Someone asked me how I am now able to stay away completely from Social Media all year round and just come around for about a week or two during Christmas and New Year, then disappear again.
My answer is Simple, a Book Changed my Life! I read a Book called DEEP WORK by Carl NewPort. If you read this Book, you will never remain the same.
It broke my Addiction, showed me the deception and emptiness of scrolling all day through miscellaneous feeds of uncoordinated content from everyone’s minds, and how it affects even the Brain! Returning here every now and then to check likes, reply comments, see notifications etc – an absolute waste of priceless, irredeemable time of Life.
Except Facebook and co are literally bringing you Cash as a Business tool, it is not worth your time at all being here all year round. Sometimes you are addicted because you are idle, lonely, depressed, bored, unfulfilled, frustrated, or genuinely unhappy but it is so subtle and subconscious that you don’t even notice or realise it.
If you want to validate, evaluate or test my claim, I dare you to try an experiment, delete all your social media apps for just one week, the first thing you will notice is that, there will come a Void in your Habit that is seeking expression, every now and then you will be tempted to pick up your phone again to go on social media, but because you have deleted them all you will notice a sudden interruption in your brain, now, quickly fill that void with something else, for example, download an app called BLINKIST, it allows you to read 1000s of Books summarized beautifully and fast to grasp the lessons and apply, or pick a free new online course on any subject area of your life that adds REAL VALUE to you which has direct impact on your earnings. For instance, I have spent the last one year’s absence on social media to get deeper into Cyber Security and empowered myself with new I.T skills, this has given me enough new Skillset to expand my relevance in I.T such that now I work online as a Cyber Security Consultant for a Foreign Company right from Ghana. I did all these using my Facebook time for a new skill which is now increasing my relevance and earning power. I will have remained a Web Expert only but for my decision to re-channel my valuable time spent arguing with people online and going on people’s walls to debate on Cardi B, Katanka, Afrochella – debates that are completely useless, fruitless, disempowering and energy-draining.
Since I returned to Facebook about a week now, (which I will of course disappear again a week from now again and you won’t see me again for a long time lol), I really haven’t benefited much except reading from people’s “What’s on your Mind” Gossips, Online arguments, Baseless opinions, Ranting, Venting of frustration, and sometimes just completely irrelevant posts. There are however a few very high-minded individuals whose posts are very educative, inspiring and worth the time, but the question is, cumulatively speaking – how many of such people are in your 1000s of friends’ list? Most likely the junk posts are more.
We are growing ooo, now I look in the mirror and see lots of grey hairs already mixing up with the black under my chin and I am stupefied!
If you are 35 now for instance and you run business, you can’t be priding yourself anymore as “Young Entrepreneur”, you no longer qualify for Forbes 30 under 30. Look; in 10 years you will be 45, do you know that 10 years is just about 2 Elections away from now? It comes so fast you won’t believe yourself – and you will still realise you haven’t accomplished much, Scriptures say, redeem the time for the days are evil!
Do you know that 31st night crossover prophecies and all its acrobatics, will never guarantee you lasting positive and real impactful, measurable Change in your Life if you do not personally take deliberate and conscious steps to actually change your habits and improve the quality of your life? What can God do to increase your income when you haven’t increased your knowledge, your capacity, your skills and your networks?
If the yearly religious gymnastics were sufficient for lasting success, be honest with yourself, shouldn’t you be a millionaire by now? Or at least, let me be modest about the question – should you still be sometimes borrowing MTNQuickLoan and FIDO? Clearly something isn’t adding up right? It is madness to keep doing the same thing and expect a different result.
Aside all these benefits why you should re-evaluate your Social Media life, one of the greatest benefits staying away from social media (best recommendation though it is hard for some people) or at least limiting it to the barest minimum is this:
PRIVACY IS POWER, WHAT PEOPLE DONT KNOW THEY CANT RUIN, AND ONCE YOU OPERATE IN SILENCE, THE ENEMY DOES NOT KNOW WHAT TO ATTACK!
Social media sometimes lead you on to share some part of your life and progress with your friends and followers, it is a realistic temptation, considering the fact that you have the feeling of wanting to be celebrated, or that you want your result to inspire others, or that you simply want to produce good content to enrich your followers’ experience.
Whilst this is not wrong per se, it poses some dangers that you have not perhaps taken seriously; it exposes you to the enemy and evil people can use your social media life to monitor your progress, your next move, your achievements, your family, etc. If you are not wise, it can lead to doom – hey have you ever heard that someone got killed just because he or she met someone online and got invited over but never returned? Yes it sounds extreme but that is a harsh example of how far it can go.
In all you do, apply Wisdom, if you evaluate your presence on social media and do the maths, and all the time you spend on it makes profit (beneficial) for you, go on, but if you will take a dare, do the experiments i have suggested, take stock of your life online, and do objective assessment, if you discover there is some truth in what I have shared, then make a change, you are not far from getting old, very soon you will be 70 years old.
This post is not an instruction or command, it is an advice based on personal experience and objective assessment of my work life. It is also not limited to just Facebook, snapchat and instagram, challenge yourself to exit WhatsApp Groups that consume your time without any real value in exchange.
Finally, as you cross over tomorrow, I pray, that we all also do not carry over our habits and behavioral patterns that has kept us limited in our financial power and productive life.
Make 2020 count, don’t wish that things get better by Politicians and Economy, improve on yourself that YOU will get better.
Thank you.
Source: The Big Godwin, Butterfly your World!
