Alexander’s struggles 4 -Knowing versus doing

Why is it so difficult to focus more on creation?
Did it become so normal for me to consume things?

Those are two questions I asked myself a lot in the last weeks.

For me, the answer to the first question is simply that I get most of my enjoyment and the rewarding feelings from consuming things. That means mainly information. I watch every day many YouTube videos, many of them are about self-improvement but I also watch quite some about video games, and I calm myself with sentences like: “Only one video and then I will do something” or “This video is about a subject that will help me to improve my life a lot” or “I need this information to create something of value”.

There are endless reasons and I find it extremely difficult to get myself on focusing on getting this enjoyment from creating things. Especially because I think that what I create could be so much better if I would know better. The sad thing is that I can only become better at them doing and trying those things.

” 20 % knowing, 80 % doing”

I, sadly, suck at consistently doing more than acquiring information. This blog, my journal, and sport are for me ways of improving to get more satisfaction from creation than from consumption.

It´s difficult for me to get in my head but even looking for new information, reading, etc. is in the end just consumption. Unless you apply it.

To combat that, I try to daily apply what I know about fitness and nutrition. That doesn´t have to be something great. Some days I only stretch in the morning and try not to overeat at dinner. That´s it.

Other days I make all my meals good and have a workout. And on all those days I focus on enjoying and giving myself a little pat on my back for trying. And I tell myself that tomorrow is a new day on which I can try to be a little bit better than I have been today.

“Every day is a new life to a wise man”

So, it´s so difficult for me to focus on creating more because I am more in the mode of consuming than creating. Hence, we are at the second question. Did consumption become so normal for me?

Sadly, I got to admit: “Yes, consumption became normal for me.”

Probably, likely, I am not the only one in this world. However, I need to become better at creating things because only through creation can I construct the life that I dream of.

But how to solve this problem? In my head this is a gigantic problem but that reminded me of this quote:

“Everything in life that´s hard is just a series of things that are easy.”

And this is what I try to focus on each day. I focus on the tiny things that I can do each day while not beating myself up when I fail at it.

Those tiny things can be: Watching some minutes less of videos, doing more sport, going for a walk, cooking something nice, writing a post, creating a nice conversation with my family or friends, meditating to calm my monkey mind, working on other projects, or cleaning the house or the yard. Even playing a game instead of watching others play games is in my mind better than pure consumption.

I hope that, over time, those tiny things will have a big effect and I can see that I am getting more in the direction of 80 % doing.

All the best,

Alexander

“Focus on the process”