Stop Riling Yourself Up Master Your Digital Life

Don't do it. Yeah, I mean, there's a there's a there's a fair amount of discipline. And there's a fair amount of sometimes that you're just you're you're you're riling yourself up. You know what I mean? And we have to acknowledge that we you're riling yourself up. How would the world be different for each person watching and listening right now if in the morning time when you got up before work, you know, you go in there, you pour yourself some Wheaties and get your almond milk and you throw it on there and while you're eating your Wheaties, you check the news, check your social media, okay. And then you turn it off and you throw it in a Faraday bag and you go to work. It's in your backpack, you go to work. And then lunchtime happens and you know, you get out your ham and cheese sandwich there and you're eating ham and cheese sandwich you get caught up on what's happening with the daily news. So you go through your social media, you check a few news sources. Okay, yeah, that's what's happening. And then you're done with that lunch is over there and you turn it off, throw in your Faraday bag, put it back in your backpack. End of the day, drive home. You don't sit in your car and staring at your phone before you drive home, you just drive home, go home to your family, greet your kids, have dinner, everything's fine with dinner. And just like in the old days, maybe you pop up the newspaper after dinner and you want to read it or you turn on the six o'clock news get caught up on everything. Spend yourself, you know, 2030 minutes doing that. And then you turn it off and you spend time with your family and you make them turn their stuff off. And did you really miss anything? If you live that way? Did you really miss anything? Right? No, do you really need to know what Trump said five minutes ago, throughout your entire day? You really need that? Or can you just get caught up periodically during the day? See, if you're not managing a social media account, because you have some sort of profile, or you're selling some swag, or you're trying to get you know, you're trying to do something. If if you don't, if that's not part of your life, you know, if you're not a content creator, and that's, that's how you make your income and things like that. You have to stay up on stuff. If you're not, if you're not a government policymaker, you know, if you're not if you're not doing this, yeah, why are you spending all your time there just to rile yourself up and then be unproductive in other areas of your life. So at some point in time, we have to realize and that's what tech discipline is, you know, when you when you give yourself your little recess periods from life, you know, I mean, you're in school, and they give you a recess, you know, after you get to school, and then you'd have recess, and you go back in the classroom, you have lunch, you have recess, and then after lunch, you'd have a recess before you went home. We have to kind of have the same thing practicing tech discipline is so important. And also tech hygiene. You know, what are you allowing into your mind when you're looking at social media, at your television, what are you allowing into your mind? Is it do we really need a 20? Do you personally need to have to be switched on to a 24 hour a day news cycle? Do you really need that? Is that making your life better? Or can you just get caught up on the news? And then go teach your kids how to you know, make jello, you know, whatever, you know, because, yeah, because all this type of behavior comes at a cost. And oftentimes, it comes at a cost to your family. I mean, we all have family members out there who are so enthralled with social media that we can't even get their attention for something serious. You know, they don't, they don't answer the phone, they don't respond to you, they're always looking down at their phone, makes you feel neglected, because you are, you know, and how many people are we doing that to? They feel neglected. And we're doing that to each other. And we don't need to again, is it really do you really need to know what Trump said to Panama? Can you or can you kind of get caught up on everything at the end of the day? And then move on? Now I know, people are looking for media engagement, you know, and they want to get people enthralled into their accounts. I get that that's a plus for people. But I'm telling everybody out there that you don't have to do it. You don't have to do that. That's a behavior that is probably out of control. You know, tech addiction is a real thing. Yeah, you need to look at it like it's an addiction. It's short circuiting people's minds. It's wrecking people's relationships. And it's probably making you less productive with things like making money, like paying bills, like making sure they're working shifts, or they just come and go as they please. And I encourage every one of that team to hey, step away. You don't need you don't need to be there right now. And if I see someone on there, like all the time, I will send a message and say, Hey, you know, go take a break. Yeah, yeah, that's good. And, you know, I think for me, as a content creator, there is that sort of sense of urgency. But, you know, one of the things I always say at the end of a show is, look at the sky, touch some grass, right, get outside. And that's something that I try to do. And, you know, with the things that I've been through recently with having the stress of having, you know, our dad have a stroke, and he was in the hospital and it was a five week ordeal, where a lot of things came to a grinding halt. And my stress level was really high. And it wasn't so much about what was going on with him. Health wise is just dealing with the system, right? Dealing with the hospital dealing with the jacket, just the jackassery overall of that system, and confronting it day in and day out, and just having the vigilance and then becoming almost like an HR manager of all of the people involved in his care. So just added layer of stress. And one of the things that I have started going back to the gym, and, you know, to manage my stress. And one of the things I do is there's a sauna, we have a sauna at the gym. And I, I have a rule where I don't take my, I don't take my phone out at the gym, like, I don't have it with me. I'm not doing like a phone workout. And I actually put it in a locker that's outside of the locker room. The phones aren't allowed in there anyway. But, but it's just like when I walk in the gym, the phone gets put away. I don't I'm not listening to anything. I'm just fully present at the gym. I'm fully present when I get in the sauna, fully present, like, so that's sort of like my carve out bubble. And it's really been very helpful because, you know, I have some health challenges that I'm working on myself. And I know that I have to be here 100% health wise for my family. And if I'm not carving out those things, if I'm not taking time away, even as a content creator, then I get into big trouble because I like you're saying a lose perspective. And, and then the people in my life lose out. And I'll tell you, everybody's better off when I go and spend that time doing those things and refreshing and renewing without my phone, that's 100% better for everybody. And and so I think what I hear you saying is that everybody has to make a decision it's like it's up to you to decide to take the personal responsibility about what you do, what you personally do, to practice tech discipline to practice tech hygiene. And it's very interesting, because I see people sometimes like in the locker room with a gym, there's big signs that say absolutely no phones, right? And people will have their phones out. And if you confront I mean, like, you know, people are in the in the locker room, like with no clothes on, and somebody has their phone out, you're like, stop, you know, but you you confront them, they know they should stop, but they don't, because they're addicted. You know, you can. Yeah. I have probably the worst message returner on the planet. I really am. Yeah. Try to get in touch with me all the time. Yeah. And I you know, I'll wake up to 40 messages. And I'd be like, Okay, I'll get through these, you know, and then you get DMS and you got everything. I'm horrible about returning messages. Yeah, it's not because I'm extremely irresponsible. It's because I got other things to do, you know, I get up when I can. And I don't let that, that limit what I'm trying to do efficiently. Right now, I'm, you know, General Flynn, and I were in the middle of writing a new book. And so I will go semi dark on everybody for months, you know, when we're in this kind of mode, because I have to dedicate all my synopsis to synopsis to that one thing. Right, right. And it has to be that way. So I isolate myself, I, you know, I hide, you know, from from four o'clock in the afternoon till two o'clock in the morning, just locked in a room, and, and, and it has to be that way. And I think it should be that way for a lot of people, if they're doing what they need to be doing in life, if that's what you do, whatever your craft is, whatever your skill is, whatever your job is, and if you're not raising your family, if you're not being with your spouse, you should be productive.