Are You Living Life or Producing It?

Are You Living Life or Producing It?

What drives someone to seek a life without performing for an invisible audience? This episode of Encouragementology finds Kendall Boysen asking a simple but challenging question: "Are you living life or producing it?" If you've ever reached for your phone before you've actually absorbed a sunset, a family gathering, or a quiet walk, you'll recognise yourself here.

Kendall walks through how everyday moments are increasingly filtered through the question, "Is this interesting?" instead of "Is this meaningful?" She points out that "we've become incredibly good at preserving moments, but I wonder if we've become just a little less practised at inhabiting them," inviting you to reflect on where your attention really lives.

Drawing on research like the photo-taking impairment effect and ideas from writers such as Nicholas Carr and Arthur Brooks, the episode links constant documentation to fragmented attention and performance-based happiness. This sets up a gentle challenge: if no one else ever knew you did something, would it still be worth doing? Rather than shaming technology use, Kendall keeps the tone hopeful and practical.

She suggests simple experiments like delaying the urge to grab your phone for sixty seconds, creating moments that have no audience at all, and asking yourself, "What am I hoping for right now?" whenever you feel that itch to record or share. The conversation keeps circling back to presence, gratitude, and the quiet richness of ordinary life—the laughter around the dinner table, morning light through the kitchen window, or a peaceful drive home.

As she puts it, "A meaningful life isn't measured by how many people see it, but by how fully you live it." For anyone in recovery or rethinking their relationship with attention, validation, and everyday joy, this episode offers a calm, thoughtful space to reconsider how you show up for your own life. So, are you ready to let more moments be lived rather than produced?