You Are What You Eat

You’ve heard this before. It was likely in elementary school when you heard another kid say, “You are what you eat.” You rolled your eyes, walked away and wondered, what does that even mean? As an adult I know, if I eat certain foods, I feel heavy, even sluggish. I enjoy the flavor of it going down but once it’s down, I don’t enjoy the resulting feeling nearly as much. If I eat simple, whole, less processed foods, I feel better. If what I eat has been processed or altered, my body feels altered and not quite right.

There is another saying that “you’ll become the average of the 5 people you surround yourself with”. Maybe it’s 5 or possibly 10, but rather than get caught in the specifics, let’s look at the intent. If we surround ourselves with people of character who are looking to improve, we’ll be pulled into betterment. However, if we surround ourselves with people prone to negativity or questionable integrity, we will likely become negative and settle on something short of the target. If they complain, we think complaining is the norm. However, if those close friends are focused on disrupting the status quo through acceleration, we know where we are headed. In other words, it is difficult to be anything other than a product of your environment, therefore, we must make a concerted effort to intentionally choose our environment.

During my career, I’ve been blessed to work with several good managers, but one truly stands above the rest as a great leader. He spoke truth, faced difficult situations head on, stayed focused during distractions and developed our team to do more than we thought we were capable of. We had strategic goals as a team, but inevitably, daily distractions attempted to veer us off course. They were short-term temptations that could be counterproductive to our strategy if we let them become our new aim.

Our work environment was challenging by business standards. We were facing inflation pressures, new or rising tariffs, an influx of competition and company in-fighting with sales teams competing for corporate resources. I could get emotionally caught up in the possibilities, whereas this leader would stay aligned on the facts. I knew he could get passionate about a situation, but facts, and his vision, guided our steps. He led with a calming presence. He would ask questions like, “How does this help?” or “Do you KNOW that to be true OR, do you THINK that is true?” These were intentional questions for me to consume and it would quickly work to eliminate or lessen the anxiety in most situations.

It’s amazing how I felt about work when I was consuming what he was providing. He was the most challenging manager I’ve worked under, yet I appreciated him and learned more in that environment than any other. He provided clarity and fact-based decisions. He kept me out of the anxiety-based emotions that could lead to believing the worst-case scenario would become reality. When working under his leadership, my mind was clearer, not clouded by fear. My eyes were focused ahead, not looking over my shoulder. He kept us focused on the goals. He chose not to get caught in rumors or negativity; he was intentional on what he chose to consume.

These lessons have been important for me over the past few years as the level of fear that is being dished out through news outlets, social media, and other avenues has exceeded what we thought imaginable. The more dramatic a story, the more it invokes our fear response, and the more eyes it attracts. We call this click bait. Pull up the news and read the headlines which are written with words tied more to emotion than information. Words like attack, mockery, argue, inflamed, hell, messy, crippling. The goal is for us, the consumer, to be shocked by the headline and get sucked into following additional links to drive clicks, dependence, then revenue. This language is not an accident, nor is it innocent. It is designed to make us think we can’t live without consuming more of it. It’s an addiction we’ve trained our minds to not live without. And it works.

What do you think happens to your mind after consuming this fear-inducing content? I know that my mind often becomes angry, sad, annoyed, unforgiving, and sometimes entitled. I feel justified at my emotional peak, like having taken a hit of pure sugar. But just like sugar, these emotional swings often lead to a crash. So, why do we continue to consume such toxic information? Because these news agencies, no, these agencies of opinioned journalism, are experts at getting us addicted to their content. The only chance we have for change is when we, who arguably know better, decide to rise above the noise and change what we consume.

In the past, my consumption habits had me convinced my opinion was always right. If you and I didn’t agree on what I saw as the truth, I became fixated on trying to convince you that I was right. Reading that, I’m embarrassed by my past ways. How could I, flawed as I am, ever have believed that I was the source of truth? That honor goes to Jesus, and Jesus alone. He says I am to be patient, kind, forgiving, loving and strong. I cannot be those things if I am consuming what much of today’s world is offering. I cannot exhibit those traits if I am surrounding myself with emotionally driven people who deal in anger, anxiety and fear. I will not live the life I need to live if I allow anxiety-based fear to roar louder than truth-based love.

I’ve realized that when anxiety gets a foothold in my mind it can lead to sustained fear, and I can spiral.  Consuming content from sources that are motivated by getting me to buy their narratives rather than building up a foundation for good, makes me nothing more than their puppet. So, I’m done. I’ve drawn a line in the sand. I can no longer be the consumer of opinion-based negativity. While truth isn’t always rosy, it’s based on facts, not opinions. It’s time we critically ingest the information around us rather than be baited into swallowing lies.

So, what are you consuming? Are you falling for the short-term emotional hit of fear? Or, are you cutting through the fog to recognize truth? Does what you consume have such a grip on your mind that it’s become your everyday reality? Is it the emotional version of the addictive sugar? How is that helping you become a better version of yourself? Are you the angry, judgmental, sarcastic, short-fused, impatient, mascot of a man that is way too prevalent in 2021? If you are ready to put an end to the nonsense, join me. Be a man that speaks truth in love. Be the man that is grounded in truth with convictions based on morals. Be strong. Make the hard decisions to change what you consume.