It’s back-to-school season. The leaves are beginning to flutter downwards; the nights are getting cooler and old memories return, including one of a September afternoon during my second year of university.

I was stuck at my desk, gazing out the window at some of my fellow students. They were on the quad playing Frisbee and catching the last rays of summer sun. I was studying for a test and feeling like I was missing out on all the fun. But I sucked it up and shoved my nose back into the books. I had big goals and wasn’t willing to risk them by going out to play.

These days, we talk a lot about FOMO, or the fear of missing out. Lots of people are terrified to be left out of the action. But nobody needs to be part of the action 24/7. There are other things that we should be doing with our lives.

Sometimes, we need to hang out with our family; sometimes we need to buckle down and get working toward our goals; sometimes, we need to take care of the mundane but necessary tasks of life.

Looking at social media can give us a bad case of FOMO, because everyone who posts seems to be having such a great time. But life isn’t about the party. In fact, partying reminds me of the frosting on a cake.

The best ratio is 90% cake and 10% frosting; otherwise we can’t enjoy the experience. In life, we need much less fun and much more of the meaningful things like family, friends, interesting work and fulfilling pastimes, or we get out of balance and the fun stops being enjoyable.

We can keep suffering from FOMO or we can make the choice to sometimes step away from the fun and focus instead on the things that will give us what we really want. We can give up FOMO and embrace something called JOMO.

JOMO is a concept that was promoted early on by Canadian author Christina Crook in her book, The Joy of Missing Out: Finding Balance in a Wired World. I was recently interviewed by Jason Osler, CBC’s national trends columnist, about this concept. You can listen here to Jason’s clip and read about it here.

JOMO is about foregoing immediate gratification and instead, focusing on the bigger picture. If we want to have balance, happiness and success in life, we need to embrace JOMO.

When I think of those Frisbee-playing kids from my university days, I can’t imagine that they would have achieved much in their lives if they hadn’t sat down and started cracking the books. Without JOMO, a student can’t make the most of their time at school.

For those of you heading back to school, understanding the importance of JOMO is crucial. JOMO separates you from the rest of your classmates; it moves you toward bigger and better goals, gives you confidence and creates success. If you embrace JOMO at school, you’ll be set up for life.

JOMO can maximize your grades and bring you scholarships and awards; it’s more likely to get you the best jobs and bring you promotions. If you can put aside the fun when you need to and get the work done, you’ll be at a huge advantage compared to all your peers who are caught up in FOMO.

One great example of JOMO is the hours and hours of hard work Michael Phelps put in and the sacrifices he made in order to win multiple Olympic medals. He gave up FOMO and his life is pretty amazing.

They say that it takes 10,000 hours to achieve mastery. These days, it seems that fewer and fewer people are willing to put in the time and effort that will bring them a high level of success.

The good news is that if you go back to school embracing JOMO, success is available to you. The student who embraces JOMO will be the leader of the pack at school, at work, and over the course of their entire life.

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