To become the person you want to be, consume the right information.

For example, you want to become a jazz musician. By all means, study everything about jazz music — songwriting, theory, techniques, melodies, jazz music icons, and so on.

Or if you want to be an actor, study everything about acting — the fundamentals of acting, the actors you admire, do’s and don’ts, and so on.

Same goes for different professions such as sales, writing, engineering, gardening, and programming.

Yes, it’s common sense. But in reality, only a few people practice it.

Most of us consume the wrong stuff or things that aren’t beneficial.

We watch the news every day. We watch shallow variety TV shows every day. We scroll our Facebook news feed every hour. We surround ourselves with negative people who complain and talk shit all the time.

This is quite alarming. Everything we place into our minds has an effect on it — and it could be positive or negative.

What we consume can influence the way we lead our lives.

Watch the news every day and you’ll notice yourself becoming anxious and negative. Because most news are negative and they make you worried.

Watch shallow variety TV shows every day and you’ll notice yourself becoming shallow, too. Because most of these shows are nonsense and don’t add value to your life.

Scroll Facebook news feed every day and you’ll notice yourself becoming envious and unhappy. Because you try to keep up with your Facebook friends who project that they have perfect lives (and they’re not even your true friends).

You may not notice it, but these things affect you.

The opposite is to drop all of them, and instead, read books or listen to podcasts primarily about that one thing you really want.

This way, your mind is going to sharpen its focus on whatever you want to become.

You will learn the things you need to learn, and you’ll learn to act accordingly.

This may sound countercultural, but it’s undeniably effective. If we don’t get serious at managing the things we consume on a daily basis, how can we expect to become the person we wanted to be?

PS: Nothing’s wrong with watching the news, TV shows, or scrolling on Facebook news feed. Depending on what you’re trying to accomplish — and I don’t want to judge your preferences — nothing’s wrong with it as long as you’re consuming them minimally and intentionally.

Also, nothing’s wrong if we consume information outside our field and use that information to make something unique (I love the idea of combining). But there should always be a boundary. This ensures that we’re not being dissuaded.

If this intrigues you, here’s a related topic: “Consuming Mainstream Media Makes Me Feel Like Shit”

As always, let me know what you think.