Stop consuming, start creating
Fulfillment requires contribution and to contribute we must create
Without great solitude, no serious work is possible.
Pablo Picasso
The internet, social media, and AI have made it too easy to create and share content.
We’re overwhelmed with pictures, videos, blog posts, podcasts and content delivered to us in increasingly hyper-processed formats. It’s easier than ever to make content and the incentives for getting others to consume it are increasing at a blistering pace.
With so much content served to us, our mindsets have shifted from “what should I do with my time” to “how can I make sure I don’t miss anything”.
Time we used to spend bored or creating is now spent mindlessly consuming. Our brains are drowning.
We don’t need to fill every white space on our calendars. If we have nothing to do, we should do nothing. If we can resist the urge to fill empty space and learn to embrace silence instead, we can unlock our brains to create instead of consume.
Despite what it might feel like, every minute of our day doesn’t need a job. We shouldn’t feel guilty for sitting on the couch and doing nothing. We’re not “missing out” or “wasting time” if we’re not listening to a podcast while we’re doing the dishes or watching a TikTok while we’re waiting for the oven to preheat.
We struggle to think for ourselves because we don’t give ourselves the space to think.
To live a meaningful, fulfilling, and worthwhile life, we need to do more than consume. We need to create. And to create we need space, silence, and time.
Embrace silence
Incredible authors consume a tremendous amount of content, but they also have a superhuman ability to sit down and use everything they’ve consumed to create something new.
Incredible athletes watch more film, get more coaching, and learn more than we could ever imagine, but they leverage all of those inputs to accomplish things no one in the world has ever done before.
Executives sit in hours of meetings every single day doing nothing but consuming information, but the best executives filter this information to make extremely difficult decisions and create new strategies and initiatives that drive business growth and novel creation.
Consumption is an important part of performing at a high level and living a fulfilling life, but without intentional creation, consumption numbs our mind. It’s a socially acceptable way to shield ourselves from boredom and the discomfort of silence.
When we stop consuming and sit in silence, our thoughts turn inward to evaluate ourselves instead of judging everyone else.
It’s easier to turn on the TV, load up a podcast, or scroll social media than it is to sit with our own thoughts. But if we can’t sit with our own thoughts we can’t create. And if we don’t create we’ll never be fulfilled.
To contribute we need to create
Humans have a hard-wired desire to contribute.
We seek pleasure in consumption, but it’s short-lived. A fulfilling life is not one where we spend our free time mindlessly consuming what others have to say. A fulfilling life is rooted in contributing something to the world that only we could create.
We need to create something for ourselves, for our spouse, for our community, for the world, for the greater good, or for a higher power.
Contributing removes the constant itch that we should be doing more. It counteracts the small twinge of guilt we feel every time we choose to passively consume instead of actively create.
With and endless supply of the most captivating, it’s never been harder to resist the temptation to constantly consume, but the rewards for embracing silence and creating have never been higher.
To feel fulfilled we need to contribute and to contribute we need to create. The next time we feel the urge to veg out and let someone else entertain us, we should try to go on a walk, sit with a journal, and give ourselves space to think instead.
In that space and silence we’ll find what we need to create instead of consume.
Prompts
What do you consume the most?
Is what you are consuming contributing to what you create or just an escape from your own thoughts?
How can you create space for silence and reflection into each day?
Deep Dive
An investigation into why we struggle to focus and how to build the skill back.
Thanks for reading! I’ll see you next Sunday.
Kevin