I had to say entertainment. I really want to specifically say movies and tv shows. However, many of us are addicted to all the social media platforms now. You can include other things like partying and concerts as well.
Now before someone gets all in there feelings because they so happen to love a good binge watching marathon, I like entertainment as well. As I’ve gotten older and seen people in different phases of their life, the amount of entertainment someone enjoys seems to indicate how successful they will be. I remember the saying ‘work hard play hard.’ The interesting thing I find is we didn’t realize, that’s not math. You can’t work hard today and play today. It’s a lot of hard work over time that allows us to play hard. We want to clock out at five and go drink an hour or two of our wage to get the stress off. Maybe we go watch our favorite tv shows, or a movie we’ve been waiting to see. Then we wake up upset to do it all over again! Where’s the breakdown? We’ve wasted the rest of the day doing what we want and pushing what we really want that much further away!
Think about it… what are you enjoying on that fancy big screen (or phone)? Maybe the latest Marvel’s movie, comedy show, playing call of duty, football game, etc. What could be more exciting? A short escape of reality! That’s not the way I see it. I see it as paying the people and makers of what your watching. Paying for their reality to be better than yours! Literally watching someone, an actor,actress, athlete working! Unless you have a great career or not one of the millions of Americans living paycheck to paycheck, you are giving up your potential for a better life to someone else! The actor or actress thanks you, I’m sure. Keeping food on their table and fueling their jet! We spend way too much money in this country on frivolous things. A major one being entertainment and food. I have a blog up on ‘The Restaurant Trap‘ so not going down that path. So many people try to go to Hollywood to ‘make it” and it’s because of the rest of the country trying to escape reality. Even if your not paying the absorbent amount of money to watch a movie, your still paying with your time and attention. The companies are making a ton of money from the advertising. We are getting targeted advertising to appeal to your personality and there for more likely to buy. Meanwhile debt is at an all time high, inflation is at an all time high and your wages look almost exactly the same! Who’s winning? Not you or me! But the people on tv look happy!
Not only are we paying with our wallet and attention to the advertising. We are robbing ourselves with all the distractions of the world today. The time we spend after work or on the weekends could be going towards improving ourselves. So that we don’t have to just escape reality, we can make our own. Wish you were on that island, wish you could have that house, wish you had that body, wish you could live a better life? It’s not going to come by watching someone play it on tv. We need to put the work into ourselves that many of the people we consider successful do. Take Elon Musk for example. When he was trying to get PayPal running, he slept in the office and even told someone that was interested in dating him, that they would be there, at the office, for most of their dates. You think he knew that he would be a multi billionaire at the time? He just knew he had to work on what he wanted to succeed in more than all the distractions the world gives us. Are you willing to sleep at your job to maximize productivity? He is unique in his approach and some might say it’s not worth it to them. I’m probably in that category, but our work shouldn’t be the only thing we are working hard at. I try to work a certain amount of hours at my job, but that was for the company. So, when I get off, I go to the gym to work on myself, then I go home to work on projects that I hope will raise my standard of living. Even when I’m driving I’m listening to podcast or other media about topics I’m trying to learn or get a new prospective on. It has taken me a long time realize that I could be further ahead by learning new skills to enhance my ability to be successful, instead of trying to enjoy the minute I walk off the job!
I’m not saying we shouldn’t have a life, but again unless we have the life we want, we should be doing something everyday to get closer to what we say we want, or change what we say we want! The most successful people in the world are not keeping up with fashion or the latest shows, unless they have a vested interest in it. They are worrying about learning new things, getting new exposure to things and taking action on what they think will give them a better outcome in the future. We should work on doing the same. We can do this by simply changing a few habits.
- Instead of listening to the same music on repeat or the latest celebrity news on the way to/from work, listen to podcast about investing, side hustles or just motivational content. Something to give you a perspective you may not have heard before. It’s hard for many of us to find a way to get around people that are doing better than us, but it’s easy to listen to them!
- Find a part time job or gig. So many places are looking for workers right now. It doesn’t have to pay much, but it could move the needle for us. I don’t recommend doing them forever. If you’re not in school, this is just to pay down debt, build an emergency fund or save for something relatively expensive you can’t save for easily. Check out my post on ‘The Side Hustle, Worth It?’.
- This one, I just want to throw out there for my people struggling with weight. As someone who has struggled with weight most of my life, our success will be parallel with our weight. We are the most inactive after work. Ready to eat and watch tv or get on our phones, most likely while eating. If we can change this habit, to something productive, we will also succeed in losing weight. I’ve taken advice from YouTube to get on almost any cardio machine to exercise while watching my phone. Concentrate on typing this blog. Doing something to keep my mind off of food and moving while being entertained. Honestly, the more weight I’ve lost, I feel more successful over all! Not just weight, but the focus on self development, earning more money and even spending more ‘real’ time with my family came with it. If you want to be better, I suggest trying something similar and see if it doesn’t change your life for the better!
In conclusion, we all have the potential to be successful in anything that we want. My goal is to help inspire average everyday people to be better. We can’t all ‘act’ our way there. Yet we can work on acting like we are serious about improving our lives. We have to stop making excuses for why we don’t have time when we seen all the episodes of shows that didn’t educate, motivate or elevate our lives one bit. Celebrities get paid for attention. It’s time we paid more attention to ourselves than giving it away to someone else. They’ll be just fine, I promise!
Average Joe Chronicles 