Most of life is noise:

Most of life is noise. Who won the game yesterday, what did the hottest young star do this week, who’s this guy dating, what picture did she post, what is the news trying to scare you about today, etc.

You have to curate your content. In today’s social media environment where information is given to you 25 hours a day, 8 days a week, you need to be ruthless in deciding who you listen to. You need to ask yourself if listening to certain people’s opinions is making your life better or worse. Is having someone’s thoughts in your mind inspiring you to be a better, happier person? Or is it making you more fearful, nervous and anxious about the world? If it’s in the second camp, get rid of it.

It’s hard to do when these opinions are in your life every day like your parents, friends or spouses, but you need to be ruthless. You have to keep people in your life who are positive and uplift you, who inspire you to be a better version of yourself, who push you to do things that you think are uncomfortable. Those are the people you need around you, and you’ll find them in unexpected ways.

The more you put yourself out there, the more the world will give you back what you deserve. If you put in the time and effort every day to work on yourself and give your gift to the world, the world will reward you in more ways than you can think.

A few years ago when I just graduated university, I watched a Ted talk from a guy I knew from university (link here). The first person I ever met in St. Andrews when I was a 17 year old kid was this guy, Chris Andrews. I happened to be walking around the town by myself the first day I had moved there and sat on a bench overlooking a beach. A few minutes later, this guy came up to me with his guitar and asked if he could sit next to me.

We started chatting. He just arrived for school as well from the US and was excited to get going. We didn’t speak for more than 5 minutes and then he was on his way. I barely saw him throughout my time in university, but we were still Facebook friends.

When I watched his TEDx talk that he did in 2018, it changed my life.

What I didn’t realize was after he graduated from St. Andrews, he decided to walk across America. Not run, not bike but walk. He spent several months walking across the US to research phone addiction and what our phones are doing to our minds.

One line sticks out in particular:

‘At least it’s free right? Facebook, Snapchat, Instagram and Fortnite all appear to be free? But that’s not the truth. We pay for these apps with our attention and our well being.’

He recommended 3 things to curb your phone addiction: turn off your notifications except calls and texts, go to grayscale and keep your phone out of your bedroom.

I tried all 3 initially but sadly only stuck with the first. I turned off almost all notifications years ago, and it’s one of the best decisions I ever made.

Now I feel more in control of my phone than it does of me. I can curate my content exactly to what I want and I’m not sucked back in whenever my phone buzzes me. I can choose which opinions and accounts are positive and uplifting while curbing most of the junk that is social media. 

That decision, along with meditation has allowed my mind to think clearly about what’s important to me.

I’m not perfect and every day I struggle with battling my phone for attention. Yet because I’ve limited my exposure, I’ve accomplished so much more with my time over the last several years, including 110+ books read, hundreds of pieces of writing and many more. All by limiting my time on my screen.

Most of life is noise.

Limit your phone exposure and take back control of your attention.

Otherwise you’re the only one that’s going to suffer.