Okay, guys, I have an idea that I would like to share with you to establish a baseline and just to get the opinions of people that think more rationally because I feel the need to share what is on my mind with someone. I am open to criticism and harsh commenting because I am used to it and I know it is for my benefit.
A lot of people will start going gym after the new year for a better life and just the usual stuff that happens after every year. As this decade is almost over, I looked back and just thought about the internet and the way it evolved and caused us, humans, to evolve in a different way. For the average user, it is very hard to take control and master your own actions and emotions no matter how much a person reads or practices, in order to be the best and optimal version of itself.
On YouTube (while procrastinating and instead of doing the high-value activity) I came across a video about a man that did not have an internet connection in its house for two years, and the only time he had access to the internet was outside in a cafe shop or in the work office. The guy mentioned the benefits of having no internet at home. Some of the benefits that caught my attention were:
- being aware of what you consume, because you have to select what you want to download in order to watch at home; such as a simple youtube video (must be high value) or a Udemy video course that will help you develop yourself
- having a lot more time, because you don't waste time and go into this endless rabbit hole of scrolling and switching from page to page
- being aware of the webpages consumed because he has to make a conscious decision to download it for offline viewing at home
Additionally, I also came across alpha / red-pilled individuals on YouTube and Twitter that teach good content about being the best version of yourself without sweet-talking their audience. One of the common points I noticed was; no social media, no fap, daily exercise, journaling, and the list goes on. I would say its just those so simple things that most people fail to do because they are "so simple to do and so simple not do do" (The Slight Edge by Jeff Olson). I was downloading video courses on my local external hard drive and movies that I would like to keep locally in order to make my own cloud server, and I said to myself "what if I try to go 'without the internet' and just force myself do to the things (high-value activities) that I am supposed to do?".
I have a friend that basically does not exist on the internet. He doesn't have Facebook and didn't even know that Facebook had Groups, because the last time he used social media was in 2011. He told me that he only goes to forums that are useful to him under different usernames and is very self-conscious about online privacy. I think for his age he is stable, self-conscious and a very cool dude that is doing the things that many of us struggle to do like having online privacy, consuming high-value content, working on high-value content that is beneficial, balancing work and personal life, and having a self-time. I think he is a man that is so focused on his mission that he doesn't need to follow other people on social media, because he doesn't gain anything valuable. I was mindblown and really liked his mentality, because thinking about it, he consumes only the essential information he needs and if he talks about a topic, he has in-depth knowledge of it. This is because he has the time and the passion to dive deep in a topic instead of scrolling on social media or watching endless YouTube videos. I think just the fact that he doesn't use social media has made him more disciplined that even on YouTube he can control himself instead of jumping on social media, scroll while watching endless YouTube Videos without taking action.
I have noticed that when I work full time, I have no time for social media or even time for mindless browsing because I work 12-hour shifts and just go to sleep. I wake up early and do my productive morning routine and I was feeling really good while doing it. Now because of the holidays, I realized that I am not doing the things that I am supposed to do, and my mind has come up with the following:
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cut off Instagram completely, because it provides no value and has negative effects. I don't find anything useful on Instagram and even if I try to just follow the right people, the explore page with model girls is there waiting for me, and therefore I am planning to eliminate completely Instagram for personal use. While writing this I checked on Instagram and again on explore page I saw a girl that is my age with a T-shirt like cloth, that outlines her nipples which I think is great but it fucks up with my brain. It fucks up with my brain because it is so easy to just fap on it and get an instant reward, it is so easy to see a picture of a jet or a yacht and just dream about it without doing any action. Instead, I could eliminate that and just focus!
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download YouTube videos, 80% high value and 20% entertaining. This will make sure that I will be very conscious about the content I consume and will prevent me from going into this endless loop of watching new YouTube videos.
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use Twitter only for business and self-help, because I am not exposed to triggering content (model girls and fake news).
- use Facebook only to interact in Facebook groups.
I am planning to have 24/7 access to this forum and other forums that I find useful. Also, I will have an internet connection on my phone so that I can interact with people on WhatsApp and Telegram mainly for business purposes. All notifications on my phone are disabled and it feels really great.
I know this will be hard, that's why I am not going too harsh on myself to not have an internet connection fully. I will have an internet connection, but it will be limited to high-value activities. I will be forced to consume high-value content. I am planning to do this by blocking low-value websites like Instagram from my desktop device completely with Cold Turkey, and limit YouTube for a week and have a timeframe where it will allow me to pick important vides for me to download with youtube-dl. I will also block Amazon Prime Video and other than that, I cannot imagine other websites that will influence me in a bad way (I have porn websites already blocked).
I think it will be hard but great if I can do it because I will be conscious about everything I consume and see (kind of like a monk mode). The reason I am writing this is just to organize my thoughts and just share it with the community for feedback or opinion. I want to know what you think about this mission of "gaining back control", and what things you are doing to stay on track and follow your purpose without getting distracted?! I know very few people do this, and before I used to be surprised and was kind of surprised a person to now have Facebook or Instagram, or if they had low amount of followers I used to think that they were users until I discovered that some of these dudes were really cool, social and purpose-driven people that were earning well and were basically just what I consider "normal" people.
Now that I have written this, it kind of makes my mind clearer because in a way I have organized my thoughts. Again, feel free to share your opinion and experience. Thanks!
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