Television, the drug of the nation, breeding ignorance and feeding radiation.

- Michael Franti, Spearhead

The other night I was lying on the couch watching TV. There was nothing on so I would watch something for a bit then move on to something else, watch that for a short while and then move on again. I did this repeatedly for quite some time without really watching anything properly. Eventually I realised how ridiculous it was and turned the TV off. What a relief!

One of my old school principals said: “Alcohol is a good servant, but a poor master”, and I think it could equally be said: “TV is a good servant, but a poor master.”

Watching a good movie, sports etc can be a great way to relax and unwind, but like all things, it is good in moderation, not in excess. How many times have you found yourself doing what I mentioned I was doing the other night? If you haven’t ever done this then you’re either unusual or a liar!

If you watch too much TV you’re not alone. Check out the graph below which is a survey of Americans from 2007 (and probably true of many other countries too). Over 50% of their leisure time is spent watching TV!

Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics

It could be even worse this year as a study by the University of Maryland found that people watch more TV during bad economic times. Interestingly they also found that unhappy people watch around 20% more TV than happy people. Do they watch TV because they’re unhappy or does watching TV make them unhappy? Unfortunately the research didn’t answer that question.

I probably don’t really need to convince you of any of this though (if you’re not convinced then check out www.turnoffyourtv.com) so here are some tips to help you control your TV watching:

1. Record how much you watch – Keep a notepad beside the couch for a week and keep a record of how much TV you watch. At the end of the week tally up the amount of time. It seems a bit overly geeky but you’ll probably be surprised at how much time you actually watch for. Think about all the things you could have done in that time…

2. Throw away, give away or sell your TV – Drastic? Perhaps. But would it work? Yes.

3. Define TV time – Set yourself specific times when you can watch TV and only turn on the TV during those times.

4. Record TV – Use your recorder more effectively. Lookup programmes you want to watch in advance and record them. Then you can watch them at a time when it is convenient for you.

5. One TV – Only have one TV in the house. Do you really need a TV in the dining room, bedroom, your kids’ rooms etc?

6. Alternatives – Write down a list of alternatives to TV: read a book, play a game, exercise or even…have a conversation.

7. Hide your remote – Then the only way to change channel is to get up off the couch. Channel surfing doesn’t seem to happen as much this way.

8. Turn the TV off as soon as your programme has finished – The TV people are clever and they start the next programme straight away. That way you are watching it and hooked into the plot before you’ve had a chance to get up. Don’t fall for it, turn it off straight after your programme has finished.

9. Cancel your subscription channels – Even with lots of subscription channels some days you still can’t find anything decent to watch.

10. Try it for a week – If the idea of no TV forever sounds a bit daunting then just try having a No TV Week and see how you like it. You could even put the TV away in a cupboard or the garage for the week. You’ll probably enjoy it more than you think.

If you have any other ideas please share them in the comments.

Blog Television

I thought carefully about posting an article with a title like this. Is it really that easy? Can you really sum up how to get what you want in life in a blog post? Surely it’s way more complex than that?

But the more I thought about it the more I realised that it really is this simple. The reason it seems difficult is because we are all so hopeless at following through on things. We want everything but aren’t prepared to really get stuck in and get our hands dirty trying to get it. We don’t have the self-discipline to do what needs to be done (at least that’s how it is from my end!). So here is how to get what you want as I see it:

Know what it is that you want
Set goals. Actually writing down your goals can seem like a chore (even ants are better at it than us). But unless you know what you want in life, how can you aim for it? It really helps to put it down on paper, it kind of firms it up in your mind. It can help to break your life up into different areas. What do you want in terms of your family, friends, work, spirituality, finances?

Prioritize
Work out your priorities. Which goals are you going to really go for? Make those things your priorities in your daily life. Look at how you spend your time. Do you want to run a marathon but spend every evening watching TV? It’s not going to happen until you make the training run a higher priority than the TV.

Talk about it with everyone you know
If you tell someone about a goal, the next time you see them they’re probably going to ask you how you’re getting on with it. It helps you keep the goals in the picture so they don’t get forgotten about. They may also be able to offer you some advice or help you work towards your goal in some way.

Do something to work towards it everyday
Even if it’s just a little thing, it helps keep them momentum going. A lot of little things done everyday will add up. If you did a little thing towards your goal everyday then you’ve done 365 little things by the end of a year and that’s a lot. The girls in the movie ‘Rabbit Proof Fence‘ actually did walk 1500 miles to get home which is a great illustration of what Lao Tzu said a couple of thousand years ago.

Work hard and pay the price
This is the hard part. Everyone would prefer a quick fix but that’s just not the reality of it. Nothing in life is free. Anything that you want has a price tag and you will have to pay for it in one way or another. It may not be a financial one, it may be that you have to invest time and effort to get where you want, but nothing worthwhile in life comes without a price. When you ask people who have become successful how they did it, they will tell it was the result of hard work. You might get a lucky break along the way but plan on working hard to get what you want, its the best way to get it.

Help other people achieve their goals

You can get everything in life you want if you will just help enough other people get what they want. – Zig Ziglar

The Golden Rule is found in all cultures and religions and is summed up nicely in Zig’s statement. It’s basically as the old saying goes – what goes around comes around.

So get started!

Blog Goals

I have developed a solid morning routine that I follow regardless of what else is going on in my life. It has become so entrenched that it often feels like it happens automatically. It is almost as though the routine takes on a life of it’s own. Even on bad days or on little sleep I can follow this routine to get the day started. My morning routine has helped me through difficult periods of life and I have no doubt it will help me through more in the future.

For me it is a seven-days-a-week routine. I would actually find it more difficult to follow my morning routine for 3 days a week than I would for 7. You would think that doing something less often would be easier. But it seems that, in my case anyway, making it an everyday routine allows me to accept it more freely. I don’t have to battle with myself every morning to follow it. I am so used to it that I just accept it, even if a part of me can’t be bothered with it.

I’ve now had a morning routine for probably 6 or 7 years. It changes from time to time but the core aspects remain. It would just be so weird for me to stop it now that I’m confident I can maintain it for life.

Everyone is different so what works for me might not work for you but for the record here are the sorts of things I have included in my morning routine over the years: Pranayama (yoga breathing) – this has formed the core of my routine and is the one thing I always do, meditation, prayer, playing the guitar, Yoga (postures), Tai Chi, Chi Gung, jogging, press ups, sit ups, chin ups etc.

So how can you come up with a routine that works for you?

1. Figure out what you want to achieve

What are you aiming for? Improved health? Want to cope better with stress? Want to learn a new skill? Decide on the goals you want to achieve.

2. Pick the activity

Pick something that is enjoyable, that doesn’t take too long, that you can do whilst half asleep or whilst tired and/or grumpy :) Choose something that you can do away from home if you do much travelling. Figure out what you what you can do on a daily basis that can move you towards achieving your goals.

3. Make it manageable

This is the key to creating a lasting routine. I encourage you to greatly underestimate your ability to stick to this routine. Don’t try to get quick results. The important part in the beginning is establishing the routine. Make it really easy so that you can do it comfortably. You can always add to it further down the track.

4. Work out your timing

I do things in the morning because if I’m away on holiday or travelling for work I can get up earlier than everyone else and do my routine without it impacting on how I spend the rest of the day. An after-work routine can be difficult to maintain when you’re out of your element. But choose what will work best for you.

5. Record it

This sounds a little over the top but it’s the best thing I did to improve my routine. I have a little calendar in a prominent place in my bedroom and I tick off each day that I do my routine. That way I can look back on the year and see when there was a little drop in activity. When I started doing this it made me realise that sometimes I go for longer without doing it than I had previously realised. It also makes you more able to admire your success in sticking with your routine when you look back over the month as see all the ticks. It builds your confidence in yourself.

6. Review it

After you’ve been doing it for a while review it. If you’re doing exercises for example, then make sure you’re doing them correctly. It can be easy for bad habits to creep in slowly over time. Are the exercises still working for you? Is it time to step it up a notch? Do you need to change to something new?

If you’re looking for a quick fix then this isn’t the approach for you. But if you’re prepared to put in a little bit of effort on a regular basis then over time you will definitely see results.

If you liked this you might also like to check out 10 Ways to Give Your Morning a Makeover on The Change Blog.

Blog Habits

Richard Branson has lost far more money that most people earn in their entire lives, and yet he is one of the richest people on earth. I recently read his autobiography ‘Losing My Virginity’ and in it he is not shy about talking about his failures, in fact you get the impression he enjoys it.

A theme that kept cropping up throughout it was his ability to take risks. You could sum it up as:

If you try something new then you take a risk. It might work out, it might not. But if you do nothing, then you’re guaranteed to get nothing in return.

Richard Branson has tried many different things in his life. He has failed a lot. He has lost millions upon millions, if not billions, over the years. Many people would have given up along the way. But he hasn’t allowed his failures to stop him from trying again. He has learnt from his mistakes and gone on to be extremely successful.

It is his willingness to give things a go that has seen him succeed. He sees his failures as a step to success. The two go hand in hand for everyone in every endeavour. They are inseparable and you can generally learn more from the failures! He’s not alone in his willingness to take risks of course, failure is an essential part of every success story – such as these famous failures.

In Daniel Pink’s book on career direction, The Adventures of Johnny Bunko, one of the 6 key messages he puts across is – Make Excellent Mistakes. It’s a similar concept. Don’t make stupid mistakes (although I’m very capable of those myself), make excellent mistakes by trying new things. By taking risks you open yourself up to new possibilities. Being too afraid of making mistakes that you don’t take risks will almost certainly stop you from realising your potential.

It can be easy to write someone like Richard Branson off as a unique individual with talent and luck that the rest of us don’t have, but that isn’t the case. His abilities are modest in many ways. He has simply taken risks and given things a go. He has dared to venture knowing that he could fail – and even when he has failed he has carried on, or as he puts it:

My interest in life comes from setting myself huge, apparently unachievable challenges and trying to rise above them.

Even if it were simply a question of mathematical odds, it makes sense that the more things you go after, the more you are likely to get.

Learn from your mistakes.

Having a ‘Nothing Ventured Nothing Gained’ attitude can really help you go places if you remember to learn from your mistakes. Albert Einstein defined insanity as “doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.” If you make a mistake don’t just blindly keep trying using the same approach. Figure out what went wrong, work out how you can do it better, then have another shot at it.

Interestingly Branson’s high school headmaster made this comment of him when he left school:

Congratulations Branson. I predict that you will either go to prison or become a millionaire.

As it turned out he has done both, but you’ll have to read the book to find out about that :)

Blog Failure, Mistakes

The 4 people mentioned below have had to overcome more than most in their lives. Yet the way they have succeeded in spite of this is quite remarkable. They’ve done far more than most people!

The thing that really stands out to me after learning about them is their lack of self pity. None of them are dwelling on the difficulties they face. They have accepted them and just carried on.

Not only that, they are using the difficulties they face as a way to inspire people. So instead of 4 sad stories we have 4 individuals who have probably inspired millions all around the world. I really like that way they have turned it around. So here they are:

Jessica Cox

Jessica can text, play the piano, type 25 words per minute and put her contact lenses in with her feet. She has a Black Belt in Tae Kwon Do. Up until the age of 22 she’d never been in a plane due to a fear of flying. She decided to overcome this fear and within a few years she had a pilot’s licence. She was born without arms.

Nick Vujicic

Nick struggled with bullying, low self-esteem and depression in his teenage years. He now has a university degree, is president of an international non-profit organisation and in 2005 was nominated for the “Young Australian of the Year” Award. He was born without arms or legs. Warning: this one does contain some pretty cheesy music :)

Brett Eastburn

Brett has played baseball, football and basketball. In the 1988 wrestling competition under the Amater Athletic Union, Brett placed 4th in the US. He is known as “The Stub” because he was born with a right arm stub that goes to just above where an elbow would be, a left arm stub only a couple of inches long, a left leg stub that goes almost to where a knee would be and virtually no leg on his right side.

Tony Christiansen

Tony started racing in a Go Kart his father had built for him at the age of 12 years old. This was the beginning of a life long passion. Like Jessica above he also has a pilot’s license and a Black Belt in Tae Kwon Do. Unlike Jessica however, he does have arms. But he doesn’t have legs. He lost them in a railway accident at the age of 9. He is now aiming to become the world’s fastest amputee by setting a world record at Bonneville salt flats in Utah.

If you like these you might also like to read about the Tetraplegic Farmer.

Blog Inspiring story