Stop over socialising. Seriously.
Every coffee meetup, networking event, and “quick catch up” is stealing time from your actual work.
We get deluded into thinking that we’re building relationships. Although what we’re doing is just masturbating our social anxiety while our creative projects die of neglect.
Most socialising is just procrastination. You tell yourself you’re “putting yourself out there” when you’re really avoiding the hard, lonely work of creating something that matters.
Your best ideas don’t come from brainstorming sessions with acquaintances over overpriced lattes.
They come from solitude. From boredom. From having enough quiet space in your head for genuine thoughts to emerge instead of just recycling whatever bullshit you heard at last week’s mixer.
Hemingway wrote alone. Virginia Woolf wrote alone. Every great creative work was born in isolation, not in some co-working space surrounded by people pretending to hustle.
Say no to most social invitations. Guard your alone time like it’s your most valuable asset.
And no. I’m not advocating becoming a complete shut out to the world.
Just saying no to 99% of everything will put you ahead.
Social media platforms and the influencer/gurus are all liars. They promote this picture perfect set up online but behind closed doors they’re truly dying to switch off.
So start doing it before it’s too late.
Stephen Walker.