Sit down and do the math. What percentage of your days is spent consuming vs. creating?
I’d feel safe betting my savings account on majority of people under 30 spending less than 10% of their lives creating.
How many hours do you spend scrolling? That’s a easy one, that ones obvious.
But how much time do you spend listening to music? Podcasts? Consuming the creations and thoughts of others?
Not to mention watching shows, youtube videos, even in the name of educating yourself or seeking inspiration. You’ll get lost in the endless loop of consuming self betterment content and run out of time to actually put what you learned into practice.
We are creators. Humans are creators. Do what you love is a great sentiment, but learning what that is takes work. Mainly because we only tend to love what were doing once we get good at it or gain some sort of notoriety.
Create – but for what?
Creating for the simple purpose of profiting in the end has kept me in that paralyzing loop of consuming information on how I can create and then profit from it.
What type of content SHOULD I make to gain followers? What kind of digital product SHOULD I make to make money? What skill SHOULD I learn to make more money?
I’ve gotten lost in the sense of needing to spend every second of my free time away from my actual job trying to find a way to make more money with my freetime. Sure, more money is always better. We also measure success with numbers because its the easiest visual aid. We definitely don’t want to feel that our time is wasting, since it’s so fleeting and we seem to have so little of it. But is that even true? Or do we think life is fleeting because we don’t slow down enough with the painstaking and most rewarding act of creating?
A challange just for Sam
I recently watched Julie & Julia on a flight back from Boston. I was reminded of a time when slow consistent projects and effort had space to exist. Julie Powell started her blog for the pure reason of doing it. No financial end goal. No get rich quick scheme. She gave herself a year to work through a challenge while utilizing her creative skills.
So, Samanta, here a challege for you. One year of creating more than I consume. I don’t know where to begin, so I’m starting with this blog post.
I will do things I’ve never done before, things that *GASP* I’ll be bad at in the beginning.
For the simple reason of doing and creating. No end goal. Not even for the sake of self betterment. Only goal is to stay consistent and create more than I consume. Write, sew, build, plant, paint, work out (yes I’m counting that as creation), cook, make videos, edit videos. If my standards tells me I am failing, I will ignore that voice.
I won’t follow a niche, I won’t stay in a category. Just make.