Do the same, get the same

Anytime I take time off, I’ll invariably spend at least one of my days off getting lost in sea of social media. 

Towards the end of such a day, after unwittingly flipping through an immense amount of clips and articles and feeling thoroughly unfulfilled, I’ll wonder to myself: “where did the time go?”

In moments like these you realize that many of the technologies we’re surrounded by are engineered to maintain our attention, not necessarily our sense of fulfillment or happiness. And in the case of social media, the two often don’t go hand-in-hand. 

The next day before jumping to YouTube in my browser or opening a social media app on my phone, I’ll remind myself of a simple mantra: 

Do the same, get the same. 

Do different, get different. 

If there was any hope for the day ahead of me to feel incrementally more fulfilling, it was going to start with me making different choices about how I spend my energy. 

You can apply this to any timescale and virtually any context — whether it be related to work or our personal lives. 

If you don’t like the results of last month, ask yourself what you can do differently this month. 

If you don’t like the results of last year, ask yourself what you can do differently in the next year. 

Recognizing the need to do something different is half the work. 

The other half that we need to hold ourselves to, which is particularly challenging when it involves butting heads with existing habits, is figuring out how to get ourselves to actually do it. 

The Daily Spark exists for two reasons:

1. To document one idea every day that I've found helpful in my life.
2. To inspire you to discover what matters most and to take action towards it

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About me:

I'm a second-generation Taiwanese American trying to find life’s greatest sources of meaning and make the most out of it