Why Proximity is Power (& How to Enable It)

I’d like to begin this week by saying that if you’re here and reading this below the age of 28, you’re in luck.

This notion will give you an impeccable edge against those who still need to evaluate these truths for themselves, let alone take the countless decades to learn these notions in everyday life.

You’ll learn these at such a young age that, if you implement them correctly, it’d be unreasonable for your mind to naturally seek truths for the rest of your life, and for you to project this ineffably gracious quality of curiosity to your children and grandchildren.

Firstly, any social media, if not used for serious personal growth or accountability is futile. It is a waste of time and I’ll explain why:

Fundamentally, you are the average of your five closest friends.

If your goal is to create deep relationships with people that have better hopes for you than you do for yourself (which should be the goal), you’d have a circle.

This means cutting the friends who do not actively vet people on growth like you do.

The ones that do not instill growth habits.

The ones that are always complaining.

The ones that are envious.

The ones without empathy.

If you don’t, you won’t have a circle—

you’ll have a cage.

If your goal is to deepen your relationships, then social media isn’t the tool. Social media, i.e. Facebook, Instagram, and Snapchat, create nothing but weak ties & are fueled by nothing but reciprocity.

You like others’ posts and they like yours in return. You don’t like others’ posts, thereby they don’t like yours.

Deepening relationships stems from hanging out with others—it stems from 4 things:

1) intensity,

2) duration,

3) the frequency of physical interactions, as well as

4) the proximity of you two.

This is called the friendship formula.

Does social media hit check any of these boxes?

No.

If your goal is a personal brand, I’d heavily consider deleting everything but Twitter and LinkedIn. With time, you’ll come to the realization this is best.

Social media apps are competing for your undivided attention.

This is what constitutes our current attention economy.

Turn on the TV and see that on every single channel you scroll on, someone is either advertising or trying to sell you something. It’s now 75% commercials and 25% real content.

In this war, TikTok is winning, but not if it’s not on your phone. If you don’t have it, you’re already ahead of the rest.

When you eat, you probably scroll TikTok. You most likely also do it whenever you have 3-5 minutes to spare.

This is a mistake.

Don’t have mistakes waiting to happen readily accessible.

Do this instead:

• Delete attention-draining apps

  • Create pains for going on them

  • Create rewards for not going on them

• Vet your circle & create a mote around your dignity

As Tony Robbins says, proximity is power.

Use this information wisely—

Internalize it if you have to.

Implement this notion this week, as see just how far you thrive.

See ya next week!

P.S., the only way this grows is through word-of-mouth,

So if you know of 1 or 2 people who need to hear this,

Send it their way.

Never know, it might just change their life like it will yours.