Creation vs consumption

Lately I’ve been thinking about how I’m spending my time.

There are periods of time every week where I find myself consuming content. That could be a TV show or movie, a book, Reddit, social media, news, tech blogs, etc.

In all of this I’m merely an open vessel absorbing bits of information. Now granted some of it is good information, and I could argue that other pieces are actually quite valuable. But on the whole a lot of it could be completely ignored, even the good stuff.

I find myself struggling against the impulse to constantly refresh and see what’s new out there, just to get a quick fix, and the desire to build and create things.

Writing articles on this blog is one perfect example of this struggle. I could spend my time reading what others are saying out there about some of the topics I love (simple living, traveling light, focus, essentialism, Apple products, etc) or I could add value to the world by sharing the things that are of interest to me.

I’d like to think that the second option will win out! I’ve caught myself reading opinion pieces on something that interests me and in the same breath realizing it’s exactly what I’ve been thinking.

So my encouragement to you is to look for the value you can add to the world, and not to just be someone who is taking what the world has to offer.