It’s not enough to just think about WHO we’re listening to anymore. Now we have to think about HOW MUCH we’re listening to.
- How many articles did you read today?
- How many ads did you see?
- How many things are vying for your attention?
- How much information did you consume?
It’s overwhelming when you think about it.
It can be even worse for entrepreneurs. We tend to already be overwhelmed and working on 15 projects at once.
So I tell my coaching clients to limit their information intake. To cut out the noise.
But at some point in the last 6-months I stopped taking my own advice and started overloading on input.
Subscribing to email lists, signing up for webinars, grabbing all the email freebies, following everyone on social media with a shiny download…
And sure enough, in short time I became so overloaded and confused that I became completely ineffective. Not to mention terrified of opening my email.
We are so inundated with ads + sales + valuable information + for me, its just ALL.TOO.MUCH.
Comparing ourselves to what we see online is killing us.
First, I found myself up feeling worthless & getting depressed because I’m not making 100-million-dollars on every launch like other people in my industry.
I actually found myself thinking about shuttering my business – not because I don’t love it or see a future in it – but because I got so overloaded with the all the things I “should” be doing.
And depressed because I wasn’t having the impact I felt I “should” based on all the marketing messages I’ve been getting.
Thankfully, I also know that many online marketers are completely full of it and super-shady (or at least less than transparent) in their marketing tactics.
You know the folks I’m talking about, right?
There’s the “Humble Bragger” who just can’t believe what an amazing week she had when 47 of her 1-on-1 clients made 7-figures, or the blatant “here’s the Lamborghini I bought with my pocket money” braggarts, or the “if you just download this PDF your life’ll never be the same + you’ll finally get the Prince & pony you deserve” jack-wagon.
I’m so over it, and I know you are too.
So I propose we all make adjustments to how we interact with information.
Personally, I’ve been on an unsubscribe and unfollow binge. I unfollowed more than 2,000 accounts on various social platforms this month.
I spend at least an hour a week unsubscribing or filtering emails out of my account.
Some of them are great people sharing valuable content.
I encourage you to STOP listening to everyone with a message and to hand-pick the content you consume.
We cannot listen to everyone, and we can find the information we need with any simple search.
Don’t continue to follow anyone who makes you feel guilty, overwhelmed, not good enough or anything but awesome-sauce.
If you’re not enjoying the posts you see on social media – unfollow with ruthless abandon.
If you don’t get value from email lists, unsubscribe.
If you get value but get overloaded, filter them out of your inbox and save them up for a binge read!
But do yourself a favor and start clearing the overwhelm out of your life.
For best results, I recommend hand selecting a half-dozen advisors you trust and kick everyone else out of your inbox and your feeds.
I can’t guarantee it will change your life, but I can tell you it changed mine.
Originally published at katebagoy.com