Staying Mentally Strong and Resilient

Managing the Negatives of Technology and Social Media

The world has seen many extraordinary technological leaps, in the past century in particular, which have dramatically improved human existence. For many of us, we don’t have to look much beyond our immediate environments to appreciate all the benefits and comforts of modern day living.

There have been numerous impressive changes in society as a result of these innovations. Medical advances have eradicated diseases and lengthened lifespans, computers can now perform billions of processes per second, transportation advances mean we can circumnavigate the world in hours, and we can instantly see someone equally distant—thanks to exponential improvements in current communication technologies. The list goes on.

The benefits of these, and the ease of life today compared to our ancestors are undeniable. But there have also been many creations we enjoy immensely that have come with unintended consequences that can negatively impact our strength of mind, emotional resilience, and our ability to work productively toward improving and enjoying our lives.

Inventions like AI, the Internet, and GPS are remarkable. They bring nearly the sum of human knowledge to our fingertips, providing nearly any answer at the touch of a button and they can make us more efficient and do our work for us. But they also reduce our capacity to figure things out for ourselves, our ability to remember details, and atrophy our independent, creative, and critical thinking skills over time.

As fun and entertaining as social media can be, it’s no secret that it also robs us of our free time because it’s so compelling to our brains and has been shown to lower self-esteem and create unrealistic perceptions of other people’s success and happiness.

Having recently become more active on social media again—in an effort to promote my recently released book and share my ideas after a lengthy, self-imposed exile—I have come to appreciate, once again, how distracting our devices can be.

Checking in on our social media accounts is truly a big interrupter of focus, concentration, and productivity. It's a challenge that many of us face no doubt, and something that can have a subtle yet deeply troubling impact on our psyches.

While there’s no stopping the speed of technological innovation and the corresponding challenges for a meaningful existence that society will undoubtedly face, there are things that we can do on an individual level to ensure that our minds remain strong, creative, and capable. A slightly modified approach to the things we’re doing can also help us to maintain our resilience and emotional balance, and ensure that we have the resolve and fortitude to strive toward and achieve our goals so we can create happy and fulfilling lives.

 While my book, A High-Performing Mind is designed specifically to address these challenges by providing mental tools, approaches, and insights to keep our minds strong and our emotions balanced so we can achieve our goals and live capable, meaningful and enjoyable lives, what’s something we can do right away?

Here’s a little Counter-Challenge for anyone interested in quickly making a simple yet helpful improvement to their mental strength, happiness, and productivity. At the same time, if you’re successful at doing this, you will improve your self-discipline and enhance your ability to exercise self-restraint, both of which are critical ingredients for success. We can achieve all this by simply taking a realistic and balanced approach to our devices and social media by managing the time we indulge as a starting point.

Social Media Counter-Challenge

Step 1- Can you go an hour without checking your social accounts? If this is easy, then make it two or three hours straight. Try and "fast" periodically from social media (and your device if you can) throughout the day in whatever timeframes you think challenge your normal habits.

AND/OR

Step 2- Alternatively, can you schedule specific times throughout the day for checking in on your social accounts and stick to that instead of what you currently do? Maybe it's three-hour intervals or after you complete specific tasks? For fun, try setting a timer and see if you can wait and stick to it.

In any case, I haven't needed the timer yet, but before work, at noon, and after work is my current “diet,” I'll see how that goes for now.

Need some motivation to get started? I want to be an able minded 75-year-old one day, how about you?

I cover topics like these and more on how we can improve our capabilities, resilience, overcome fear and achieve our best so that we can achieve our goals and live our optimal lives in A High-Performing Mind.