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What I’m filling my 🧠 with in 2025

What I’m filling my 🧠 with in 2025

December 16, 2024

We give attention to the most insane things…

And we think nothing of it.

You want my eyeballs – SURE. (As long as I’m entertained.)

The bar is low.

We spend our precious life minutes watching the Mormon girls on TikTok talking about “soaking” with their friends’ husbands…

We come across a video of a woman that weighs 70 pounds and gawk, thinking, OMG, I hope she’s okay!

We give our attention to the sweet (reckless) man in Florida that’s sleeping on his boat during Hurricane Milton. (Which was one of the most powerful hurricanes of all time.)

We think it’s just a couple seconds of watching a video…

It’s just one little click.

It’s just one little comment.

But people build followings with that attention.

They build businesses with those clicks.

They build empires with your comments – whether they’re good or bad. (Hello, Kardasians.)

They build worlds with that attention.

They influence worlds with that attention.

I mean, Mark Zuckerberg isn’t worth $212.7 billion for no reason. He’s basically monetizing your attention. (P.S. Google his net worth. You can see it goes up daily.)

I’ve been thinking about that a lot over the last few months.

What we GIVE our attention to gets more powerful.

Am I giving my attention to the right things?

Am I giving my attention to things I really value?

Am I giving my attention to fellow creatives I really admire?

Or just watching too many videos of the Hawk Tuah girl?

I’ve been thinking about how I want to “spend” my attention next year, in 2025.

Now for me this isn’t about canceling people I don’t agree with…

In a past life, I’m sure I was a lawyer.

I love a good argument. I love to investigate all sides of the coin.

I’ve never felt one person holds the truth.

For me, I’m thinking of this more like a brain detox.

It’s about being more mindful about what I’m consuming. And really what’s consuming me.

Here are a few people I plan to keep giving my eyeballs and brain to in 2025:

Podcasts:

I listen to far too many podcasts. It’s my cigarette. It’s my tanning bed. It’s my big glass of wine at the end of the day. I recently started listening to Pulling the Thread with Elise Loehnen.

This episode specifically: “My Unofficial Investigation of Male Podcasters.”

This is the podcast that got me thinking about the power of our attention.

She also did this Instagram post a while back about the Andrew Huberman scandal.

Now to be clear, I don’t hate men. I’m not going to only listen to podcasts created by women. This post isn’t about that either. It just got me thinking about how I treat women I admire, especially when they “behave badly.”

Which is what I love about Elise’s writing and commentary.

It’s really just powerful observations of the subtle happenings in our culture that also happen to be shaping our future. (NBD.)

Books & Newsletters:

Neha Ruch from Mother Untitled wrote this Instagram post.

I’ve spent a decade talking myself out of writing. Because I “should” focus on things that will build wealth, pay for private school, or build my business only.

I’m proud that I pushed myself to launch “my little newsletter” Paper Ghosts this year.

It’s one step away from such small thinking. <3

Neha is also coming out with a book, The Power Pause.

To be fair, it’s only available on pre-order so I haven’t read it yet.

I’m not planning on having more kids. But I want to read this book because my only mode of being in work and life since becoming a mom 7 years ago has been full speed. I’m looking forward to seeing what insights this book brings.

Many of you have reached out telling me you too want to write a book.

Tracie is a certified book coach and editor who’s been involved in the publication (traditional and self) of more than 100 (rough estimate) books. She’s also the genius that’s helped me with editing Paper Ghosts.

(She’s one of the main reasons it’s alive.) I don’t know what I would have done without her help. No matter what you do in 2025... Find the people that will champion your art. Your art matters. 🩷

If you are out to write a book, you’ll want to check out her newsletter here.

You can also hire her here.

Sammi is like the Miss Whistedown of popular brands and Wall Street.

She’s got all the hot gossip.

Except she’s not anonymous.

There are so many random little business lessons you can glean from her Instagram posts.

She talks about the fall of girl boss businesses like the Wing, how Calm used a funny ad during the election to jump 100 spots in the app store, and how For Hers and Hims made $400 million last quarter selling compounded semaglutide – that’s not technically approved by the FDA.