This morning I almost commented on a YouTube video to say something rather critical. I stopped myself, twice, before I closed that tab altogether and made myself walk away.
First, I'll share the backstory. Then I'll share what I realised remembered. Finally, I'll end with how this insight can help you. Are you ready? Let's do it!
I consume a lot of educational material. I'm forever learning about topics that interest me. I look for information from genuine experts on everything from psychology to neurobiology, spirituality to relationship building, communication to education, emotional awareness and regulation to authentic ways of building businesses, including marketing and sales.
Over the years I've had exposure to a huge range of awesome teachers who have impacted my life greatly and I often find new teachers through YouTube channels or podcasts where expert guests are interviewed. How much I respect a host of such a channel or podcast depends very much on the calibre and the credibility of the guests they bring on.
Are they just trying to fill a spot with anyone half decent or anyone who can speak to a certain topic their audience wants to discuss, or are they handpicking every guest because they are genuinely, truly amazing at what they do, what they know and who they're being?
This morning I got a bit of a shock. A host whose show I watch regularly on YouTube, who has a massive following, had interviewed someone who I think is not only speaking rubbish (thus a waste of everyone's time), the stuff he's teaching is actually dangerous. For the sake of this post, I'm not going to mention the channel nor their guest, because that would be a distraction from the point I'm trying to make here.
But just imagine that there's someone I respect, whose show genuinely helps people through the guests they get on. Then imagine how I might feel when I discover the "doctor" they have interviewed is teaching outside his area of expertise, misrepresenting the research studies he quotes and endlessly plugging his book (that is full of more of the crap that he, apparently, talked about in this interview. I say apparently because there was no way I was going to watch even one minute of him speaking; the comments said it all).
You might have guessed, I was angry!
I care about quality information. I care about correct information. And I think all people, especially licensed health care professionals, have a duty of care to anyone they "educate" that the information they share is accurate.
Correct information is liberating (even if it's uncomfortable to hear). Incorrect information is, at best, distracting and at worst, dangerous.
So, now you've got the backstory, you know why I might have been tempted (as I was) to take that anger and tell the host of this show--who I had so much respect for only moments earlier--just disappointed I was. Because, they too, have a responsibility to help get correct information into the world since, literally, millions of people follow their show.
I spent a good five minutes reading through the comments. I upvoted the comments I agreed with (where other people were saying similar things to what I wanted to say). And I almost, twice wrote a version of my own anger, dismay, disappointment.
And then I realised remembered this is not how I want to spend my time.
So I closed the tab and walked away, pondering this very point:
If I'm hanging out in the YouTube comments, I'm not spending that time learning from someone else awesome. I'm also not on my own channel teaching something new and helpful. I'm also not here on Hive teaching something new or consuming some other helpful, awesome post by one of my fellow, forward-thinking Hiveans.
In short, I'm wasting my precious time fighting a battle that has nothing to do with me.
The comments section of any social media channel is not where I want to spend time. Sure, I'll thank people if they've created awesome content (and I do regularly). I'll engage and support people on my own channels and accounts around the place (and I do regularly). But having an argument in the comments section of someone else's channel where it's extremely unlikely that my comment will make a difference (other than to get that emotional energy off my chest) is not how I want to spend my time.
“How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives."
How this insight can help you:
The above quote is as true for you as it is for me. And so I ask you, where are you putting your focus? Or asked another way, what are you giving your attention to? And is it in the "right" place?
It's in the "right" place if it's leading you towards the results and the kind of life you want.
No one can tell you what's right for you, only you know that. And sure, you're allowed to be angry or disappointed or upset by things you see online (or anywhere else) as I was this morning but the question is:
Are you going to let that emotion take over and drive your actions?
Or are you going to feel the emotion, allow it be there and then let it go so you can come back to spending your precious time, attention and energy focused on something that will genuinely help you (and hopefully others)?
I'm committed to not getting pulled into arguments in the comments section of social media spaces. I'm committed to staying in my lane and staying focused on what's truly important to me. I'm committed to being mindful of my focus and where I'm placing it.
Because after all, how I spend my time, is how I spend my life. Are you with me?