Sunday, February 05, 2012

7 Ways Modern Society Is Destroying Your Efficiency & Your Life

modernsociety

Technology is Moving Forward But We're Going Backwards

How's that for a title, huh? Was that dramatic enough to get your attention? If you're still reading this then the title has done it's job, however I still feel the title represents a very real situation in modern society.
As we move with the times there is no doubt that we are becoming more technically sound, advanced and better equipped as a society. Ten years ago the Internet was still in it's infancy, mobile phones were just picking up and I was still listening to music through a Discman (I haven't seen anyone with a Discman in years and when I did I'm sure I pointed and laughed at the poor dude who's obviously stuck back in time).
But despite all the advancement – new gadgets, quick information, TV shows, social networks and online entertainment, it can prove to be detrimental to your life if you do not manage it carefully.
It's important to be aware that even though the opportunities in life are now greater than ever, the opportunity to get caught up in it all and to become distracted and taken away from our true purpose in life is also a very real possibility. If you learn to maintain a balance and to become aware of being sucked into a technological vortex, you can stay on course to your true purpose in life without becoming distracted. With that being said, here are 7 ways that modern society could potentially be detrimental to your life.

1. Too Many Choices

Today the choices are limitless. There are literally thousands of TV channels – movies, sports, dramas, documentary, comedy and not to mention the plethora of new pointless reality TV shows that you could potentially choose from. Not to mention the numerous restaurants, social networks, phone companies, online retailers, video games, dvds the list goes on an on.
Many people make the mistake of assuming that the more choice you have the better. The reality is that having options is good, however, too many options can lead to procrastination, debating and a lot of wasted time contemplating over all these options and which one to choose. For example there are so many brands of PC's each with different specs, screen size, processor speed, memory size, RAM – there are so many varying bits of information that some people can contemplate over a decision of which PC to buy for months. It's nice to have choices but we don't want too many as this is lost time spent over a decision that often proves to make little difference in our lives. I do realize that you don't want to have no options. Having too few choices can lead to feeling trapped, scarce and could lead to low motivation. The key to keeping productive and efficient is to learn to find the right balance. Staying efficient in modern society is all about taking all the options you have and narrowing them down quickly and effectively if you have too many – this saves time and keeps your mind clear.

2. Too Many Distractions

Now I don't want to turn into an old man, but just for a minute I'm going to get into 'Grandpa Mode' and start talking about the old days. When I was a teenager, it's quite easy to see that there were hardly any distractions back then compared to now. We didn't have mobile phones, instant messenger, Facebook, Twitter, E-mail and all that kind of stuff we had pay phones, hand-written mail and uh… that's about it.
As I've noticed more and more, modern society is all about keeping busy and less about focusing on your passions. Instead of spending all your free time on interacting through the mentioned 'distractions' above, allot some time to focus on what you want out of life or to spend it on the more important aspects of your life. Let's just say you don't want to get to the 'end of the road' and realize you wasted life's greatest opportunity because you were too busy on Facebook.

3. Consuming Tiny Chunks

Along the lines of point 1, in which modern society has given us too many choices, we also tend to place our attention into too many things rather than focusing on one thing and getting the full experience from it.
It's more efficient if we focus putting all our strength, skill, talent and time into one thing rather than an array of things and 'snack' with our attention.
We constantly flick through channels, check e-mail, text messages, voice mail, we read small chunks of different webs sites and we also snack on many different junk foods. Rather than consuming small bite size chunks of many things that don't provide value to our lives we should consume whole pieces of the good things that will make a big difference to our lives. So instead of spending one hour, checking e-mails, eating a chocolate bar, instant messaging and online shopping we should spend one hour on our most important activity and consume a large chunk out of it. This could be working on your business, spending quality time with your family or getting into shape. If you focus your attention on one thing, you'll see success come to you quickly.

4. Multi-tasking

In a very similar way to the above point many of us try to spin too many plates and keep them all spinning at the same time. We may have many projects and we try to do them all at the same time and juggle too many balls in the air at one go. Juggling all these balls for too long only gets us tired and leads us to having too much to do, too much to keep track of, too much to think about at night and not enough time to do them all. Focus your attention on one thing rather than many and life will get easier to manage. Learn to say 'no' to opportunities that are of little value to you so that you can focus on one thing. Spreading your attention over many things is certainly an inefficient practice.

5. Seeking Entertainment over Results

It seems that these days life isn't so much about striving towards your dreams and working towards them, but rather it's about being entertained. A greater number of people are concerned with what to watch on TV, hanging out with friends, playing video games, and going out clubbing rather than spending the time to work towards something that would be of great value to them.
Don't get me wrong, it's fine to do all those things and to have fun, but they should be done in moderation. What most people don't realise is that if they balanced their lives between entertainment and working towards their passion, they're happiness in life would be taken to a whole new level that TV, drinking, or hanging out could never provide.

6. The Desire For Instant Gratification

'Speed' is the word that best describes the world we live in and don't we all love it?
I'm not talking about doing drugs, nor about Keanu Reeves saving people in a bus (although I do love that too) but everything today is about how quick we get something. Technology is getting quicker, products are being delivered faster and we are also changing our own attitudes to these new changes. Have you noticed that when you want something you just have to have it now? It's great to have everything come to us quickly but a lot of us literally WANT EVERYTHING to come to us at the speed of light including our dreams and desires for the future. We no longer are prepared to put in the work to become successful, because it takes too long and too much effort to get it, everything is about instant gratification. This is one reason so many play the lottery. Lottery players want instant wealth but they aren't prepared to put their nose to the grindstone and invest in the time to get wealthy the satisfying way. If only they knew that they can turn their 14,000,000 to 1 chance to get wealthy into a 100% shot if they were prepared to persist and put in the hard work, this is one mistake that prevents some people ever becoming rich. Learn that the best things come to those who wait even in these modern times.

7. Short Term Thinking

Successful people always have a mindset of 5-10 years in the future. They know where they want to be 10 years down the line and therefore they know how to make the best decisions to bring that desire into reality. Most people these days think only in the short-term, and its not surprising that short term thinkers are far worse off than long-term thinkers. And this goes for all areas of life. The short-term thinkers consume junk food because they want the satisfaction now rather than later. What then happens is they are worse off in the future. They put on weight, feel tired and bloated, whereas someone who thinks about their long-term future will be consuming healthy foods now because they know that holding off the instant gratification will yield even greater satisfaction down the line. So put aside all the technological distractions to one side and think long-term. Where do you want to go? Who do you want to become?

Modern Society is Full or Opportunity

Modern society is great. I know that it sounds weird for me to say that after bashing it for the past 1000 words, but we are so much more wealthy than ever and we don't even notice it. To have the ability to shop online, to chat to people across the world, to take courses and to start your own business without having to leave the house is a remarkable achievement. It is with this in mind that I believe that success is easier to reach than ever before – but you need to keep focused and not get too caught up in the gifts it provides for us. If you can maintain a balance then modern society can play a massive role in setting you up for life.

5 comments:

  1. this is very true i get so tied up with everything sometimes and its complicated. a very complicated time we live in indeed

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  2. Interesting post!

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  3. I can relate to this post. I am always wondering how I can effectively work online and have fun at the same time. Good article!

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  4. p.s. i tagged you in my latest post :)

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  5. Anonymous9:56 PM

    8. Too many people.

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