Cutting Ties II
Woah!!! Who would have known that the choice to get off social for personal reasons would create such a ripple effect?
Are you good?
Things at home good?
How has work been?
Also had a few emails and comments congratulating me on this choice to disconnect from pandora’s box; that was surprising as well.
The red flags pop up for some as we know that pulling away is a sign of suicidal tendencies in today’s society and those close to me know that this is part of my design as a human, and this is a healthy exit for me long term. That is what it feels like to me and only twenty-four-plus hours into being drug-free of social media comes a boost of creative energy and excitement for what’s to come.
What is funny, is my mind won’t shut the fuck up, it keeps telling me, “get rid of everyone you follow and it won’t be an issue.” It is not about those who follow me or vice versa, no it is about not taking in the shotgun amount of information that creates a lag in my ability to focus. For me as a high-performing human, the goal is to learn ways not to waste energy, and find new ways to be more efficient in my day-to-day behaviors and actions.
With social media, my behaviors are like everyone else, and if you don’t think you have a problem then you haven’t taken a break and disconnected from this artificial world that we all come to love so dearly.
For me, it’s that saying, “out of sight out of mind,” so my behavior of grabbing my phone and going through a kinematic sequence to get me to scroll comes from the app being on my phone, no matter where it is hidden. Reminds me of the crack-head, looking for their crack pipe cause the high is barely wearing off and they need that little hit to keep them above the clouds. Guess what, scrolling is that hit of the crack pipe and this choice is to break the cycle of addiction that infected me as it once did in twenty-twenty.
The next ripple effect was with SFLT and a couple of questions about production for reels and content came into the conversation. Of course, it will be run through the main SFLT page, and it will be posted by someone else, not me.
From a personal standpoint it’s time to go through withdraws and the withdraws are not bad, they are rewarding and relieve a bit of the pain and suffering. Being in the world of strength and conditioning and human performance the main goal of mine when collectively working with another human towards a goal is to find ways to relieve pain and suffering in some fashionable sense, cause this can lead to true happiness; instead of trying to find what pleasures or pleases their ego.
As the crackhead would say, he is only avoiding the dope sickness that comes from the high. The dope sickness with social media is never ending, at least that’s how it feels for me.
Then the next thing happen - a demand that a check of social media needed to happen. At least once a day through the laptop on our main SFLT account and to answer any training questions that needed to be answered. Over the past month, and year, let me tell you how many questions that were answered through the socials for me - less than ten. Why is it that? Well over the years boundaries were built by me and are in place to direct all training or business-related questions through email. Why is this, well it is more professional for me from a communication process and keeping my work windows sacred.
As this little idea of cutting ties came to fruition, hesitation dropped and kicked me in the chest, doubts and resistance showed their faces and for a couple of weeks, a war within me went back and forth till my heart won and lead me to this beautiful choice.
Is social media a good place to be and does it have positives? Of course. Does it bring value to many? Yes, but my page isn’t a place used to market business or the conversation that you didn’t share my stuff or their stuff, or you cannot repost that cause it goes against your non-compete, and you could be fired.
My platform came to feel as if it wasn’t mine anymore and that it was pleasing others, that is my own fault.
Cutting ties gave me my power and control back, no longer is it in anyone’s hands but mine, with boundaries and deliverables that meet the mark for me morally and ethically to live within my design as a human.
Seth Godin Blog a post by him on 1/31/23.
