We live in a magical time where we have access to entertainment, art, and friendship literally in the palm of our hands. I will be the dork here and say that the power of the internet still blows my mind.
However, this instant access, instant gratification, instant everything has many downfalls in my opinion.
I could bore you and go on and on, however I won’t do that. Instead I am going to share with you one major downfall that I feel can be detrimental to your creativity, your confidence, your mindset, and ultimately the growth of your business.
This downfall is the comparison game. I play it EVERY SINGLE DAY and my gut says you probably do too. Am I right?!
You scroll through Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter, etc and you are flooded with so much beauty and talent. You are flooded with people showing themselves looking absolutely gorgeous doing epic things, creating incredible art.
Cue inner narrative:
“Wow, my photography is so boring. Why can’t I use light like that?”
“I need that lens. I need that camera.”
“I look like a slob. My kids look like ragamuffins.”
“I don’t travel enough. I don’t spend nearly enough time in bed with gorgeous lattes.”
“I suck at all things and will never be able to be half as much as these bad asses, I quit.”
Yeah, you know what I mean don’t you?
Here is the thing. Inspiration is a beautiful, wonderful, motivating thing. But it can also bring you down to a place that is hard to get up from. And it can also suck so much time out of your life that you don’t get half the things done you were capable of.
But here is the good news, my friend. I have a very simple solution, a practice really, that I have been implementing and it has changed my life.
I now have a hard and fast rule. Create before you consume! Create before you consume!
It is almost meditative and I will admit it was hard to implement. It took some major self control to not roll over, grab my phone, and start binging on all things social media.
Now, I wake up, make my coffee, meditate for 5 minutes (that is it) and then I create something. That can be as simple as writing a blog post, writing an email like this one to you, editing an old personal photo, writing a note to my best friend, scheduling my own Instagram feed or facebook posts, culling a session, working on one of my upcoming talks or retreats…. ANYTHING BUT CONSUMING.
Then, when I do start guzzling social media (because I absolutely do) I come from a more firmly rooted place. I feel more sure of my own abilities to be a creator and I look at others from a more subjective place.
I urge you to try this. Create before you consume. See how it changes your mindset. And let me know if it helps.
Xoxo,
Elena