The Gas Station
Collin Michels2 min read
Picture this. You drive your car down the road and you are running out of gas. You pull into the gas station, fill up, and get back on the road. That’s how it’s supposed to work… The fuel exists to move you somewhere. Nobody buys a car to spend their time at the pump.
But that’s exactly what I see happening with content right now. A billion Reels. Newsletters. Articles. Podcasts. The ability to consume has never been easier and it is burying people. They read, they watch, they learn, and then they read some more. The gas keeps going in. The car never leaves the station.
And it is costing them their best ideas.
“If you drive a car down the road and you run out of gas, then you’re not going to get anywhere. You have to go to the gas station to fill up. But the point of having a car is not to just sit at the gas station and fill up all day.” — James Clear
James is the goat author of our generation (if you aren’t subscribed to his 3-2-1 Newsletter here, it is a must).
He changed the way I think about this. His work pushed me to ask a different question every time I sit down to consume something. Not “what did I learn?” but “where is this trying to take me?” That one shift changed everything about how I create.
The framework: fuel right, go further.
- Know your road. Before you consume anything, know the journey you’re on. What are you building? What do you want to say? What problem are you trying to solve for your audience? The destination is what makes the fuel useful.
- Fill with purpose. Every time you read or watch something, ask one question: what journey is this intending to take me on? If it feeds your direction, take it in. If it doesn’t, put it down. You are not obligated to finish everything you start.
- Drive before full. Don’t wait until you feel ready. The best ideas come out on the road, not at the pump. Brain dump the post. Sign up to give the talk. You refine by moving, not by consuming more.
- Know when to refuel. There is a real thing called creative empty. If you are grinding and nothing is coming, that is your signal. Stop. Go read something great. Watch something that challenges you. Get back to the pump intentionally, fill up, and get back on the road.
The give and take is real. I’ve felt both sides of it. I’ve sat at the pump consuming for so long that I lost the thread of where I was going. And I’ve run the tank dry trying to create without stopping to refuel.
So here’s the question: are you consuming content to go somewhere, or have you just been living at the gas station?
Brock Baker
