#12 — Consumption versus creation

We’re led to believe it is consumption that makes people happy. Often we’re most happy when creating something. Especially creating for others to enjoy, too. Everyone has the desire to be in control of their life. Consumerism plays into this desire. Being able to choose between many options, different products and services feels like the ticket to true freedom.

Consumerism is almost an ideology that encourages buying more and more goods and services. The paradox that’s never talked about is that consuming is the real dead end when it comes to happiness.

Your mind gets caught in a useless cycle where new experiences give you shots of dopamine. The more you consume of it, the more you need to crank up the intensity and quantity of the experience to get the same “high” you used to. And the cycle continues. It is never enough, and you’re always chasing the next thing. But when you create instead of consume, your capacity for pleasure increases, instead of your need for it. Being a creator gives you a far more lasting and satisfying happiness than consuming ever will. There are actual studies that show we actually get more satisfaction from the striving towards a goal then we do from the attaining of it. The problem with consumerism is that it pleases our discomfort with superficial pleasures. A distraction from what that discomfort is trying to tell is. We can try to start to overcome “discomfort” by improving ourselves, our virtues, and our strengths, aiming to become more than we are.

It really means taking an active role in the world instead of a passive one. Making an impact.

Creating your world instead of consuming it.