The basic idea of this post has been floating around my head for well over a year, so it was fun to finally get it out!

Truly hope you enjoy today’s Habit Example :)

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But it’s 2024.

People don’t spend time with people.

They spend time following people.

On Instagram. TikTok. Youtube. Twitter. You know the drill.

So I’ll take the liberty of updating Jim’s wise words to the age of the internet:

“You are the average of the five influencers you spend the most time watching.”

Look, I don’t make the rules. I’d love to step into the parallel universe where I live out my days at a remote lake house without a blip of cell service or wifi.

If that’s your universe, or you simply spend exactly zero seconds of your life on social media ever, I applaud you!

If you’re like everyone else who inevitably ends up on the infinite scroll sooner or later, whether it’s whipping out our phones while standing in line or sitting on the toilet, or anything else in between, you’re not alone.

But also, you’re not safe from Jim Rohn.

If he were your life coach, he’d be asking things like:

1. How do feel after spending 30 mins watching the 5 people you follow most?

2. Do they bring you closer to the kind of person you want to be?

3. Would you be thrilled if your children grew up to be like them?

A couple years ago I deleted Instagram from my phone, and about when I started this newsletter I created a Twitter account.

Starting fresh, I only followed people I who inspired who educated me on running a successful email newsletter, because that’s the goal I was solely focused on at the time.

It didn’t take long to realize the stark difference between how sad Instagram had been making me feel versus how energized I felt after 15 mins on Twitter.

The funny thing is, it had much less to do with the platform than it did the people I chose to follow.

Brook Raybould, a mom to 4 boys, recently proved you could make this switch without ditching the platform you like.

She realized she was following a lot of “cynical, relatable moms” on Instagram.

They made her feel validated in her daily struggles… but wasn’t becoming better for it.

She says it hit her one day that, “It’s not cute to complain about the same thing 97 times in a row without doing anything about it”.

She’d even noticed herself actually becoming a worse mom and even resenting her kids.

After unfollowing the negative moms and proactively following uplifting “high-performers”, her life “completely changed”.

She started:

• Waking up early

• Exercising daily

• “Doing the mundane in a remarkable way”

Obviously this isn’t just a mom thing! And obviously a legitimate option to digital detox and personal improvement is certainly to spend less time on social media. I do highly recommend that!

But again, more than likely you and I will still end up on social media sooner or later, and when we do, why not stumble upon things that make us better rather than worse?

Because no matter who you are now, or what kind of person you want to be, you’ll eventually end up becoming the people you choose to be influenced by. (whether digitally or IRL)

And since we’re in the spirit of editing famous quotes, I’ll close with my version of James Clear’s most famous one:

What ideas popped in your head while reading? Hit reply and let me know!

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- Kody

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P.S. These take 5 hours to research, write, and design. It only takes you 5 seconds to share.