What is JOMO?
The joy of missing out is so much better than the fear of missing out...
I watched a YouTube video recently that presented an interesting point.
The video, created by Jo Franco, was all about the things she learned about her 20s now that she’d turned 30. A lot of the things were self-explanatory — friends come and go, love takes time, choose the life you want to live, etc.
But she made one point that resonated with me. JOMO - the joy of missing out.
She explained that FOMO (the fear of missing out) leads to things like burnout and stress because you’re pushing yourself too hard to stay on top of what’s happening around you. As a result, you stretch yourself too thin.
JOMO is the opposite. It’s being ok with missing out and as a result, spending more time on your own — doing things that feed your soul. It’s all about no longer fearing what you’ve missed out on and celebrating what you’ve done instead.
Here’s the thing — I’m the most introverted person I know. I prefer to live alone. I prefer a heads-up when it comes to group events. In fact, if you were to call me this afternoon and ask if I wanted to go to a party or hang out with a group, I’m pre-determined to tell you no.
I think I’ve been subscribing to the joy of missing out for my entire life.
The energy suck that is too many events and opportunities has always been enough motivation for me to say ‘no thanks, I’m staying home curled up on the couch in my PJs with Netflix.’
Preserving and protecting my time has always been my #1 concern. Apparently, leaning into this and being ok with it is experiencing JOMO.
And by experiencing JOMO, I’ve learned a lot about myself.
Like it’s ok to need alone time. (I need a MINIMUM amount of at least 3-4 hours of alone time to function.)
Like it’s ok to listen to what I actually want to do — even if it doesn’t align with what others want to do. Even if I feel like I’ll be letting someone down.
Like it’s ok to miss out on something big — because it’s probably not as big as I really think it is. Words like ‘big’ and ‘important’ are subjective.
It’s ok to find joy in staying in and being alone. It’s ok to crave it.
Experiencing JOMO gives me more time and energy to do things like read the books I want, write more, paint, watch TV guilt-free, and even social things — like catch up with an old friend. It gives me more time to indulge in things that help me relax and reset without feeling like I should constantly be doing something else.
That’s all I have for today - just a nice little snippet of advice that resonated with me.
So much better than FOMO, which stresses me out!
Love this. Bring on my JOMO