Social media has officially hijacked evolution.
A lot of my work depends on social media. But the line between “tool” and “addiction” is a thin one, and sometimes I get lost in it.
Let me ask you something: have you ever been having a great morning and then, all of the sudden, you see someone on social media talking about something — and you begin to feel… less than?
As if, you felt good about yourself… and then you didn’t?
One of my personal heroes, Theodore Roosevelt, famously attacked “comparison” as the thief of all joy. Roosevelt had no need to feel insecure. He was perhaps the only United States president who became more famous (and more successful) after his presidency.
He was widely curious and constantly on the move. He lived a hard life but he was absolutely prolific. If someone like him struggled with comparison, you and I are most definitely going to feel the effects of it today.
Our definition of success is malleable and highly subjective.
And most ‘trainers’ today are feeding you a pipe dream. You can waste your entire life chasing the wind and not even realize it until you’re on your deathbed.
A thousand years ago we had the same effect but less of it.
You could only compare to what you saw. And you only saw what was right in front of you. Maybe someone in your tribe had a skill that was particularly awesome. Our inputs were limited to an immediate “circle.” Today that circle is the entire world.
Someone on the other side of the world, with different goals and different targets, now gets artificially installed into your ‘tribe’ and you are forced to compete with them.
The only escape, at times, is to get off the social merry-go-round.
What, then, is worth chasing?
There are themes that pop up over and over again for me.
- A good life that I enjoy living
- Strong relationships with my close friends
- Great memories with my family and the people I care about
- Proximity to Jesus and a lifelong pursuit to be like Him
At the end of the day, my #1 duty is not to be at the top of the social media leaderboard (although that can be admired if it is done correctly). It is not to be the richest (although resources can drastically improve the quality of what you are building).
My job, and your job, is much simpler.
It is to live in such a way that my life speaks for itself.
Think about it: that is all that exists. Your life is like a book that is being written daily. When you go to bed at night, you complete a section of a chapter of your life — what did that section say?
Fear, anxiety, worry — these things corrode you. Not all at once, but slowly. Any amount of progress you achieve as a result of fear is not real progress. You will pay back your accolades with an interest payment if they are stolen through stress and striving.
At the end of a particularly challenging season, Roosevelt organized “success” into two categories.
The first, he argued, belonged to the man “who has in him the natural power to do what no one else can do, and what no amount of training, no perseverance or willpower, will enable an ordinary man to do.” He used Abraham Lincoln as an example.
This, in hindsight, is funny; because Lincoln did not fancy himself a genius with any type of natural ability.
The second, Roosevelt said, is not dependent on natural gifts or abilities. This success depends on “mans ability to develop ordinary qualities to an extraordinary degree through ambition and the application of hard, sustained work.”
Unlike genius, this success is democratic, “open to the average man of sound body and fair mind.” He closes his thoughts with this: “it is more useful to study this second type, for with determination anyone can, if he chooses, find out how to win a similar success himself.”
The greatest in history were not born that way.
They developed their mastery through consistently chasing what mattered to them. Over a lifetime of dedication, they became the best in the world.