Are You Addicted To Input?

 

I meant to start writing over an hour ago.

Well that was the plan at any rate but first I just needed to check my email. Of course a few of those emails prompted me to click through to their sites and then, seeing as I was on the internet, I may as well go on Facebook and see who posted the latest cute animal meme or inspirational quote.

Now, over an hour later with stops on a weather site and a few news sites, here I am, fingers limber and reading to write.

Maybe I’ll just read a few post from other bloggers first.

I am an input addict.

I know this about myself. I love input of any kind. Trivial snippets of senseless information, gossip, hearsay, opinions, deep philosophical wonderings, really good stories, really bad stories, even ambulance chasing, can’t look away tragedies. Anything to appease the monkey that resides in my egotistical brain.

It’s not my fault though. I can’t help that I born in a time where input is everywhere. A study at a southern California university estimated that we are inundated with the equivalent of 174 newspaper worth of information every day. How could I not be addicted?

Okay, there is such a thing as control. I could apply my energy and focus on only the goals I want to achieve, but even there I easily suffer relapse.

You try and go on the internet an only do research or visit the library and not browse the “New Books” display, or even have a business meeting in a restaurant and keep it strictly business. Small talk happens folks! And lets hope the restaurant doesn’t have a dozen big screens hanging at every angle around the room tuned into as many  TV channels.

Avoidance you say? Sure, if I was a monk living in a cave. It just seems easier to avoid the really hard stuff like working towards my dreams.

Oh look! Something shiny and new……here I go again.

It’s no wonder modern society has commitment issues when we have so much to choose from at any given moment. Gone are the days when the only things influencing your decisions was the small community that surrounded you. Back in the days when your choices where limited to doing what your ancestors did before you, or trailblazing into the unknown.

There is no unknown anymore people, the app for that came out last month.

Do you ever wonder why meditation, yoga and new age healing have become so popular? It’s because the soul is crying for a regular vacation from the continual attack of input and the only way to achieve some relief, even if only temporarily is to learn how to re-balance your energy to feel in control of yourself again. These ancient modalities do that for you, and yes there’s an app for them as well.

Is it any wonder that modern society gets anything done anymore. We have crippled ourselves with useless input. We have become a civilization of one handed workers (the other hand is needed to hold our smart phone).

Do a little test. For one day note how much time you waste on useless input. You get an automatic fail if you use your smart phone to track the results because, odds are, you will waste even more time surfing around while you are at it. Now times that number by seven. That is the hours in a week that you could have spent doing something more productive.

Get the picture?

Even if you took back a quarter of that wasted time and used it to improve your life by doing activities that get you closer to your dreams, just imagine where you could be in a month, or a year?

Even though it took me more time (because I was distracted by useless input) than I needed to finally get to the point of writing this post and even though this post is in fact more input, it does give some insight as to why we never seem to achieve what it is we want to achieve.

So put your phone down for a hour, shut off the TV, log out of social media, put the book back on the shelf and do something productive. Be in your own thoughts as you go about the work. I guarantee you will feel more centered, more in control and maybe just a little closer to achieving your dreams.

 

Friends don’t let friends avoid their dreams with wasteful input except in this case, go ahead an share this blog. The input just may make a difference.