The 9-Month Long "Social Media" Detox Starts #TODAY

Just yesterday, I decided to go on a 9-month long hiatus from my public Instagram and Facebook page. I found I was wasting a lot of time, transfixed, on listless scrolling and swiping, absorbing everything of little substance into my grey matter. What a waste of my time and brain cells but here I am on my website blogging. Now, "blogging" is an entirely different "social media" game and I will not put it in the same realm or category, as Instagram or Facebook. Writing blog entries is pretty much journalling through reflective thinking, in which, brings me heightened awareness regarding what I am doing in the 9-months to come. I welcome this. It's carthartic and meaningful to me, to say the least.

So the point of going on this hiatus was to really to go on a digital detox vacation for the sake of my mental health, for one. For two, I wanted to spend my time more wisely and really dedicate it on doing things that would truly "enrich" me. At this point in my life, I'm big on working on myself, because I've already attained most things that I needed to do in my twenties and thirties. I have competed in singing contests, completed my higher education, ran a somewhat momentous community-based project that involved more than a hundreds of Hong Kong people from all ways of life, and ultimately, published a related book that has landed on the bookshelves of Ivy League universities in America.

I've done most of what I set my heart out to do in my earlier years and I guess it's already "enough". The only thing I really needed to work on was finally, myself. That is the sole reason why I want to spend 9 months doing things that are going to help me evolve in greater depths: socially, physically and mentally, as well as, financially.

On the start of Day #ONE of my social media detox, I went back to my "Living Your Best Year" Planner, created by Darren Hardy of "The Compound Effect" fame, and decided that I really needed to follow through with his strategies for success: PLAN, DO, REVIEW, AND IMPROVE. But with consistency. Each week, I would have to track everything I do in accordance with the criteria. My plan, really, as said, was to work on my social skills, improve my health, and become financially independent, and I had to track what I was doing, day-by-day, to determine whether I was meeting my goals. Everything is planned in detail because it is with every detail, compounded over time, that reaps the biggest rewards at the end of the day. Yes, I DO need to work on every little thing I do each and every day, if I want to succeed. That's why Hardy encourages setting goals, no matter how minutiae, and really taking ACTION to achieve them. Don't just dream about them because you can become "delusional".

Living Your Best Year Ever Planner. Created by Darren Hardy of "The Compound Effect"

With the micro-management of my life in effect, I decided I wanted to do some reading too, to work on myself as a person, and I decided to revisit "The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People." What I learnt in the first unit was that to reach your fullest potential, you should just let people be. Don't compare them to others, and just enjoy them as they are, using "value-based" motives.

The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People

Over the past few months, I have come across people whom I found were actually very much of the "alpha-elitist" variety and I felt pressured, like I was suffocating, whenever they tried to toss out a word salad "galore" of everything that was happening at work, as engineers, maybe. I found that insensitive, pompous to some degree to say the least, to be sharing things that are completely irrelavent to the person on the other end. I can also whip up a storm of what I've been doing or what I've learnt from watching my local Hong Kong politics channels, since some folks enjoy good ole American politics so much. I just don't, because it's not called for. I'm just so glad that I've distanced myself from this genre of individuals, who are still trying to thrive in the world and climb up the corporate ladder. Still trying to be "showy" like a showman. Alas, oh yes, there are a lot of people who are doing that, i know, but I'm glad I'm not playing that game.

What I learnt today was: we should keep track of what we do, be mindful, so to speak, of what we do every single day, in order to achieve success in the areas we want. On the other hand, as a human being, we should also be kind towards others and enjoy letting people's personality emerge, as is. Blooming will happen, if we don't try to manipulate people and fit them into a "social mold".

#TheCompoundEffect #The7HabitsOfHighlyEffectivePeople #hkblogger #socialmediadetox