Life is - in its simplest form - a succession of choices and actions.
We constantly experience signals and either react by default or decide consciously what to do.
The actions we take then either make our future easier or more difficult.
We buy something we don't need on a whim, failing to save money. We hurt our spouse by answering impulsively, slowly damaging our relationship. We disrespect our body by indulging in junk food, ultimately paying the price with our health. Each of these choices contributes to complicating our future.
Conversely, we go to the gym to feel better physically and mentally. We reward telling the truth - even when it's not pretty - so our child continues to open up to us. We keep the promises we make to ourselves, building confidence to become who we want to be. These actions make our future easier.
I have been toying for a while with a way to look at my daily actions and I wanted to share it with you today.
It is a framework I found you can use to look at anything in your life. It asks you to categorize your actions into three different types:
Maintain
Consume
Create
You can use it as a gauge to measure whether you're going up (i.e. making your future easier) or down (making your future harder).
Needless to say, down is a lot easier than up.
Maintain
"Maintain" actions are easily identifiable. These are the actions you need to do regularly or punctually to keep a sense of order in your life and resist entropy, which inevitably affects everything - abstract and concrete, inert or alive.
Think brushing your teeth, paying your bills, fixing your car, doing the dishes, vacuuming the house.
Stop doing any of these and your situation inevitably gets worse. Some people might love going to the dentist or living in a pig's den, but for most of us, Maintain actions are non-negotiable.
They are a useful metric we will come back to later.
Consume
Let's define consuming first.
In the modern capitalist world, consuming is understood as trading a resource - most often money - for value from something someone else created. It is often a passive activity aimed at pleasure, a pursuit advertised to us everywhere, 24/7.
Moreover, with recent progress in technology and its flood of free content and information, pleasure can now be obtained infinitely without any effort, an activity we all practice mindlessly to varying degrees.
This has fostered the subconscious expectation that pleasure and rewards require no effort and should come at no cost.
You probably expect the "Consume" actions list to look something like this:
Eat out or indulge in junk food
Scroll on social media
Watch YouTube and Netflix
Play video games
Shop for clothes
Etc.
But this is just the tip of the iceberg.
Armed with our previous definition, I want you to think about "consuming" as a mentality in a much broader sense.
Let's bring back an example from our introduction.
When the harsh words you don't even mean come out of your mouth in the heat of an argument with your spouse, you are being a consumer. Your default choice is to put no effort into the relationship. Like fire consumes what it burns, you are consuming the love that you have been given, permanently damaging it.
When you expect other people to provide all the answers without looking for them, to give assistance with all your problems, when you show up late to each of your meetings, you are consuming their time.
When you undermine your friend or gossip in their back, you are consuming their trust.
When you hand an iPad over to your kids to get them to stay quiet, when you tell them that you don't have time or that they’re “dumb”, when your impatience stops them in their track from trying to do things, you are consuming their self-esteem and true potential.
When you complain all the time about things you can't control and lack the courage to change what you can, you are consuming your life mindlessly and position yourself as a victim.
Create
"Create" actions are now easy to define: they are the Consumer Mindset flipped on its head. They involve committing to create value through as many things as we can.
When you make the effort to listen to your spouse instead of lashing out, you create the space necessary for mutual understanding. When you compliment them or express gratitude for the little things, you create the love and attention that keep relationships growing.
By cooking healthy meals and involving the whole family in the process, you create deep bonds, lasting health and a climate of joy.
By being there for your kids when they need you the most, by teaching them how to do things instead of doing them yourself, you create trust in themselves and their own potential.
By learning new skills and crafts, you create the chance to be useful to your household and to others. You can offer your help, you can give your time, you create a chance for the universe to give back and say thanks.
When you choose to read mindfully instead of scrolling on your phone, when you favor learning to expand your horizon, you create a deeper understanding of the world you live in and cultivate humility in how you approach it.
When you have a vision and organize yourself to apply your efforts toward self-assigned goals, you are creating the life the future you demands.
Hanging in the balance
Each choice we make - big or small - either makes our future easier or more complicated.
In the midst of the chaos of our existence, we are quick to mistake the instant benefits we get from the Consumer Mindset for real value added to our lives, as it improves our present moment by bringing us pleasure or alleviating pain.
But as discussed in previous articles, real meaningful achievements require effort and dedication. Only by sacrificing pleasure now for value later can we create a fulfilling and meaningful life.
This is the way of the Creator Mindset: to lean toward creating and away from consuming.
The current state of our Maintain actions is the perfect indicator of how we're tipping this balance.
Consumers let them pile up, allowing chaos to accumulate, and view themselves as victims of their circumstances.
Creators see Maintain actions for what they are: in some cases, the foundation of progress, and in others, things we simply cannot control and must accept without complaint.