Stilettos: Fear of FOMO

I think I have the dreaded disease FOMO.

Do you have FOMO too?

FOMO is the Fear of Missing Out. I think it’s a marketing term like BOGO, you know, Buy One, Get One. But, while everyone wants to BOGO, no one wants to FOMO.

I think FOMO originated as a term when we got so many choices through social media that people began bouncing like ping pong balls between social engagements, never staying at any one party because something cool might be happening at the next one.

FOMO is the opposite of living a juicy life because you’re never really enjoying the life you have – you’re always acquiring more.

What FOMO is not is a bucket list. It’s not all the things you want to do before you die. It’s all the things you want to do right now.

I started my career as a journalist and I was really careful about staying objective. And then, I moved over to public relations, but I was still careful. The words I wrote might be close to what I felt, but they were never my words. In both jobs, my creativity was harnessed in service of someone else’s vision.

So when I threw all that aside and moved to Charleston, I decided to dive into the creative well and just let it splash all over me. So much to do.

My mom died fairly young – she was 72, and that seems young to me. Did she have that sense of so much to do, so little time left? Because I hear that drumbeat beneath everything I do.

I don’t want to do anything later. I want to do it all now.

The kind of FOMO that people talk about that comes with the distraction of social media prevents you from being truly present, because you’re always looking ahead to the next.

I feel like what I have is not FOMO – I’m not scared of missing out. It’s more BIO. Bring it on! Or maybe BOTJ….Bring on the juicy!

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Want Even More? Check Out Helen’s Blog, “Stilettos Not Required”