Should this be written on my heart?
Information overload, the cost of giving up your phone, and how to internalize the most important information...
How much money would I need to offer you to never use your phone again?
Ever.
Dr. Marian Tupy does this exercise with hundreds of people and the lowest number he’s ever heard is $5 million.
What number did you say?
I bet the number was more than the price of the phone. A lot more.
You hold in your pocket a life changing tool.
GPS.
Camera.
Video camera.
Phone.
Messenger.
Internet.
And. So. Much. More.
This information comes as no surprise to you right now. In fact, you’re probably skipping ahead because you want to get to the piece of information you haven’t seen yet or the thing you don’t “already know.”
And this is the problem with things we think we know.
Because we already know it, we nod our heads and move on. We want new information, we want a new tactic—we think the new information will be more valuable than the old information.
You know your phone is a life changing device.
You know it is exponentially more valuable than its cost.
This may be old information to you.
But what are you doing with that information? Do you know it in the “nod your head and agree” type of way, or in the “I live my life differently because of this knowledge” type of way?
I heard this question from Dr. Tupy on a podcast episode this week where he and his co-author Gale Pooley talked with Jordan Peterson about their new book called, Superabundance: The Story of Population Growth, Innovation, and Human Flourishing on an Infinitely Bountiful Planet.
Their book highlights the fact that we live in the most abundant time in the history of the world.
Technology.
Medicine.
Availability of commodities like sugar, flour, meat.
Education.
Economic prosperity.
More people than ever have access to these things. This doesn’t make the world perfect, but it also changes the narrative that is sometimes put forward about humanity being in a state of decline.
What is the difference between believing this is true and internalizing this?
All week long I’ve been thinking about how there are many things I’ll never know, there are many things I know at a surface level, and there are a handful of things that are internalized so deeply, they influence the way I live my life.
I struggled with how to word the question this week. I couldn’t decide if I was talking about internalizing, deeply understanding, or some type of more intrinsic type of knowledge. So I ultimately went with this: “is this written on my heart?” This phrase is biblical and seems to be the closest I can find to capturing the idea of knowing something so deeply that it becomes part of you and as a result guides the way you live your life.
“Should this be written on my heart?”
Why ask this question?
You can’t internalize everything so deeply that it impacts the way you live your life. If this is true, then this might be one of the most important questions you can ask. This question forces you to consider what you have already internalized and if there is something better out there for you to understand at the deepest level possible.
Not all information is created equally
In 2009, researchers at the University of California San Diego released a study where they determined the average American consumed roughly 100,000 words a day of content—basically a King James version of the Bible each week.
That’s a lot of content.
That’s an old study. By now, the content we’re bombarded with each day has likely increased.
But is the ad for the new Mercedes as valuable as the book you’re reading about power? Maybe. Or what about the tweet from the latest influencer you’re following?
If it’s not all equally valuable, then it means you and I have to be more thoughtful about what sticks.
There’s a few ways we can do this.
First, improve the quality of the overall content pool being consumed. If the majority of the content being consumed is higher quality and intentionally selected, then you have better odds that what sticks will be something worth keeping around.
Second, when you come across a particularly meaningful piece of content that has life-enhancing capabilities, treat it differently. That looks different for different people. Maybe it means you write it on a card, save it as your screensaver, tape it to your mirror, or think about it as you fall asleep. It’s less about the tactic and more about the intention at this point. You have shown yourself that this piece of information is different, that it deserves to be given more attention.
What’s written on your heart? How do you decide what to internalize and what to let go? Let me know what you think! Drop me an email (kkaldous@gmail.com) or leave a comment. And if you have a better question for this week’s concept, let me know!
Check out a few of my other questions below:
