Information overload is one of the biggest challenges of the 21st century. Information is growing at an exponential rate. Yet the consumer of that information, our attention, remains fixed. Just as too much food overwhelms our bodies, too much information overwhelms our minds.
The democracy of information leads to the anarchy of the mind. When we have no system of values, we can’t process information. When we can’t process information, we don’t know how to act. We become paralyzed with indecision.
To process the deluge of information, we have to decide what is important to us. The inability to process information implies the absence of knowing what is important. The challenge facing us today is that we no longer know what we want anymore. The old systems of values provided to us by the myths of religion, country, and family have begun to crumble.
We must learn to create our own values. We must learn to live our own lives—not the lives that our groups say we should live. If we do not choose our values, then others will choose them for us. If we do not choose our values, then we are living for other people, not for ourselves.
To choose our own values, we must learn how to believe one thought over another. We don’t need to believe all our thoughts. Each group we belong to will infuse our minds with their thoughts. They compete for our attention. We must choose which thoughts to believe—and those beliefs guide us in writing the story of our lives.
“Your beliefs become your thoughts,
Your thoughts become your words,
Your words become your actions,
Your actions become your habits,
Your habits become your values,
Your values become your destiny.”
— Mahatma Gandhi
