I was thinking on this. Fear Of Missing Out is a very real thing. I think as humans we likely have always dealt with this. But we now live in an era where it is insanely hard not to feel like we are always missing out on something.

Before the digital world, information took longer to travel through the grapevine. But now in an instant you can not be in a group photo and you now clearly know that you were not invited.

We fear missing out on the invite

We fear missing out on the likes

We fear missing out on the followers

We fear missing out on the latest reels/memes people are sharing

We fear missing out on the life that we “should” have

We fear missing out on so many things

FOMO ultimately steams from a lack of gratitude. When we have our eyes focused on everyone else’s lives, we miss the gifts right before us.

This realization reminded me of a set of guidelines that were given to a group of people to help them flourish and live their best lives. Some will think of guidelines as rules or restrictions but I believe that guidelines are there to guide, to help keep in line, and to help protect from falling over the edge. Guidelines at their core are to protect and to keep special.

The Jewish people thousands of years ago were given a set of these guidelines called the Ten Commandments. These were not to restrict them but to set them free. Set them free from FOMO, violence, greed, jealousy, and every other ill/foul thing.

The last one was “Do not covet your neighbor’s house. Do not covet your neighbor’s wife, male or female servant, ox or donkey, or anything your neighbor owns.”

Covet means to wish for earnestly, greatly desire, to want to have something very much especially something that belongs to someone else, to be consumed with desire for, to long for.

To put this ancient guideline in more modern terms: Do not greatly desire your friend’s hot wife, do not wish you had his giant swimming pool and granite counter tops. Do not long to have your neighbor’s cleaning service. Do not long for her veneers or his Tesla.

But isn’t this exactly what happens when we see Ads, walk through the mall, scroll social media and scan magazines at the check out line.

HOW TO HELP WITH FOMO:

FOMO is apart of life. It will haunt us if we let it. We must shift our perspectives. Instead of fearing what we do not have, we must relish what we do have.

Gratitude is the answer to dealing with FOMO. And one of the best ways to unplug from FOMO is to plug into what you do have.

Take a day a week to unplug from all the noise that tells you what you have is not enough.

Take an hour a day (minimum) and unplug from the never-ending dings and digital nudges.

Start a gratitude journal. List three things you are thankful for each day.

Share at dinner what good you encountered today.

Trust that you are not missing out but the life you have before you is a sacred, divine gift that must be protected and cherished.