March Monthly Musing by Anna
OUTPUT over INPUT
I have recently been spending quite a bit of time listening to podcasts during my drives to visit my parents in Hawke's Bay. Interviews by my favourite british journalist Louis Theroux with figures as varied as Bryan Johnson (the tech billionaire who is spending his money to try and live forever) and Tracey Emin (british installation artist) have sparked some interesting reflections on how we approach our daily lives.
One concept that particularly resonated with me from an interview with a famous sculptor is "output over input." While simple, the idea is to prioritise creation and personal expression before allowing our consciousness to be influenced by external ideas. Basically he was saying that we should construct our lives with output as the first action to allow creativity to flow and our consciousness not to be immediately influenced by other ideas. He also linked this to getting into the flow state.
This stands in contrast to the traditional academic approach of research and planning before acting. Instead, it suggests that starting the day with writing, drawing, or scripting helps us tap into a flow state and stay true to our own intuition before the "input" of news, social media, or emails takes over.
I like the idea of allowing the self to come out before others. Well that is one way I see this concept of output over input. I think also these days we are bombarded with so much content on social media feeds and movie options. Both these are activities that do not involve any conscious output, we are just sitting in one place taking in other peoples ideas and concepts. I know one would argue that this is a form of learning but it is not a form of actively learning or requiring one to reply/act. I wonder if people were to ‘clock’ the hours in a week that they spend on social media or other forms of digital content like netflicks etc, they would be surprised at how many hours they spend.
In my own routine, I’ve decided to shift my 6 AM start away from reviewing emails and toward active writing, whether for this blog or business proposals. I believe we often spend too many hours consuming digital content rather than acting on our own ideas. I encounter many people through my business, business investments and coaching who have incredible goals but struggle to take that first step or move in ways that reflect who they are to enable them to get into flow state.
I think related to all this is that AI these days can help with the planning, the analysis and the idea generation but all taken from others. But AI cannot take over our intuition, subconscious or how we truly connect to other humans. New ways of creating outside of algorithms, logic. Outside the mainstream thinking. Output first.
I encourage you to prioritize your own "output" and move outside the mainstream algorithms.
As a thank you for reading my musings, I would like to offer you a 25% discount storewide. Simply use the code MusingMarch at checkout. For our new readers, this is a great opportunity to take action and replace the plastic in your home with sustainable alternatives.
One concept that particularly resonated with me from an interview with a famous sculptor is "output over input." While simple, the idea is to prioritise creation and personal expression before allowing our consciousness to be influenced by external ideas. Basically he was saying that we should construct our lives with output as the first action to allow creativity to flow and our consciousness not to be immediately influenced by other ideas. He also linked this to getting into the flow state.
This stands in contrast to the traditional academic approach of research and planning before acting. Instead, it suggests that starting the day with writing, drawing, or scripting helps us tap into a flow state and stay true to our own intuition before the "input" of news, social media, or emails takes over.
I like the idea of allowing the self to come out before others. Well that is one way I see this concept of output over input. I think also these days we are bombarded with so much content on social media feeds and movie options. Both these are activities that do not involve any conscious output, we are just sitting in one place taking in other peoples ideas and concepts. I know one would argue that this is a form of learning but it is not a form of actively learning or requiring one to reply/act. I wonder if people were to ‘clock’ the hours in a week that they spend on social media or other forms of digital content like netflicks etc, they would be surprised at how many hours they spend.
In my own routine, I’ve decided to shift my 6 AM start away from reviewing emails and toward active writing, whether for this blog or business proposals. I believe we often spend too many hours consuming digital content rather than acting on our own ideas. I encounter many people through my business, business investments and coaching who have incredible goals but struggle to take that first step or move in ways that reflect who they are to enable them to get into flow state.
I think related to all this is that AI these days can help with the planning, the analysis and the idea generation but all taken from others. But AI cannot take over our intuition, subconscious or how we truly connect to other humans. New ways of creating outside of algorithms, logic. Outside the mainstream thinking. Output first.
I encourage you to prioritize your own "output" and move outside the mainstream algorithms.
As a thank you for reading my musings, I would like to offer you a 25% discount storewide. Simply use the code MusingMarch at checkout. For our new readers, this is a great opportunity to take action and replace the plastic in your home with sustainable alternatives.
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