Creation vs Consumption

Greetings Folks!  It’s been awhile, but don’t worry things are still going swimmingly over here.

Something that’s been on my mind a lot lately is how I’m choosing to spend my time during this period of my life.  Coming to Korea has distanced me far enough from most of my daily concerns back in the States.  It has also given me plenty of solitude to reflect on my life and the direction I want it to go in, something I am quite grateful for.

Specifically, I’ve realized just how lucky I am right now in terms of my obligations.  Apart from showing up to work and doing my job for 8 hours each day, I have no obligations.  No kids, no homework, no nothing!  This obviously isn’t necessary unique to English teachers in Korea, although being here seems to make me notice it more.  Nonetheless, I think it’s important to realize how much time each of us has to ourselves to truly do what we want to do.

And If step one is realizing how much free time we have in our lives right now, step two is utilizing that time.

I always try to be conscious of how much time I spend each day simply consuming things other people have created vs creating/learning things.  Mindless consumption of things certainly brings an immediate sense of enjoyment, but nothing more after that.  In contrast, I’ve found that spending my free time reading or studying Korean generally isn’t that enjoyable in the moment, but it does bring a much deeper sense of fulfillment in my life.

I often wonder what it would look like if I represented a typical day of mine with a pie chart.  How much of that pie would be consumption vs creation?  I always hope I create more than I consume, but I’m not sure how often that’s the case.