US spends 2 hours 21 minutes per day on social media.

Accounting for 260 days working 8 hours

8 hours sleep per day (which many dont get)

22% of all free time per year is spent on social media.

What this calculation doesn’t include: Eating, chores, commuting and the rest of tasks life ensues.

In reality this percentage is a lot higher.

That is the average. What is your screen time?

Imagine all the time across a year, decade or lifetime wasted doom scrolling.

Unconsciously checking your phone. Craving stimulus the moment we become bored or lose sight of whats next.

A Solution

Awareness:

Become aware of your actions. in order to change anything we must first know what we want to change.

Ideally we can change in the present moment, i.e when we get the urge to pick up our phone. stopping briefly and asking “why”. but for most it is difficult to begin here.

Start by noticing when you do things without thinking. when you’ve been scrolling for 10 minutes not knowing why or when you started. when you eat even though you aren’t hungry. at first it will be after the action takes place.

As you practice and start becoming more aware of what you do, the time delay between awareness and action will reduce. until you find yourself becoming aware when the thought or feeling comes up, and choosing to be intentional.

Time Tracking:

Tracking time can be tedious, its not a smooth transition between tasks.

And that is exactly the point.

it breaks the day up into moments. usually we flow from task to task not really paying attention to what we do, how long we do it and so forth.

logging time makes our actions more concious or atleast brings more awareness at the start.

Understanding how each minute, hour and day is highlights time gaps.

For example: I gave myself one hour of deep work to write this newsletter. heres how that hour actually went.

• 7 minutes texting

• 41 minutes writing (spread across 3 intervals)

• 3 minutes stretch

• 4 minutes talking to family

• 5 minutes distracted

A schedule is great for blocking out time but lacks the clarity of how it is spent during each block.

For some, this may seem over the top. others it may not be necessary. give it a go for a day, a week, a month.

You will see how much time you waste.

Gaining clarity on your actions is integral for making more intentional choices.

I use https://toggl.com/track/ (it’s free)

Scheduling

Prioritise.

There is no one size fits all when it comes to scheduling. experiment to see what works for you.

I’m still working on how to schedule well. At the moment I:

• Schedule in my most important task early in the day.

• Morning and evening routines to set up the day

Using app blockers during focused work sessions with a time limit equal to the session (this is a tool to help but doesn’t uncover the reason why procrastination is happening in the first place)

Keep it simple, especially in the beginning.

Reflect, iterate, act

Trial and error. the key to finding solutions that WORK for YOU.

How many gurus tips, guides and hacks have you read?

How many have you actually implemented?

Actions are the building blocks to growth, not the consumption of self help content

Our actions are dictated by:

• beliefs

• goals

• identity

• environment

• information

These factors influence how we operate in the physical world

To change your decisions you must change the factors that influence those decisions.

Without Intention, your attention is divided. without attention you cannot recognise the short falls of your habits and thoughts

Attention is the new currency.

Without awareness we cannot create our desired life.

Stop numbing yourself.

Self help can become mental masturbation if you consume and don't act

The question is, will you be intentional with your attention?

All the best on your journey,

Morgan Bedford