Are You A Self-Help Content Zombie?
Birth of Clarity #21
Welcome to the Birth of Clarity newsletter.
Are you stuck in a constant cycle of self-help content consumption without action?
This was a question I never knew I needed to be asking myself until I listened to an old episode of The Dad Edge podcast. Host Larry Hagner raised the question; are you a content zombie? and it immediately got me thinking.
What is a content zombie? This is what the podcast description said:
“Those of us who binge on podcasts, listen to tons of audiobooks, download all the free guides, read all the articles, and watch all the videos on how to improve our lives, but never put the information we learn into practice.
“Instead of choosing one idea and sticking with it, we just keep sucking up more content. No matter how good it is, it’s useless to us because we are not implementing it.”
Do you have a constant thirst for self-improvement content? Are you driven by a desire to acquire more information to help improve your life?
Did you know that this behaviour can become counterproductive when it prevents you from taking action on the knowledge you acquire? Well, it can.
In fact, it can often lead to information overload and leave you feeling overwhelmed. It can make you feel a sense of unfulfillment when you fail to implement the valuable insights and advice you come across - which I’ll touch on later.
Overwhelming
You might be a massive fan of podcasts and the information you get from them. You might feel the same about Twitter/X and the connections you've made with inspirational, knowledgeable people.
The problem is that if you read and listen to all this wonderful self-development information - without putting it into practice - you can end up overwhelmed by all the thoughts and ideas flying around your head, and then everything you’ve consumed becomes useless.
Overconsumption creates clutter and chaos in your mind and distracts you from what’s important in life.
Have you become a content junkie without the thrill of putting into action the things you’ve learned? Are you a zombie feasting on content - without a plan of how you can use what you’ve consumed - until you’ve eaten too much?
There is so much self-improvement content to consume. It’s overwhelming. But it’s the inaction of using what you’ve learned that can create the most problems.
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Negative talk
After consuming all this content and finding that you’ve not implemented it, before long you might begin talking negatively about yourself:
“I'm such an idiot for not starting that new business like the podcast told me to.”
“What a loser I am for not implementing that new morning regime the Twitter guru told me about.”
“I can't believe I've failed again at not sticking to that diet my favourite blog talks about.”
This is where the trouble starts. When you turn on yourself like this you need to reevaluate the amount of content you are consuming and/or come up with a positive plan to put the things you‘re learning into practice.
Otherwise, you’re creating a self-sabotaging loop and setting yourself up for failure.
Please check out the AFF Newsletter here where I write raw and honest articles aimed at helping dads overcome alcohol addiction (& much more):
Break free
To avoid becoming a content zombie, it's essential to strike a balance between content consumption and taking meaningful action. Prioritise quality over quantity, set clear goals, and create an implementation plan for the knowledge gained.
Here is a brief outline of essential steps to help you break free from the cycle of self-help content consumption without action:
Reflect on your content consumption habits and ask yourself what you hope to achieve through self-improvement content. Also, ask yourself why you're not implementing what you learn.
Design some intentional and actionable self-improvement goals and set yourself clear objectives for the content you consume. Make your consent consumption purposeful.
Limit the amount of self-help content you look at. Avoid mindless browsing or excessive information intake.
Make a commitment to yourself to apply the insights and knowledge you gain from the content you consume. You can always start by selecting a few key takeaways from each piece of content and putting them into practice.
Start small and keep building. Regularly assess your progress and adjust your plan as needed.
Discipline is key to avoiding the content zombie trap. By setting clear goals, limiting your content intake and actively implementing the knowledge you acquire, you can transform your self-improvement journey into a more meaningful and productive endeavour - instead of mindlessly consuming!
You can do this.
Thanks for reading. If anything in this article resonated with you and you’d like to ask a question or comment, please get in touch.
Roscoe | Birth of Clarity
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One thing I learnt from reading all sorts of blogs, posts, notes, and books of this genre is it really gets down to ironically “just doing it”.
And people know that. - they desire inspiration or a more dignified purpose to start, but once it starts running, progress fuels itself. You need to know when to stop looking for that inspiration, because nothing substitutes for action.
Personally I like to employ a combination of the **Hemingway Hack** + Self-Awareness — when I **start** to feel the ignition, I immediately promise myself to just 10 minutes of work. Sometimes you need to put a ceiling on that time so you don’t wait for something forever before starting though.
Once I do start, the 10 minutes, more often than not become 30 minutes, an hour, or more.
This is great advice on how to address the current environment! I've been taking many of these steps in my daily life and it has been a huge improvement. I've set daily time limits on social media apps and it has significantly reduced my time wasted on scrolling, just to waste time. I've been reading more books and focusing on my health and time with family, and I am much happier for it.