Heya playa, have you ever jumped on Instagram and started scrolling through your feed only to notice
your friends doing tons of cool things, going to cool places, hanging out with cool people,
while you're just sitting at home doing nothing?
Seeing that might really trigger your FOMO which is your fear of missing out.
Being left out of things, not participating or being invited to activities,
just kind of being left in the background observing other people enjoy their lives.
FOMO is something that a lot of people struggle with so if you're one of those people,
I want to walk you through a few steps that you could start taking to kick that fear
and to start appreciating the life that you have.
One of the main contributors to FOMO today is social media.
We can't escape it.
We're always on Facebook and Instagram and Twitter and Snapchat and all these different platforms
watching other people live their lives and sometimes seeing them do really cool things
really make us feel like we're not as cool.
Like we don't have interesting lives ourselves.
And this being one of the many problems with social media tends to happen because
people tend to glamorize or exaggerate what their life is actually like online.
So when we observe it we think they're being authentic and real
when in reality most of the time it's a fake image that we're seeing.
You might come across a picture or a video of your friends out at a party hanging out with
tons of girls having the time of their lives but what you don't actually see is behind the scenes.
The drama, the stress, the insecurity, that all build up surrounding that picture.
You just see the smiling faces when in reality there's a lot more to it.
I've been there before, I know what it's like.
You see your friends succeeding and you really start to question yourself
why do they have such a vibrant social life and I don't?
Why am I sitting at home watching them enjoy their
lives when I should be out partying and hanging out just like they are?
Or you might find yourself in a situation where
you can't be a part of something or you're not invited to it which is
even worse because now you know that you're being intentionally excluded from the group
and you're watching everyone else have fun knowing that they know that you're not a part of it.
It just absolutely sucks,
it really does but you might feel weird or bad about having the feelings that you do.
Feeling lonely or sad or angry or jealous of them but I want
you to know that the feelings you're feeling are all right.
It's okay to feel the way that you do.
Any feelings that you have are mentionable and manageable.
So what I want you to do is to try out a few of the steps I'm going to lay out for you here,
see which ones work for you, and keep at them.
First off if you're a bit addicted to your phone and social media try to
spend less time passively observing people and more time actively engaging with them.
This means starting conversations, leaving comments, inviting people to group chats,
just using social media as a way to communicate and interact with more people.
This will help change the value that it brings to your life.
The next time you log into Snapchat know that you're doing so to interact with people
not to just watch their stories and see all the cool things that they're doing.
Second, if you feel like just being on social media is the problem well
then cutting back is the step you're going to want to take.
The problem is we always tell ourselves I'm going to quit social media, stop using Instagram,
no more Snapchat, goodbye TikTok and it never actually happens.
We find a way back onto these platforms so instead of making these grand claims,
you're going to take small steps.
Try to push yourself to have a social media free day every
week or a social media free week every month.
Taking that time away from looking at other people and what they're doing is going to allow
you to reflect inward and really understand your thoughts and feelings a lot better.
Controlling that urge might look something like this.
You get the thought in your mind that you're bored or you're thinking about someone and want to know
what they're up to so instead of diving into Instagram and just delving into their lives and
seeing what they're up to, recognize what you're feeling, pause for a second and ask yourself
what else can I be doing to satisfy this urge of boredom that i'm going through?
And that leads into the third way to deal with FOMO which is to dive deeper into
JOMO which stands for the joy of missing out.
JOMO is a term created by blogger and entrepreneur and Anil Dash and what
it basically means is to dive deeper into the small, simple things in life that bring you joy.
For example, have you ever made plans with someone and a few days leading up
to it you're stressed out and worried and anxious about when you're going to meet up,
what are you going to wear, what are you guys going to do, is it going to be fun,
are you going to be bored, is it going to be the whole night?
All these questions pop into your mind but then all of a sudden plans get
cancelled and now you have that block of time free to do whatever you want.
There's a sense of ease and comfort that comes in knowing hey,
I don't have to worry about anything else.
I could stay at home, I could play some video games, I could read a book, I could just relax,
that is leaning into JOMO, recognizing the joy that can be experienced
and reclaiming your time for yourself once again.
Time to wonder and think and be creative all on your own.
Does that mean you don't want to party or hang out with friends or do lots of cool social activities?
Absolutely not.
You may still have the desire to do those things and that's totally normal but
you should also seek a sense of joy in just being with yourself.
If you only really experience happiness when you're out there with other people doing things
you're not really allowing yourself to just be.
And when you're not able to just be you start to not really like yourself as much you start
to feel like you are defined only by the image of you outside with other people.
And that's where you start to lose touch of reality and who you are.
The next time you're alone try to spend that time
really appreciating the value and just being who you are.
I think these steps are going to help you work through that fear of missing out
and to start appreciate the joy of missing out.
To start recognizing that you are somebody great and just being you.
Now I mentioned some of the problems I had with social media so I'm gonna link
up a video over here on why I think social media is ruining your life.
Check it out let me know what you guys think.
On that note, I'll catch you next time.
As always, love and peace.