The Root of FOMO

I heard it explained this way – if you were from outer space and visited earth once every 10,000 years and gave a report each time, you’d have said “Semi-hairless apes foraging for food and resources”.  You’d have given this report 23 times – for 230,000 years.  The last visit however, is very different.  All the change has happened recently – most of it in the last 300 years.

We are made for a very different world – where there wasn’t much new information, and when there was we had better pay attention because it could mean life and death.

So today, here we are swimming in available information; messages coming in at the speed of light.  The Fear of Missing Out (“FOMO”), that once served to save our lives, all of a sudden is a liability.  

Today, FOMO = Overload and mental dysfunction.  It’s a handicap we all have.  People who create information know this and sell the drug this addiction feeds on.

Recognize it.  Set up your life so FOMO doesn’t hurt you.  Replace it with FOTM – Fear Of Too Much.

Drowning in Information

A survey showed 45% of 13-17-year-olds are online “nearly constantly” all day.  Many of the rest of us are not far behind.  

While being exposed to a continuous stream of information and communication makes us more adept at finding and manipulating information via the various hardware and software channels available, it does not make us more valuable people any more than the 1970’s man who a voracious reader – of newspapers and comic books.

For those that care about our own personal development, we must come to terms with the fact that we can never pay attention to a small fraction of everything out there that there is to pay attention to, and to be ok with being highly selective, paying attention to only what serves our goals.

Change your mind

“Progress is impossible without change, and those that cannot change their minds cannot change anything.” – George Bernard Shaw

If you have been thinking in the same way about things and about yourself for some time, you probably are getting the results you are going to get as a result by now.  If you don’t change your thinking and beliefs, your life will be more of the same for the rest of your time here.

All changes in your results, your world, and your experience come from changing what’s inside first.

So, what’s it going to be?

"The ever improving version of you"

“I’m still figuring out who I am, but I know I’m not who I was.” – Brendan Urie

Are you shedding the old you to become the new and better version?

Be a winner before you win

“Champions do not become champions after they win the event, but in the hours, weeks and months and years they spend preparing for it.  The victorious performance itself is merely the demonstration of their champion character.” – T.A. Armstrong

Are you working to become a champion right now?

Invest in you

Close your eyes.  Do you feel that space?

That’s your hardware running the software you put into it.  

Invest in that.  

Never begrudge the money spent on your own education.  You are your wealth.

People value their own efforts

We value things according to the effort we put into it.  

Do you value things that you got for free?

Do you value things you worked hard for?

Go faster? Or take a turn?

If you are going in the wrong direction, you don’t want to work to go faster, do you?

Are you in control of your life?

We feel positive to the degree we feel in control of our own life.

Are you in control?

Life Management

Since life is time, then time management is life management.

Seems important to me. 

You?