Life, they say, is pretty meaningless. There is no grand purpose. Each of us defines our own purpose. Some would say that Life’s purpose is to discover new things in our world and the universe.
I agree wholeheartedly with this suggestion. There is nothing more exciting than finding out how something works for the first time. This comprehension gives a huge chemical boost to the brain and creates new neural pathways, thereby firmly cementing this knowledge for future use. Imagine how you felt when you first understood the reason behind the sky being blue or something which was similarly illuminating! It is a heady feeling and at the risk of sounding a little crass I would say that it is exactly like a drug! The only difference being that an overdose of knowledge will not really kill you. It will however make you a little weird in the company of people who are not prone to such epiphanies. But I would like to question whether if this is all that there is to it? This unending thirst for knowledge can very well go on but how does it really contribute towards leading a more fulfilled life. I define knowledge here as something that you want to reach out for and understand. It could be anything from self-improvement, movie gossip, politics, science, technology etc. What good is it to be updated endlessly on the happenings of people and institutions around you? Do you devote your life solely towards this exploration of interesting topics? Or is there more to it?
I want to break this down now into two fundamental behaviors when it comes to knowledge — Consumption and Creation.
Consumption:
When the first printed document rolled out from Gutenberg’s machine, it put us onto a transformative course of intellectual evolution. Books could now be read and ideas could be absorbed from miles and continents away. Science became formidable and the art could now be appreciated and enjoyed by all. We started consuming content! It has brought the world together. The engine that began this quest has now transformed into a digital juggernaut which has taken over our lives (I don’t really mean that in a bad way.. but then again I am not so sure!). We read more than ever these days. We read books, news websites, blog posts, Facebook posts, tweets, chats and everything else there is. We were aided in this consumption first by our computers but now all we need is the smartphone. With the smartphone, everything has begun to come together in our own hands. While this may definitely be amazing, I am beginning to wonder about just how much time we spend on these devices. Gauging from my own behaviour and those of my close ones over the last few years, I believe that this is a serious thing. Not to mention the hundreds of blog posts that surface every other day which tackle the tough and decidedly modern struggles of achieving focus, doing things ‘mindfully’, and meditating. Our consumption habits have reached a point where giving obvious advice has become a viable business model. We consume the endless fire-hose of content coming from a fountain that never stops. We tend to overdo it so much, that we don’t even focus very well on our jobs and responsibilities. Weirdly, this is becoming acceptable because everyone seems to be in the same boat, pedaling towards their own private ‘filter bubble’ islands.
Creation:
Now that I have talked about our excessive consumption habits, I can finally talk about creation. I define creation here as the process of coming up with original ideas or building upon work done by other people. It is a constructive process which helps us actually explore newer territories when it comes to knowledge. Creation requires you to know fundamental aspects of a particular topic and then try to build on top of that so you can reach further in your understanding of said topic. There are challenges along the way, such as lack of motivation, difficulty of the topic that you pursue, lack of support, lack of incentive and so many other things. It is incredibly difficult to start out and create new stuff because it doesn’t give you instant gratification. Consumption on the other hand gives you all the gratification you need. Creation can lead to many frustrated moments but it is these failures or so called blocks which force you to think harder and find creative ways of getting around them. In contrast, consumption can only make you feel like you have accomplished nothing when you read about the people who are changing the world and so many lives, including their own.
I think I have been a little rough on the aspect of consumption because I see many people being skewed towards it instead of balancing their acts between both consumption and creation.
If you are one of those people who have achieved this balance, then good on ya! But I know for a fact that many people (including me!) haven’t got around to doing that yet. Both of these are fundamental ways to build knowledge and you can’t ignore them. However, striking a perfect balance between them requires awareness of your current dilemma. If you are a person who identifies with only consumption and zero creation, then you need to accept this fact. Are you happy with this? If yes, then I wish you many more happy years of staring at your phone. If you are not happy then there are some ways in which you could break out of this pattern.
- Low Information Diet:
Restrict incoming information to the lowest possible quantity. Sit down, analyse how much you consume during the day and figure out objectively what you could absolutely do without. You will be surprised at just how much unimportant information you have been consuming! Once you have done this, define time periods in which you will access the remaining sources of information and stick to this. Block out Facebook, Twitter, News and everything else which you think will disturb your concentration. Make a timetable and stick to it. It will be very difficult because the Internet always wants you to be online no matter what but being online is your choice and you need to understand this. Even if something potentially earth shattering is happening, you can catch up with it during the time you have allotted.
- Meditation and Down Time:
The barrage of information is keeping you excited all the time and your brain cannot process all the information that you put into it. Give it time to do that. Shut down and do nothing for an hour or an entire evening. Meditate, listen to ambient electronica (this works for me!) and relax. Let your mind wander through various roads, hopefully those which are not often taken. Once you are completely refreshed, you can get back to your work or whatever it is you were doing. This down time is sacred and even though it might look like laziness to the outsider, it is a much needed habit we need to cultivate in these days of fast living. By doing this, you will retain more of what you have consumed and thus your time spent on consuming content will actually be worthwhile.
- Create:
Figure out what excites you the most. Devote 1 hour to it everyday. That’s it. Take baby steps and over time, you will have done much more than you could have imagined. I am saying this because I took long jumps and I completely failed with whatever I was doing. I now understand what they mean when they say that ‘Rome wasn’t built in a day’. Yes, what you want will never be built in one day. So stop thinking about gratification. You will need days, months or possibly years to end up creating something significant. But that is not a bad thing! In fact, it builds character and determination and a successful end result will be a high like no other.
The line between consumption and creation is incredibly thin and we humans are doomed to walk this tightrope for the near future. It will not be comfortable and will require you to let go of many things that you thought you wanted, but hopefully you will end up reaching altogether new heights.