Under My Influence?

I was wondering....

It is hard to get a picture that represents the true colour of the doors when shooting at night under a horrible light, but I guess it is close enough. Also, it isn't really very representative when laying flat, as colours on the vertical will usually appear darker.

Anyway, while I was painting the second coat of the first side, I was thinking about how often I write about various projects around the home and what I learn from them. Beyond the knowledge and physical techniques, there is always something else that arises, probably because a lot of the tasks are relatively mindless and give a good opportunity to think. I am no Einstein, but having space for thought is vital, and I believe that most of us are filling up that space with irrelevant garbage that not only keeps us from thinking at depth, but degrades our ability to think at depth.

While cutting-in the ugly panels, I was wondering if people are influenced by what I write about, or what work I am currently doing. For instance, I know that @coinjoe has a garage clean-up project ongoing and @seattlea has been out painting his house siding, but this is something that they might have been planning anyway. But, I also believe that we are influenced heavily by the people we spend time with and both of those guys drop by regularly to have a read. While I am not saying I influenced them much, I wonder if there are little nudges along the way that affect their actions.

The idea of "influencers" on social media annoys me, largely because while they might have influence, rarely are they influencing behaviours in a positive way. Even the fitness influencers are largely pushing people into unhealthy behaviours in order to sell more of some product. But, influencers who are leading to increased wellbeing behaviours, they are valuable and I think we should surround ourselves with real-world people who help us improve ourselves, and be better versions of what we would have been otherwise.

While I have never met CoinJoe or SeattleA, I think that through the interactions we have had and the way we talk to each other, it is clear that we are indeed, real-people. Yes, those influencers are often real people also, but they are also mini-corporations with an agenda to push people to follow, click, buy, share, or something other. They are in it solely for themselves and the parts of their "life" they share are so highly curated, manipulated and staged, that it is more of a play than life itself.

I think that if we want to improve in areas of our life, we should surround ourselves with material and people who support that change, not only the information and ideas, but also the influence that makes us act toward our goal - not their goal. For instance, I don't try to get anyone to work on their home, but I do believe it is important to maintain and improve the spaces in which we live, because it has an effect on how we behave. it might not be a full renovation, just a tidy up, but I believe that when we consciously take care of our environment, we feel better for it and, it has a knock-on effect that will lead to more improvements. Similarly, looking after the body with eating healthily and exercise will improve a myriad other factors.

Am I an influencer.

I hope so.

Not because I can monetize on YouTube or Instagram, but so I have a positive effect on people's lives, where in some way, however small, they are doing a little better because of something they came across through my content. Even when my content is pretty negative about the world, there is still the opportunity to use pieces of it to reflect and create a positive action from it. We might all be sliding rapidly into the abyss, but I think we should still try not to speed up the process at the very least.

Have I influenced you?

And when I say influenced, I don't mean changed an opinion or a feeling in you, but have you changed your behaviour in any way because of something read here? And why I think it is important to recognise is that, I cannot make you any different, only you can.

What does that say about all those negative influences in our lives?

Taraz
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