News You Can Use and the Low Information Diet

I studied International Relations in College. And became a news junkie. When CNN was born, (did I just date myself or what?) I was thrilled! I could get all the bad news any time I wanted it. Drama on Demand.

Then some stuff happened.

9/11
The war in Iraq
And the Drama on Demand features of the Internet

And I had enough.

If you follow business blogs and newsletters, you often read articles about going on a low-information diet. The guru’s advise you to only read the stuff you really need (which of course includes the blog giving you this advice). Beware information overload!

But what about the bad news in the world? I think the same advice should apply. There are those who will say - well you can’t bury your head in the sand and you need to know what’s going on around you.

But do you?

Do you really?

I buried my head in the sand after the first few months of the Iraq war. I chose to give up watching the news, reading the newspaper and I even turn off my car radio when they get to the news.

Something really interesting happened. I found that I hear what I need to hear about. And I still hear about some stuff I don’t.

I knew Michael Jackson had died the day after it happened. Did it matter that I didn’t hear it in the first 30 minutes? No. If there is an emergency close to home, I have reverse 911 so I’ll be notified. And of course, I hear the scuttlebutt from friends. I try really hard not to participate in the negative conversations. Instead, I focus on my little corner of the world - where I am now. I focus on the positive and eliminate as much negative as possible. Maybe the positive energy I create will make the world a little happier. But that’s not up to me.

Something else interesting happened - I ignored the “bad economy” news and now my VA Business is “bad economy”-proof. I kept going and it did too. A lot of Virtual Assistants have been moaning and groaning about how bad the economy is. The result is that their marketing has an atmosphere of, “I know the economy is bad so you won’t want my services.” It’s not so much what they say as it is their attitude. My attitude has been the same as ever - “you can’t afford not to hire me.” And the opportunities have been rolling in.

Yep, I guess I do live in a bubble. But I’m much happier. After all, my bubble is pretty big. Global, in fact. It’s just very selective.

Popularity: 5% [?]

If you have any questions or suggestions, just click on Contact Me above and send me a message. I'd love to hear from you. Thanks for visiting!