A year (2021) is finishing and a new page in our lives (2022) is opening!
It is that time of the year to celebrate for goals and progress accomplished. It is a time for recollecting valuable experiences lived and lessons learnt. It is also a time for reflection for what worked, what did not work, unfinished business, and to enter new year with a better you.
The celebration, reflection and planning must not be limited to professional context but more important to do the same on a broader personal context.
While there are quite a few things for me, and I am sure the same is true for each one you, but I wanted to talk about one key principle out of those many in this blog.
In 2022, I want to commit myself ‘to reduce the consumption and increase the creation in 2022!’
Let me elaborate.
I believe time is one of the most valuable resource we all have. And we all have the same time, 24 hours a day. It might sound cliché, but it is true that different people get different results from the same time. What differentiates is how we use the time available to us. I believe this is true whether you are a business owner or are in a job or even if you are a student.
While reflecting on goals and the progress I accomplished, I categorized how I used my time in 2021, into two buckets. One, being the time spent in ‘consuming’ and other one being ‘creating’.
Following are some activities in each of those buckets
| Activities in CONSUMPTION bucket | Activities in CREATION bucket |
| Reading books | Writing books |
| Reading blogs | Writing blogs |
| Attending training webinars | Creating emotional connect with people in life |
| Watching educational videos | Creating educational videos |
| Watching entertainment videos | Creating/updating new products, services |
| Browsing net | Creating positive experiences for yourself and others |
| Netflix | Adding new customers |
| Listening to Music | Building new productive habits |
| Earning certificates | Launching website |
| Building social presence and identity | |
| Creating wealth |
Five important distinctions that I noted is
- Tasks in creation bucket are definite whereas those in consumption bucket are never ending.
- There are two types of activities in the consumption bucket. One is where time is invested (with returns expected later) and the other where time is spent.
- Most consumption activities are input-oriented whereas those in creation bucket are output-oriented.
- Consumption is easy & comfortable, creation is uncomfortable.
- While some consumption tasks build competence and knowledge which in turn build confidence, but activities in creation bucket are confidence-multiplier.
Though everything that I labelled as ‘consumption’ made me learn, know more, understand more but it did not translate into possible business growth, expansion of brand footprints, expansion of customer base etc.
So, I decided that I would reduce, not eliminate, activities in consumption. First place I would start cutting down that is with activities which are categorized as ‘spend’. There are other thoughts which are part of plan but I wanted to keep the focus of this blog on key principle.
My intention to share is because I assume that above share might be useful to you.
While ideas and knowledge in the head is good but translating them into output that is useful to the world is far greater a cause.
Thus, the year 2022, I am committing to be more output and giving-oriented rather than input or receiving-oriented!
