#129 - What Are You Feeding Yourself?

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"Input equals output."
Canibus, Interviewed by Hip Hop Connection circa '94

I vividly remember the buzz around Can-i-bus when he burst onto the rap scene back in the mid-nineties. In this particular magazine interview he was explaining that the reason his lyrical content was so different was because "I'm interested in science, technology, history...ultimately input equals output..."

It was such a simple statement. So obvious. But it was one of those lines I have never forgotten and my understanding of it has grown as I have grown.

There are a lot of different inputs in life, off the top of my head I'd say:

-family
-friends
-acquaintances
-co-workers
-television
-Internet
-radio
-music
-books
-self-talk
-conversations
-food
-drink

What other inputs can you think of?

And what do YOUR inputs look like today?

I think of our inputs as food. Unfortunately there is an awful lot of junk food around, so if our days look like this:

-wake up
-coffee
-negative self-talk
-watch the news
-read more bad news en route to unfulfilling work
-tolerating unfulfilling work
-listen to complaining co-workers at work
-moan to co-workers about work/co-workers/management/life
-eat unhealthy lunch
-do more unfulfiling work
-eat unhealthy snack: sugar/crisps/chocolate
-check email/Facebook/phone etc
-dinner
-watch crap on television (4 hours per day is UK average)

...how can our lives expand?

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Yet isn't this the status quo? It's harder to do things that stretch ourselves, harder to seek out something mind-expanding that is worth watching then watch something mediocre on tv, Sky or Netflix, harder to find something healthy to eat or learn about nutrition than eat a ton of meat and carbs. It's harder to exercise rather than fester on the couch or to spend the weekend on a course that challenges us rather than just relaxing and having fun. It's harder to find our purpose and be true it than complain about our lives and take zero action. 

"So what if it's hard? If it's hard, make it ok that it's hard."  
Les Brown

I challenge you to look at your inputs:

Who are you hanging out with?
What are you watching?
Who are you listening to?
What are you reading?
What are you eating?
What environments are you spending most of your time in?

We can all learn and grow - what are you feeding yourself?