Escaping the Consumption Trap

Read time: 3 minutes

Noise everywhere. Everyone is vying for every minute of your day (heck, I’m doing that to you now - I’ll try to be quick). Read this, watch that, take a course over here about x.

Some noise is incredibly valuable - but if we‘re not paying attention, easily missed.

Other noise is just that, noise; a complete waste of energy.

Have you ever fallen into the trap of endless consumption?

Too many courses? books? social media? Netflix? gaming?

I’ve been guilty.

All of the above.

I use to listen to audio books on my runs. I would run through 2-3 books per month during some of my peak training. The problem was, I wasn’t retaining the knowledge; I wasn’t applying what I learned.

You CAN read (listen to) 30 books per year without RETAINING a single thing.

You’re stuck in consumption mode.

I was stuck in consumption mode.

Next thing you know, you’re consuming everything. The dopamine sensors are triggered and all they want is more, more, more.

More Linkedin, more YouTube, more Netflix, more reading, more Twitter.

Part of Adapting Faster requires us to recognize and release true things.

I recognize I was stuck in consumption mode.

I release my past behavior and improve forward.

Instead of trying to read 30 books in 12 months, try reading one book 30 times.(the number 30 isn’t important; the suggestion of applying your knowledge is the point)

I started marathon training without headphones - it was hard at first.

Running 26 miles at a time with nothing to stimulate your mind creates space.

Space in your mind gets filled with creative thoughts.

Those thoughts can turn into great ideas.

And those ideas can become part of your strategy and execution.

Here’s some quick tips on how to start:

1. Change Your Environment: Staying in the same environment can reinforce the same patterns of thinking and behaving. Change it up.
2. Dopamine Detox: Turn off the screens. Find time to disconnect from the noise. Go for a quiet run, mediate, or (extreme) spend time in a dark room.
3. Experiment and Try New Things: If you're stuck in a creative rut, it could be because you're doing the same things over and over again. Try something new – take up a hobby, learn a new skill, read a book outside of your usual genre, or travel to a new place. Even small changes can help to stimulate your brain and promote creative thinking.

Hope this helps in your journey, I certainly wouldn’t be writing this to you now if I was still trapped in consumption.

Find time to unplug. Say no to more. And boredom is good for you.

Transform Smarter

DISCLAIMER: I’m a vendor agnostic, humanly biased Cybersecurity Advisor by trade. If you’d like to support me, visit catchadvisors.com and talk to me face-to-face.

This week a small group of clients and I did a demo with Xcitium - an up and coming champion in the XDR space (look out Crowdstrike).

Here are the no fluff takeaways that you won’t get from the marketing department:

Don’t Consider Xcitium

If you’re looking for another pen test, threat assessment, SEIM replacement, or cyber training.

If 6,000 happy customers is too small a number for you

If you live and die by Gartner’s recommendations (how could we live without them?)

Do Consider Xcitium

If any of these things Xcites you (see what I did there ??)

1. Auto-containment - Zero Dwell (truly one of a kind)
2. Unlimited incident response & digital forensics (remotely)
3. $1M warranty for any losses due to a breach
4. A price point that might make you want to breakup with even the best MSSP

??If you’d like to learn more about Xcitium you can always visit them directly ??Otherwise I can introduce you after a brief chat (solution design) -?catchadvisors.com/talkcyber ???

Midjourney art by Scarlett

/imagine chaos static noise futuristic stressful consuming distractions ultra realistic --ar 3:2