There have never been more options for entertainment and education.
You can bring up Facebook on your phone and see a feed filled with content.
You can do the same on Twitter, Instagram and other social channels. And you can also subscribe to channels on YouTube, the Podcast app and much more.
You can also subscribe to all the various streaming services on your tv. You can also read, listen and watch traditional media.
In many senses it’s a great thing. We have more options than ever before. That means that we can gather content from all sources. Different points of view. Different biases. Different ways of doing things. That part is certainly wonderful.
But there is a case to be made for the value in limiting your sources.
Finishing Long-Term Efforts
One of the things I’ve struggled with when it comes to educational content is the ability to stick with one source and finish something.
For me, it’s been especially tricky when it comes to golf. Something I love. Something that ebbs and flows when it comes to performance. And something that seems to require some consistency in the source of information when it comes to improvement.
These days, it’s very easy to watch all kinds of golf video tips on YouTube. You can try something new with your swing everyday of the year. But if you do that you’re not really following a plan from the same teacher or source of information.
For me, that has led to not much improvement. But in the last year, I stopped looking for new sources of golf information and have followed just one teacher that seemed to be getting really good results. As a result, my game has improved more than ever.
Continuous Testing
With that said, it’s important to continue to look for new information for your education and entertainment. I still like to look for new sources. I might watch one video from a new source or read one article from a new blog. Just to see what else is out there.
But I’m more protective of what I let into my life. If I add a new podcast I will make myself really think about what current podcast I need to eliminate. This keeps my bucket at about the half-full mark. If we keep adding sources of content we really lose the depth we can take with each of the sources. It spreads things out and we get surface content and never really get the full value from it.
Final Thought
And that’s he big takeaway. We have all this great content available. It’s great for discovering new things. But the only way that you’ll truly go deep on something is if you limit your sources. Don’t become distracted by the shiny new thing. Take the time to dive deeper. It’s an opportunity that’s available, but not easy for everyone to realize.