I'm giving up Self-Improvement in 2017 (& 2 other things)

2017 is mere days away. Time to create lofty goals of all we will accomplish or discuss all the reasons we don’t believe in New Year’s Resolutions. This year as I reflected on my recent past I came up with a few resolutions of my own. Here are three things I'm giving up that have nothing to do with chocolate cake.

Flash Sale Sites

Who doesn’t love a deal? The internet knows this and serves them up to us regularly at Gilt.com and the other sale sites. Online shopping is a great convenience and one I’m not giving up any time soon. But I want to be a better shopper. For me that means buying less, buying better and buying ethically. This is a huge shift from where I was a few years ago, but after seeing the documentary The True Cost I can’t go back to ignorance. I know that how/where I spend my money is a small but powerful way that I can help invoke change. And I want to buy less not more: for me flash sale sites are a Pandora’s box filled with things I never knew I needed until I saw them on sale. The best way to resist? Simply choose not to go on the sites and unsubscribe from the emails. Bye-bye flash sale sites.

Googling Everything

Are you crazy? I hear you asking. What’s better than knowledge at your fingertips? And it is a great thing …except when you google something like “how to get rid of your cold” and 30 minutes later find yourself comparing which antibacterial wipes would be the best to order on your Amazon Prime account when a 30 minute nap would have been a better idea. And for me, at least this sort of “research and exploration” is entirely too common.

So the next time a question comes to mind (who’s the actress who played the friend of the best friend in that one movie?) I’m going to ask myself if it is really so important to interrupt whatever I was doing to find it out right that second?  Instead, I’m going to take a page from longstanding advice to dieters and ask myself “What would happen if I waited 10 minutes? Or didn’t Google it at all?”

 How much more focus could we have if we learn to ignore the self-created distractions like we ignore the calls from unknown numbers?

Your brain suddenly deciding it wants to know how many Corgis the Queen has and all their names? Consider this sort of request like it’s a tele-marketer and hang up on them.

Self-Improvement/Inspirational Books, Sites, Podcasts, Ted Talks

Our appetite to self-improve is endless and there are legions of people on the internet ready to help with any perceived problems. I am a huge fan of self-improvement and have read/listened to everyone from Tim Ferris to Brene Brown to Tony Robbins to James Altucher. And it’s all GREAT. And can make you feel inspired or excited or ready to start Building Your Empire.

But before you build that empire you decide you better Google that (of course) and find yourself reading an article “10 Great Tips to Build Your Empire.” This is followed up with with “10 Mistakes to Avoid When Building Your Empire.” You can always follow these up with articles like “3 personality traits needed for empire building” and “5 super easy lifehacks for empire builders.”

And you spend the entire afternoon/week/month/lifetime  preparing to build your empire without ever actually doing it. (substitute building your empire with your own goals)

This is procrastination at its finest and definitely one of my favorite fall back positions if I am trying something new and feeling a little fearful. So this year when I am working on a project and am tempted to look for help or inspiration I’m going to limit it to looking one place: not in a podcast or a ted talk or a book but in myself. And I’ll take inspiration through action, and if I find myself getting stuck? I’ll reach out to people In REAL life for help and guidance. In 2017 I’ll use the internet for what it was meant for: marathoning Netflix series (after my day of successfully Building my Empire).