So, you know how one of our philosophies of Pick Up Limes is to find balance, right?
But there's this one area of my life where I actively try to make sure that things are a little bit out of balance.
We all choose to spend our time in different ways. We dedicate our attention to different things.
I feel like we live in this kind of time, in this era, where we have so much information readily available.
Access at our fingertips at all times and it's amazing. It's wonderful that I also feel like it just spreads our attention
so thin. We just fall victim sometimes to these distractions that have become so normal.
So, so part of our everyday lives.
So that's one of the things I wanted to address today. Actually a little ratio that might help with all of this and it's the
ratio of consuming to creating.
Now given the type of work that I do, I consume a lot.
And I don't mean just food, but I mean consuming information content from social media from TV shows
audio books, articles, blogs, documentaries.
I kind of see it as research in a way 'cause I get inspiration.
When I see how someone takes a picture or how they edit a video, how they write a blog post.
But there's a fine line between feeling inspired and feeling bogged down by the things that we're consuming. And I feel like we tend to
compare ourselves to other people the more we consume and it's, it's only natural.
It's one of those things we're told we shouldn't do but I think it's one of those things. That's also
easier said than done but I had this friend a few years ago who shared this concept with me and it's incredibly simple.
But since I've learned it
it's shifted my perception about how I view my time and how I actually spend my time and he said that there's this ratio between
consuming and creating. When we consume more than we create we tend to feel
drained of energy. A little disheartened maybe.
We lack self-confidence because maybe either we're comparing ourselves to other people or maybe it's just that we're not doing all that much.
But when we shift that ratio to making sure that we create more than we consume.
That's when we tend to feel a bit more happy and motivated,
productive. Maybe even more self-assured and I remember that he challenged me to monitor how I spent my time.
Just over the next couple days and I was really embarrassed and surprised to see how much of my time I
spent consuming content for entertainment for inspiration. It didn't matter. It just felt like I was
consuming my world more than I was creating it. And when I say create, it doesn't need to just be in the realm of
photography or painting or filming, it can be that too, but creating comes in so many different forms.
We can create a meaningful career, create a trusting relationship, that can be done through spending quality time or bonding time.
Creating by contributing to your community.
gardening, writing, blogging. The list goes on. The thing about this act of creating: it shapes you. It hones your
concentration, it improves your skills,
it builds your character. The labour that we put in when we create something it
transforms in a way our environment and that directly transforms us and
let's be honest, consuming content for entertainment or to learn something new. It's not only amazing,
I would argue that it's necessary.
So don't at all feel guilty for consuming things. The emphasis again is just to make sure that that ratio of
creating to consuming. We want to make sure that it's greater than one and
whatever it is that you choose to create:
Remember that it doesn't need to be perfect when you begin. Just start and create for the sake of creating.
You're doing it for you to feel more fulfilled and to feel more confident. Now it's a really simple concept
like I said, it's helped me so much since I've put it to practice. I hope that it does the same for you.
I'm curious to know if you think that you're somebody who... Do you feel you're guilty, be honest, of
creating or sorry consuming more than you create? Or do you think you've got it the other way around.
And do you have a way of keeping it in check?
Let me know in the comments. I'll see you guys down there.
Thanks for enjoying this cup of tea with me. Pick Up Limes signing off. We'll see you in the next video.