Hi dreamer, Emily here.

I thought I might share some of the things this dreamer is struggling with lately.

1. My involvement with social media.

Yes, that is a list of one.

Oh, don't get me wrong—there are loads of other things I struggle with.

But as I listed some of the other ones out, they were very much correlated with social media usage.

Here are the sub-things I'm struggling with:

1. Falling back into old content habits.

I've found myself spending time in my old mental/energy space of feeling like I need to be a digital content creator for online platforms versus a thoughtful writer.

As you know, the goal for this year is very much to pursue BEING A WRITER.

This means finishing the draft of Book #2 in the next month. Yikes.

It also means getting serious about SEO for my website, writing and sharing more worthwhile content more frequently, and definitely not creating content for platforms.

2. Self-doubt fueled by comparison.

As a new business friend put it yesterday, "you don't have 'small ball' plans." She's right.

I have a really audacious vision of helping thousands of people to start taking way better care of their time, money, and dreams.

So they can be less reliant on corporate income, less reactive, less overwhelmed, less stuck.

And be more content, fulfilled, creative, adventurous, willing to take risks like moving or leaving the soul-stifling job.

Spending time on social media platforms surrounded by hundreds of influencers and celebrities can sneakily but surely leave me thinking "who I am I to do this bold thing?" Or, "If I haven't made it big yet, I never will."

3. Wasting time, for me and you.

No dancing around this one. Even it's just 90 seconds here, and 5 minutes there, those frequent check-ins really add up. The average amount of time spent on social media is nearly ​2.5 hours per dang day​ 🤯

And this might be why I've fallen behind on my book goals.

And maybe why you're not making the headway on your life or feel even a vague dissatisfaction with life or constantly feel overwhelmed.

You know that I feel strongly about being intentional, right? For me and you. I don't love contributing content to platforms that are designed to keep you there, scrolling for yet another hit of dopamine.  

Social media isn't bad! But...

I actually super enjoy a lot of it.  Seeing what other people share, insightful comments, sharing positive and hilarious stuff with friends...there's a lot to like.

But that's the problem!

We're meant to like it, because when we do we'll spend more of our precious time there and big tech companies get more ownership of our attention.

Which certainly affects our motivation and individuality and how we spend our time and money.

And impacts our time available to do things like draw birds or read or be outside or building the business of our dreams. Or napping.

What I'm doing about it:

I've signed off social for 10 days—Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, and YouTube.

As in, not posting a thing. Not checking it, ever. The apps are deleted from my phone, and blocked in my browser.

I'm excited to see what I want to do with it at the end of 10 days, and how/if I want to re-engage.

One thing I'm thinking about is sending shorter but more frequent tips and inspiration via email—would you like this? Please let me know!

The wonderful and huge difference about email is that there is no algorithm, no feed.

You get to choose when to interact with it and can curate what makes it to your inbox.

Wanna join me?

No, I'm not suggesting you do exactly what I'm doing.

But I'm strongly suggest you at least look at your media usage, and ask these questions:

1. Do I like how I'm spending my time on social media?
2. It is really making my life better? Or is it numbing me?
3. In what ways is it making my life worse?
4. What would I like to have more time to do?

That's it for now! Stay wonderfully you, and keep dreaming and doing.