"Stop consuming" is the most overrated self-improvement advice.
As you doomscroll for the 67th time today, you're unfazed by the countless "day in the life" clips of self-help gurus that swarm your feed.
They claim that they take a cold shower first thing in the morning, meditate for four hours, and average three minutes of screen time—all while completely abstaining from "consumption."
Yet the videos have thousands of likes. Hundreds of comments and reposts.
Something's not adding up here.
If that content creator doesn't consume shorts, how are their shorts doing so well?
Wouldn't you have to watch that kind of content to get an understanding of what's doing well, the most relevant editing style, and which ideas are going viral?
I'm sorry, but your favorite self-help gurus aren't even following their own advice.
They are consuming. But that's not necessarily a bad thing.
Here's why.
If the well runs dry, your crops won't grow
Imagine you have a well and a garden full of crops.
Every day, you water your crops from the well.
At first, the well is filled to the brim. You don't even have to use a rope to reel the bucket in. You just skim the top of the water with your bucket and happily water your crops—all green and vibrant.
But then, a dry season comes along.
Now the well isn't so full anymore. As you lower a bucket into the well each day, you notice that it comes back up emptier and emptier when you reel it back up.
You have to start rationing your water between your crops, and their appearance changes. No longer robust and verdant, they're now withered and brown.
What can be done to save your crops?
Filling the well with sand
Think of your crops as the creative "thing" you output, like code, video, or audio.
And think of the well as your creative reservoir for whatever media you produce. It's the source of inspiration you draw from whenever you sit down to write a JavaScript function, splice together some clips, or speak with a guest for your podcast.
If your well runs dry, you won't be able to grow your crops, ie., create more output.
And to fill your well, you have to consume.
Yes, there it is. That dirty C word, consume.
But consumption gets a bad rap nowadays. And an inaccurate one at that.
We think of consumption as doomscrolling Reels for hours on end, staying up too late playing video games, or inhaling copious amounts of adult content that's surely frying your dopamine receptors.
And sure, these are all forms of consumption, but they're all forms of mindless consumption.
They don't require any effort—or more precisely, intention—to carry out.
You just do them, automatically.
Think about it. When was the last time you went on a doomscrolling session?
I'll go first. Probably several weeks ago.
Every couple of months or so, I'll have one of those days where I run out of willpower to be productive, flop onto the couch, and inject whatever garbage videos the YouTube algorithm has decided to feed me straight into my brain for a few hours.
And does it take me any effort to do this?
Nope.
It takes zero effort, feels terrible afterward, and to top it all off, it doesn't add any water to my creative "well." It just adds a bunch of useless, dry sand that won't nourish my crops.
Fortunately, there's a better type of consumption to engage in.
Filling the well with water
Intentional consumption is the opposite of mindless consumption.
It's you saying, "Hey, I know the world is constantly barraging me with noise every day. Ads, notifications, recommended content—all through algorithms that are designed to get me hooked. But I'm not going to consume that stuff. I'm going to consume what I want to."
- Instead of letting YouTube's recommendation algorithm tell you what video to watch, you search what you want to learn about.
- Instead of scrolling Instagram until something catches your eye, you open it already knowing which account you want to check.
- Instead of allowing a video game to give you opportunities to earn false rewards in a virtual reward, you go to the library to find a self-help book that pushes you to improve your life in the real world.
Instead of mindlessly consuming whatever comes your way, you intentionally select what you consume.
Unlike mindless consumption, which only adds sand to your well, intentional consumption fills your well with real water that you can use to water your crops.
So yes, your favorite self-help content creators aren't these "Atomic Habits experts" that have perfect discipline and brute force willpower their way to avoid consumption.
No, they consume content, too.
But they're not mindlessly injecting into their brains whatever the world wants them to consume.
They're seeking out content, information, and knowledge that is useful for their creation process: Reels that they can replicate the editing style of, research papers they can cite in their videos, books that help them improve their own lives (so they can practice what they preach.
If you're ever confused on whether a mode of consumption is mindless or intentional, just ask yourself this:
Does consuming this help me create more? Or does it just keep my brain numb and happy to my goals and ambitions?
You'll know the answer right away.