The 1 Change That Will Transform Your Life Forever

Here’s the problem.

While consuming something feels great, it’s not ultimately going to add much value to your life unless you use what you’ve consumed purposefully.

Susie Moore says it best in her book on side-hustling “What If It DOES Work Out?”:

“Consuming relevant materials matters too, of course, but it alone won’t result in anything apart from your increasing knowledge. And the purpose of knowledge is to be used. To inspire. To lead you to create.”

To further compound the problem and as Abhishek Anand notes, the biggest problem facing us right now is an abundance of knowledge. Too much information instead of too little.

To put things into perspective, as a species we are now collectively producing 4.6 billion pieces of content daily. We are all swimming in ‘must read book lists’, ‘how to lists’, listicles this and that, bookmarked blogs or articles that we remind ourselves we have to get down to reading someday, and then never do.

I’m no exception. I love to consume all forms of media that promise to bestow greater knowledge upon me— books, articles, podcasts and videos.

Just prior to starting on this piece, I spent close to an hour reading a bunch of articles on Medium (now a daily staple), Facebook, LinkedIn and a couple of independent blogs.

To make myself feel better, let’s just say I was doing research for a future article.

Some days, I spend more time reading than I do anything else. And nothing hurts productivity more than….well, anything other than actually producing something.

What are you doing with all that knowledge?

Knowledge is good. Knowledge is powerful. But knowledge without application produces little value to the holder of that knowledge and to the world at large.

So what if you have read 500 books and listened to 1000 podcasts in the past month? Impressive as that is, it won’t amount to anything more than a personal achievement and bragging rights if nothing comes out of the event.

Are you synthesizing whatever you’re reading, watching or listening to and turning it into a piece of content that will present the knowledge you’ve gained in a manner that your audience finds valuable, perhaps even groundbreaking?

Are you advising or coaching others with new insights that you’ve developed as a result of all that media consumption?

Well, what does this have anything to do with transforming my life you ask.

How much you create or consume determines how wealthy or broke you will become

It’s quick math really (insert Big Shaq reference here).

The Consumption-Creation Equations in the above image are — at the risk of oversimplifying what’s at stake, what it all comes down to, a game of money inflows and outflows.

Without trying to sound like ‘Rich Dad, Poor Dad’, think of creation and consumption more in terms of assets and liabilities leading to income or expense respectively.

I’ll just use Medium as a simple example since you’re already here. If you write a piece and publish it through the Medium Partner Program, it becomes an intellectual property asset (let’s not go into the semantics) that has the potential to generate a recurring income as long as the piece is alive and well-received.

On the flip-side, if you are one of the many $5 a month subscribers that are only here to read, that’s $5 a month and $60 a year in liabilities and out of pocket expenses.

Such an amount might be chump change to many people, but all too often we fail to realize that a series of small payments can quickly escalate into a huge monthly or yearly outlay.

You’ve got utility bills, tel-co payments, gym memberships, cleaning fees and various other monthly subscriptions the likes of Netflix which you’ve committed to both online and off.

It just isn’t a fair fight

The value that creation brings to both the individual and society wins hands down, every time.

The upside to creation is HUGE, limitless even.

The Cut That Made Sara Blakely A Billionaire

My favorite story here is the creation of Spanx, a brand of footless pantyhose founded by Sara Blakely. As the story goes, Sara Blakely simply wanted to create a piece of undergarment that she would feel comfortable wearing and that would make her look nice and shapely. Existing undergarments were either thick, left marks or showed visible lines.

One fateful day, she decided to take her pantyhose by the horns. She snipped off its feet, wore it under her white pants and went out to party. The rest is history.

As the legend now goes, Sara Blakely’s creation has since yielded her a cool billion dollars, all stemming from one simple act of creation.

Of course, this is not to say that Sara Blakely had a smooth road to success. She met with rejection upon rejection leading up to the launch of her product. I’m not taking that away from her. All I’m saying is, the resilience to see your creation(s) all the way through is also key.

Conceptually speaking, Spanx is not even an invention that will turn heads at science fairs at the grade school level. But the point here is not how inventive or groundbreaking Sara’s design was, but rather how her product simply met womens’ hitherto unsatisfied needs.

Remember when I said the upside to creation is huge?

Sara Blakely’s story shows how entrepreneurs stand to make a lot of money if whatever they create brings value to a huge audience with an unmet need.

Footless pantyhose = Satisfying image conscious women everywhere = A Billion Bucks

I know I’m oversimplifying and overselling entrepreneurship with the above example, so let’s cut forward to something that is more relevant to this audience.

Good things happen to those that ‘DO’

I’ve already mentioned the potential for your articles to earn a recurring income through Medium’s Partner Program.

What if an editor from Inc, Forbes or the New York Times picks up on your piece, likes what you’re about and asks for you to be a contributing writer? If that gig goes well, you may even be offered six figures by a major publisher to write a book. Your book goes on to become a bestseller and you’re suddenly being asked to speak at events worldwide, earning decent money along the way.

All because you took that first step to create instead of endlessly consuming.

Consumption ends up consuming you

In contrast, there is little upside to consumption.

Sure, you may feel better momentarily from the dopamine high created when you shop for, eat, watch or read something you enjoy, and while it may leave you richer in experience, it makes you poorer in every other aspect.

The joy and ease of consuming robs you of your motivation. It makes one lazy and entitled. It mobilizes your thoughts and actions into keeping up with the Joneses (whoever they are), making yourself miserable in the chase.

In the end, consumption makes you mediocre and ultimately leaves you feeling empty and unsatisfied.

Creation on the other hand gives you purpose and meaning, in the process allowing you to live out your full potential on this earth.

So how should one transition from consuming to creating?

The 80% Creation / 20% Consumption Rule

First off, let me just acknowledge that it is foolish to expect any of us to give up consuming altogether.

We all need various creature comforts and a little couple of extras to make us feel like humans living in the modern era, and for good reason. We don’t make all that money just so we can hide it under our pillows.

This isn’t so much of an argument against consumption as it is the benefits of creation.

Look, the point here is that all of us need to skew our equations in favor of creation.

So instead of consuming 80% of the time, cut that down to 60%, then 40% and hopefully eventually, 20%. Eventually, spend 80% of your free time creating something, anything.

Begin by taking small baby steps in your journey to becoming ‘pro-creation’.

Read one less article a day, eat one less bag of Lay’s, watch one less episode of Game of Thrones each week and buy one less article of clothing each month. Whittle that down further eventually.

At the same time, start writing if you haven’t. Start exercising to create muscles if you’ve been a couch potato. Knit something for your kids. Pick up that brush you’ve neglected and paint something.

Just ‘Do’.

Some last words on creation

Who knows where your simple act(s) of creation may lead? We may not end up the Sara Blakelys of the world, but we will surely find our place in it, a little cosy corner in the world filled with our creations and a tribe that enjoy them.

Also, don’t just create simpliciter. If you are a creator online, create engaging and thoughtful content that gets you the most valuable currency of our day — attention, and make your audience declare ‘I want in on your tribe’.