Create more. Consume less.

In today’s culture, much of our free time is spent consuming.  We’re constantly taking something in and constantly wanting for more.  More food, more stuff, more social media, all in the hopes it will make us happy or numb our discomfort.  Yet no matter how much we consume, we’re never quite satiated.

What if we redirected some of our time towards creating instead?  Creating art or memories or music.  Writing, designing, crafting, cooking, building.  Creating, in a sense, is the opposite of consuming.  Creating something leaves us with something to show for our time, where consuming often leaves us with nothing but a temporary fix.  Creating requires thought.  It exercises the mind like running exercises the body.  When you’ve created something you feel productive and proud.  It’s satisfying.  Consuming takes on the guise of satisfaction yet never leaves us feeling good in the end.  I love the idea of a 4 hour television binge but at the end I just feel kind of gross.  Creating, on the other hand, can be hard work at times, but there’s no better feeling than having created something from nothing.

Last year I found myself consuming Instagram content several times a day. I began to notice how that time vanished and I had nothing to show for it. I spontaneously decided to delete the app from my phone for a week. One week turned into two and two weeks became two months. It felt really good to not be constantly distracted. I felt like I had more time. So I began dedicating that extra time to writing. Writing every day started to become something. I had thoughts to share, thoughts that could potentially light a spark in someone else. Now, every time I click publish on a new post I feel proud that I’ve created something to put out into the world rather than icky for having fueled the attention economy.

You can create for fun.  You can create for profit.  You can create simply for yourself or you can make something for others.  No matter the intent, just start creating something. Play.  It could be serious or silly, artistic or technical.  It could have deep meaning or simply be expressive.  Whatever it is, take something from inside yourself and make something with it.  It’s fun, it’s fulfilling and it will satisfy in a way that consuming never will.