One of the most interesting things I have noticed since starting this newsletter is how often some of the same topics keep coming back up.
When I sit down to write these newsletters, I try to take a concept, an idea, or a question, and distill it down into 300 words.
Spitting out the bones and leaving the meat. At least trying to.
With the aim of each newsletter targeted at empowering, inspiring, and encouraging you to set yourself apart in order to make a difference at work, at home, or in your personal life.
One of the ideas that I can’t seem to escape is the idea of curating your content.
We consume an absurd amount of content every day.
In the time you took to scroll through your feed and watch TV yesterday, you've likely taken in more information than most people in the 1980s would encounter in a whole year. (don’t fact check me on that, I found it on Reddit. But it sounds true, right?)
This content we are consuming is shaping us. Either consciously or subconsciously, it has an effect on us.
I was reminded of the importance of this concept from reading A Study in Scarlet by Arthur Conan Doyle.
Doyle explains how Sherlock Holmes’ brain works in a masterful paragraph. This book was written in 1887.
When media consumption was nowhere near what it is today, yet this paragraph still rings true today.
“I consider that a man's brain originally is like a little empty attic, and you have to stock it with such furniture as you choose. A fool takes in all the lumber of every sort that he comes across, so that the knowledge which might be useful to him gets crowded out, or at best is jumbled up with a lot of other things, so that he has a difficulty in laying his hands upon it. Now the skillful workman is very careful indeed as to what he takes into his brain-attic. He will have nothing but the tools which may help him in doing his work, but of these he has a large assortment, and all in the most perfect order. It is a mistake to think that that little room has elastic walls and can distend to any extent. Depend upon it there comes a time when for every addition of knowledge you forget something that you knew before. It is of the highest importance, therefore, not to have useless facts elbowing out the useful ones.”
How cluttered is our very own attic? We do not have elastic walls within our mind.
Yet we are consuming content like we do.
Curating your content means taking back control of the information that is shaping your mind.
It is becoming a skillful workman that is careful with what he puts into his brain-attic.
If you want to set yourself apart in this age of media consumption, start here.
Curate positivity on your timeline, follow people who post content that inspires you to put your phone down.
Set aside the tragedies on the news and watch the sunset.
There are a million ways to curate your content. All you have to do is start. Today.
Go out and clean your attic. Go out and make a difference.
