Successful people don’t watch TV. They don’t fill their brains with junk, but use the time productively.
“American children and adolescents spend 22 – 28 hours per week viewing television, more than any other activity except sleeping. By the age of 70, they will have spent 7 – 10 years of their life watching TV”
The Kaiser Family Foundation
What do you remember from a night’s watching TV? Do you want to waster 7 -10 years of your life doing something you don’t remember? Here are 8 reasons you should turn off your TV (in fact, get rid of it).
- Wealthy people have big libraries, not big TVs. Who do you want to be like? Your mind is an amazing instrument, picking up information from all the input sources. Do you want to fill it with Idol, Desperate Housewives/other trashy drama?
- TV is filled with the same old junk every day and it screws with your mind. I used to be a news junkie, but the news is the same every day as well. There are always wars, always violence, always awful things happening in the world. If you don’t watch it, you won’t suffer from lack of knowledge because people will tell you what’s going on. Or just Google news it. But don’t obsess about reading news or watching TV all the time. You don’t need to see murders, rapes, violence and misery on TV. It is not enriching your life. You have a certain amount of attention span daily. Fill it with information that will improve your life.
- Spend that time on self-improvement. Reading, audio programs, videos and internet courses. You could even try university correspondence courses and work towards a particular goal. If you count the hours you spend watching TV in a year, you could have done half a degree by now.
- Spend that time with your family improving your relationships. Success is about all areas of life and your emotional health is as important as your financial health. Instead of watching TV with the family, do something where you actually get to know each other better. It may sound wierd in this age of online entertainment, but board games are great. Or just eat a meal around the table instead of having TV dinners.
- TV gives people a false view of what life is really like. It feeds insecurities, makes you think you are not good enough, that your life is not enough, that you want more. It can affect your body image, your self-confidence and make you question how happy you are.
- Spend that time visualising your dreams and goals. Instead of watching TV tonight, write down your dream life, you dream job, your dream house, how much money you earn, your perfect day. Use your imagination instead of being anaesthetised by the tube.
- TV makes you fat. People eat more in front of the TV, and they are exposed to junk food advertising that makes you want a burger in the middle of your sitcom. If you don’t watch TV, you could always use the time for exercise. [And no excuses about cycling in front of the TV, I’ve tried that and it doesn’t work for long!]
- TV has adverts that make you want to buy more stuff. Stuff you don’t need. Stuff that you don’t want to buy in this financial climate. [or in fact any financial climate]. If you don’t know about it (and your kids don’t know about it), you won’t want it. So no TV, means less excess spending on things you don’t need.
I am not anti-media. You can watch other media if you want a particular series or movie or documentary. I absolutely think DVDs are a fantastic way of learning. The key is choice. Choose what you watch wisely and question whether it is adding to your life experience.
Is it improving your brain or killing some cells? I download “House” (love it) but with no adverts so I have viewing pleasure and no TV pain. I hire DVDs, but I haven’t had a TV for 2 years and I love it. I sound pretty militant actually, but this blog is about wealth and success. The people who have the most wealth and success do not watch TV. So do what they do. Turn it off.
Check out loads of articles on this at http://www.turnoffyourtv.com/
The Wealth Success Student 