Fear Of Missing Out (FOMO) may not have a fancy name like Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD), or Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), but it can still seriously affect our lives. It makes us do things we don’t necessarily want to be doing. If you want to say "no", because an option doesn’t really serve you, but you feel like you should probably say "yes", because everyone else seems to be doing it, it seems like a compelling option and it might be the chance of a lifetime, then you are experiencing FOMO.

The symptoms of FOMO are various and serious: stress, lack of focus, anxiety, procrastination, overwhelm, depression, panic and fear (obviously). So it's no wonder we want to be rid of it. But in today's world, technology makes it easy for us to constantly know what everyone else is doing (or at least what they want you to think they're doing). But people only post exciting, heartwarming, fun and inspiring moments online. You rarely see their down moments, their bored moments or their ugly moments. So you end up getting a very skewed image of what others are up to. This makes you judge your own life much more harshly than you should. And that's unhealthy. 

Here are 6 ways that might help you get out of this loop:

Humans are pack animals and so mob mentality still kicks in sometimes, even though we've evolved. We feel that we should do what others are doing, because our instincts are telling us that if we’re left out, we won’t make it on our own. Knowing this is half the battle. Once you understand that it's normal to feel this way, you can avoid emotions of guilt that usually come with it. You can also tackle it more easily when you know that you're not feeling this way because you're actually being left behind, but because evolution has equipped you with an alarm system that lets you know when you might need to participate more in group activities. Back when cavemen were evolving this trait, however, we didn't have Instagram and Facebook letting us see what everyone was up to, so it wasn't as pervasive.

Being aware of what you're doing as you do it can help you realize it’s just as valuable, if not more valuable than whatever you think you’re missing out on. Life is a constant line-up of moments, one after the other, and no single moment is pointless, expendable or inessential. Constantly trying to replace a moment you deem skippable will basically keep you living your life in fast forward. Remember the movie "Click"? If not, basically what the protagonist did was skip all of his life's "negative" moments, and he ended up pushing everyone he loved away and missing out on so much more than just little inconveniences. Life is precious in its entirety and it must be appreciated as a whole. That's where step 6 comes in.

This is another aspect of mindfulness. When you know what you're feeling and thinking at any given moment, you will become very good at knowing who you are. You will know what you truly love, what excites you, what would bore you and what might harm you, so you can more easily make decisions and reject options that don’t align with what you value. Remember that life is full of distractions that can take you off your path. Knowing where you’re going and how you’d like to get there will help you make these decisions quicker and easier when under pressure.

Don’t let your phone decide when you will check your social media accounts. Make a conscious decision to only check them at specific times during the day. When your phone pings, FOMO kicks in. It's hard to ignore the phone when it's ringing, but it easy to mute it when you want to focus. Setting your phone's push notifications to "manual" will lighten your life considerably. You will wonder why you didn't do it sooner and how you could've possibly thought you were gonna miss out on life, when turning it off actually helps you experience more of life. 

Questions have the power to focus your attention. So if you use the right ones, you can direct your energy in ways that motivate and empower you, instead of deplete and scare you. Here are some questions that can help you tackle FOMO:

• Is this something I really want to be doing? – If it doesn’t align with what you consider important, it won’t really affect you much to ignore it.
• Is this feeling telling me there’s something in my life I need to change? – Sometimes FOMO is a valid sign telling you that you aren’t being true to yourself in some way. But you need to know yourself well and be aware and mindful in order to recognize these signs.
• Is this viable for me right now? – Think about this logically and rationally. Do you have the money to spare for this experience? Are you emotionally capable of handling it? Is it the right time in your life for this decision? There are many questions only you can answer, but sometimes having a friend’s perspective can really help.
• Is this an accurate representation of reality? – What will be the actual repercussions of you missing this opportunity? Will your world come crashing down? Will your friends forsake you? Will your life be miserable forever? If the answer is no, and you’ve already determined from the previous questions that it’s not a good option for you, it’s time to admit you don’t need to indulge in or worry about it.
• Am I using technology to serve me, or am I serving it? – Technology is a wonderful servant, but a terrible master. It allows you to communicate with anyone, anywhere, at any time, and this can be amazing and useful, but it can also trap you in a constant state of procrastination, so use it wisely.

Gratitude is the most efficient practice that can help you deal with envy, one of the major causes of FOMO. Here’s some more information about gratitude, if you'd like more in depth instructions on how to develop it. Click here to watch another video that can help you deal with envy in different ways.

Try out the above tips and if you’re still struggling, ask for help in the comments below or send me a message. If your issue is easy to fix, I’ll answer with a comment or message of my own. If it’s a little more complicated than that, I’ll invite you to book a free breakthrough session so we can discuss your challenge in more detail.

If you want to watch more videos with free happiness tips, visit my YouTube channel and subscribe! I make a new one every Sunday and they all come with an article like this one to help you put their advice into practice.

If you’re looking for more free ways to create a happier life for yourself, click here for self-help resources. I suggest three books that have personally helped me change my life.

See you next Sunday! Until then, remember: Happiness doesn’t require energy. It requires Strategy.