BUILD:
Create What Matters In An Age Of Consumption
3-Minute Read
Consumption numbs. Creation wakes you up. Choose your life.
“The most valuable real estate in the world is the graveyard…The way to live is to create. Die empty. Get every idea out of your head and into reality…All that matters is what you’ve launched. Make finishing your top priority. Which would you rather be? Someone who hasn’t created anything in years because you’re so busy consuming? Or someone who hasn’t consumed anything in years because you’re so busy creating?”—Derek Sivers, How to Live.
This distinction matters for mission-driven leaders because it’s the difference between drift and direction, decay and momentum, wasted potential and real legacy. Today in The Grip, learn to spot the difference between consumer and creator across seven key domains, so you can build a way of being that turns ideas into outcomes and compounds your reach.
Let’s dive in.
consumer vs. creator—7 key domains
1) Beingness
Generate new possibility for what you want.
A consumer’s identity is stuck in the past as fixed and unchangeable: “This is just who I am.”
A creator acts from the future self today and releases past versions that no longer serve. Reinvention is standard course.
Why it matters: Consumers wait to feel ready; creators choose new ways of being and make readiness irrelevant. Identity leads, behavior follows. When you embody your future self now, momentum becomes normal.
Audit: Am I being who I’ve always been or who this mission requires today?
2) Intentionality
Consciously know and choose what you want.
A consumer lets pings, trends, and other people’s urgency set the day. Hours are filled with activity. Time gets spent.
A creator chooses their priorities and lets those commitments run the day. Hours are filled with consequence. Time gets invested.
Why it matters: A day of consuming leaves you tired. A day of creating leaves you expanded. Learn to multiply time and make room for what’s important to you.
Audit: Does my calendar reflect my values or everyone else’s? Is it designed or reactive?
3) Aliveness
Cultivate the experience of what you want now.
A consumer borrows energy from novelty, praise, and wins; it’s sourced externally.
A creator generates energy from presence, purpose, and focused work; it’s cultivated from within. The act of creating becomes fuel.
Why it matters: When your nervous system is internally regulated, you set the pace. Happiness, confidence, and peace become things you bring to your environment, rather than things you take from it.
Audit: Do I source my energy internally or outsource it to circumstances?
4) Language
Speak and perceive in alignment with what you want.
A consumer describes what is, repeats problems, and asks permission: “It’s hard. We’ll try. Hopefully marketing fixes it.”
A creator declares what will be and sets standards: “We will increase sales by 25% this quarter. Here’s the plan.” They don’t wish, hope, or try; they do.
Why it matters: Language is the steering wheel of your life. If you mirror problems, you inherit the world’s direction. If you declare outcomes, you generate new ones.
Audit: Does my everyday conversation describe reality or generate it?
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5) Integrity
Act in alignment with what you want.
A consumer makes big promises, then renegotiates when it’s uncomfortable.
A creator makes bold promises and keeps them, especially when it’s inconvenient. They keep and honor their word; to themselves and to others.
Why it matters: Integrity isn’t about appearances. It’s about workability. Where integrity grows, so do trust and desired results. Finishing builds confidence in you and your team.
Audit: Where do I let comfort trump commitment, and what will I do today to restore integrity wherever I’ve breached it?
6) Unreasonability
Deal with obstacles to what you want.
A consumer treats obstacles as stop signs and waits for desirable conditions before moving.
A creator treats obstacles as building material and generates desirable conditions by moving.
Why it matters: You’ll either create what you want or create reasons you didn’t. Learn by launching real work. Imperfect versions teach more than perfect delays. Most work becomes fertilizer for the few knockout winners, and that’s how greatness is cultivated.
Audit: What constraint can I leverage as a resource today?
7) Responsibility
Materialize what you want.
A consumer explains outcomes with stories about the market, timing, or luck, and waits to be validated, qualified, or invited.
A creator authorizes themselves, owns the outcome, and asks, “What can I make possible?”
Why it matters: Responsibility isn’t blame; it’s power to deal effectively with life. You don’t need permission to take authority over your results. By the end of each day, what exists because of you?
Audit: What did I create today that wasn’t here yesterday?
“The most valuable real estate in the world is the graveyard.”
“I want to be thoroughly used up when I die,” wrote George Bernard Shaw, “for the harder I work the more I live.”
Consumer vs. creator is a choice that directs how you see, speak, decide, and build.
You are here to make the invisible visible; to turn vision into products, jobs, solved problems, and people served. The more you create, the more fully alive you become.
Creator is your birthright, your purpose, your legacy. Make it your normal way of moving through the world and leave the lasting contribution only you can give.
Consumer or Creator—how will your story be told?
Keep creating.
key takeaways
Creation compounds; consumption decays. Choose outputs over inputs each day.
Identity leads behavior. Act from the future version of you to create momentum now.
Language, time, integrity, and ownership turn vision into artifacts the world can touch.
May you prosper in every way!
Becky & TPL Team
52 Maxims of Conscious Choosing To Create the Deeply Satisfying Life You Desire.