7 habits to implement in the new digital renaissance era

In the last two decades, we have seen what the world thought was impossible: The internet, social media, phones, self-driving cars, and the list goes on.

We are living in a time of innovation and change.

We are living in a time of opportunity.

We are living in the Digital Renaissance.

…

Although I make this sound attractive, one thing we have to understand is with life-changing innovations, comes a dark side.

The dark side of the Digital Renaissance:

• Burnout
• Laziness
• Lack of focus
• Close-mindedness
• Lack of curiosity
• Low attention spans

We face a choice:

Option 1: We can give into the dark side of the Digital Renaissance and live our lives as backseat drivers with no control over how we spend our time, money, and energy.

Option 2: We can become the Digital Renaissance man/woman and get more control over how our time money and energy are spent so that we can live a happy, peaceful, fulfilling, and balanced life.

I hope you choose wisely.

For the ones who choose option 2, I want to show you 7 habits that will get you started on the right path to becoming a Digital Renaissance man/woman.

Habit 1: Be relentlessly curious

Develop the habit of questioning everything around you.

Learn to question even your deepest beliefs about the world, tear them apart, interrogate them. You must do everything in your power to not blindly follow the social norm or the newest trend. Question why people are blindly following their own or other people’s beliefs.

The ones who are deepest in the dark side are the ones who let their own or others’ beliefs become ideologies without first questioning them.

Habit 2: Productively consume content

Overdoing consumption is one of the easiest ways of falling into the dark side. But if you learn how to use it to your advantage, you then hold all the power.

How do I do this?

You must understand the power of turning excessive consumption into productive consumption.

Excessive consumption is when you endlessly consume on social media platforms with no intention behind doing so.

Productive consumption is simply the opposite: Having an intention for why you are consuming.

Your intention could be to learn how to do something or to gather inspiration for a creative project.

Have a goal in mind when you are consuming content.

Habit 3: Keep a notebook

To have clarity is to understand what you want.

To understand what you want, you must understand and control your thoughts.

And the best way to understand your thoughts?

Keeping a notebook.

Jot down anything that comes to mind. Get your emotions, thoughts, and ideas onto paper, and then analyze them deeply.

Habit 4: Work efficiently

Digital Renaissance men and women usually have many different curiosities, which means you have a lot we want to accomplish.

Don’t let your curiosities be ignored.

To make time for all of your curiosities, yes there must be sacrifices, but you also must understand the fundamentals of time management to make sure you make every last minute count.

When you sit down at your desk to write your book make sure there are no distractions to disrupt you.

When you go to the gym make sure you get there when you said you would.

This is how you get stuff done. By doing the task at hand properly and efficiently.

Habit 5: Take breaks

Before you think I am contradicting myself, let me explain.

Taking breaks in the form of long walks, meditations, reading, and other peaceful activities will allow you to get more work done when it is time.

And when you get the indicator that you need a break, you must listen.

Otherwise, you will burn out and not be at your best.

Habit 6: Focus on progress rather than perfection

It’s the old-school creators that focus on perfecting every last minor detail in their art. And they have all the reasons for doing so.

Before the internet, the creator feedback loop was an insanely long process. You had to create a perfect piece or you could not have another shot.

But today you can get almost instant feedback on your content.

There is no reason for you to hide your project that was supposed to be finished weeks ago when you can publish the project to the world which will instantly give you feedback and help you progress even further.

Habit 7: Don’t study, immerse.

Anyone can read a book on writing, but the thing that separates you from the dark side is you actually write.

When it comes to learning something new there comes a point in your learning curve where studying the craft becomes useless. It’s at this point where you need to start doing and practicing the craft.

If you put the reps in every day you will get stronger and stronger at the craft you are practicing. You just have to show up.

Conclusion

I hope you’ve enjoyed this piece.

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