It’s the news’ job to make the world’s problems your problems.
Watch too much news and it’s no wonder you feel crippling fear, uncontrollable anxiety, and hopelessness. You are one person absorbing the problems intermittently faced by 8 billion.
No single person can face a volume of problems the size of the ocean and expect to come out afloat—let alone like they can have any kind of reasonable influence on it all.
The ceaseless influx is soul crushing. The sheer volume is paralyzing. And the overarching theme of it all is terrifying.
Hardwired into our brains is a survival instinct that watches keenly for any signs of danger—so we can safely navigate our environments and not, you know, die.
Well, the news is the channel that satisfies that instinct and gives us the sense that we better know our environment and can more safely navigate it. Only we’re getting WAY TOO MUCH information. A lot of which is exaggerated, exacerbated, irrelevant, and straight up made up so as to generate more attention from viewers.
Here’s where I land in the realm of life’s problems: I can barely stay on top of my own damn chores.
My advice? Turn off the news of 8 billion.
Come up with a solution that’s concise—no more than 5 minutes per day. Unbiased. And get the rest of your news from your immediate environment—friends, family, co-workers, etc.
Make it your job to make your world’s problems your problems.
…And focus most exclusively on doing something good in your own backyard every day.
P.s. My choice for concise, unbiased, 5-minute daily news is 1440.