Back in August, I decided I would take some time off from social media.
Since I don’t use social for personal use anymore, it was mainly just taking some time off the AR X/Twitter account to take a breather.
Even though I built the AR account up to nearly 20K followers and helped to drive many new newsletter subscribers to this blog, it was starting to consume too much of my mental power and frankly becoming a bit of a bad habit!
X was the first thing I checked every morning and the last thing I checked at night.
That’s not healthy!
On one hand, I love the rush of posting something on X and seeing how it resonates.
But on the other hand, it becomes yet another dopamine hit that you end up chasing.
I already experimented with this a bit a few years ago, when I locked my phone in the safe for 24 hours.
That was a really good learning experience and something everyone should do every once in awhile!
From that experience, I assumed that taking a break from X might also end up lowering the amount of time spent on my phone…
Well, that assumption turned out to be completely WRONG!
In fact, not only did I NOT spend less time on my phone, I ended up spending MORE time on my phone!
I swapped X out for fantasy football, reading news articles, or tinkering with a few of my side hustles.
So after 2.5 months, it is pretty clear that while X was perhaps a bit of a bad habit for me, it was completely replaceable!
Removing X from my phone didn’t end up saving any time at all.
But it did reduce some stress!
All that aside, the main learning from the entire last few months is that I don’t MISS it.
While I love connecting and responding with all of you on X, after nearly 4 years of it, it had started to feel like a chore.
I didn’t retire early to start a new job hanging out on X full-time!
I started on X in 2021 to network and promote my blog. And frankly, for that, it has worked like gangbusters.
Except that X does take a mental toll.
So while I still greatly enjoy writing and building an audience of like-minded individuals, it simply may no longer be on X.
I want to continue to connect with those who don’t want to get sucked into the rat race forever.
That is the true goal of this site.
I want to connect with other people who have also retired early.
I want to HELP those who want more from this life to go out there and find it.
I want to show what is possible with a good decade of hard work and a small bit of fiscal responsibility.
So while I still need a bit more of a vacation from X, I don’t plan on taking a vacation from writing anytime soon!