FOMO is defined as anxiety that an exciting or interesting event may currently be happening elsewhere, often aroused by posts seen on a social media website. That's Facebook, Instagram, TikTok (dear lawd have I lost so many hours of my life on that platform!), LinkedIn, Twitter and so on.
FOMO is essentially the modern day slang for "keeping up with the Jones'" because no one wants to be left out. We want to be in the know, we want to be fresh and new - we don't want to be discarded by our friends and family because we missed out.
Having a case of FOMO will often times result in you putting aside your own needs and beliefs because you think there is something better happening outside of your immediate bubble that is more important. Read that again. We let the fear of missing out on something put us into a category we don't matter.
We should always matter.
Anything that we believe in and that is true to our core should always matter.
I have witnessed various levels of FOMO. Sometimes it's a level where most of us are at where you're always checking your phone for messages, emails or social media posts for the latest comment and other times it's darn near debilitating to the individual and they literally run themselves into the ground trying to show up for everything and everyone.
There are only 24 hours in a day - 7 days a week - 365 days a year . . . well except for this year where we have 366 (HA!) but the point is that the message is the same - time is fixed and it's the most valuable commodity there is out there so we have to spend it wisely. Your first payment should be to yourself before you pay anything to others.
Kinda like the flight attendant reviews before each flight - you need to secure your oxygen mask first before you help others. No baby comes first. No elderly comes first. No mom, no dad, no sibling comes first.
You are first.
And only when you have your shit figured out can you begin to help others. Take your time.
Take YOUR time to learn what healthy means for you.
Take YOUR time to understand where the time goes in the day and if it's time well spent. If it's not, fix it.
Take time for you and I guarantee, missing out on them because you're NOT missing out on you will be the most empowering feeling ever and you can tell the FO-to-the-MO that you found the JO-to-the-MO yo!
