Quit watching the news. Cut it out of your life and stop paying attention.

About three or four years ago, a lot was happening in the news. The more I watched, the more negative emotions I felt. I let the media consume my mind. It made me frustrated, less productive, and it made me think about things that don’t help me, my life, or my business. 

 

I remember reading or listening to The Four Hour Workweek by Tim Ferriss, and he suggested the idea of not watching the news. At the time, I thought, “that seems kind of irresponsible of me as a citizen.” But the way that he explained it just made sense.  I’m sure he also has a lot of stuff written on this over on his blog, and if you go to tim.blog, you can probably look it up.

Your input always becomes your output. If you’re putting negative things into your mind, they will eventually come out of your mouth. They will affect your actions toward others. 

The majority of headlines that come out are written with a negative spin. That’s what sells. They’re not thinking about how to deliver the truth to you most effectively. They are there to put money into the pockets of those who invested in them. Now that we have social media, we follow these news outlets on Facebook, Instagram, and other platforms. When the algorithms catch us spending a certain amount of time viewing something, they begin sending you similar types of stories.

You’re living in this virtual world that you have literally created for yourself. It’s telling you that the world is going to hell in a handbasket or that everything’s about to crumble, the apocalypse is happening – and all of these things are filling your mind.

But statistically, if you look at our country or culture, almost everything has progressed by leaps and bounds the past few decades. People are more open than ever. 

When I discovered I had built myself into a negative echo chamber, I made the difficult decision to mute news outlets from my feed. I made a point to follow anybody that I found positive and inspirational. People like Gary Vaynerchuk, Patrick Bet-David, Grant Cardone, and others that had positive, uplifting messages. 

My feed started to become nothing but positivity. When I spend a reasonable amount of time on social media, some negative stuff still gets in. Yet, for the most part, I’m primarily consuming positivity. 

I am thankful to have cultivated a feed that energizes me rather than drains me. Here are a few steps you can take to feel the same way.

Audit Your Media Consumption 

Look at the things that you’re putting into your mind daily. Get around good people and consume beneficial content, whatever that might be. 

I purposefully have removed things that cause negative emotions – dramas, horror films, and that sort of thing. I’m still a sucker for a good superhero or action movie. Still, the majority of my content now is comedic, or it’s personal development throughout the day. 

Look at what you’re consuming daily. Ask yourself, “Am I consuming all of this negativity for a reason?”

Try moving away from those things. Try avoiding all news channels for thirty days and see what kind of effect it has in your life. 

If thirty seems too difficult, start with seven days. It’s going to make a much more significant difference than you think that it will. 

Replace All The Negativity with Positivity.

Find your favorite influencers. Go to their profile and turn on notifications or select “see first.” Go on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter –all the platforms that you’re on – and make sure that they know that the type of content you want to see. Content that is uplifting, motivational, or inspirational. 

Remember You Aren’t Missing Out

Halting your consumption of news doesn’t mean that you’re going to be in the dark on huge things that are happening. 

It just means the small things that are intentionally crafted to rile up the masses aren’t going to affect you. The big ideas that you need to know about are still gonna make their way around to you. 

---

Okay, I’ve made my case. Are you ready to take this crazy leap with me?
Let’s make it simple. For seven days – no news media at all. No negativity, only positivity.

Watch how it changes your mindset.