The Reality of Reality TV

I was prompted to write this after being awoken having dreamt of a guy having pec implants! I traced the origins of this back to a programme that I had been mindlessly watching the day before. It was a reality show where a bride and groom agree to have cosmetic surgery and not see each other for the month prior to their big day. Now call me old fashioned, but I find this pretty extreme and somehow sad that these people are willing to put themselves under the knife all for vanity. However I did give it an hour of my time in order to see the end result!

This got me thinking about how I use tv and how the flurry of reality tv programmes enables us to focus on the flaw's of others, rather than think about our own. We happily judge and idly gossip about another's behaviour without having to dwell on ours. Funny that many people say that they do not have time to focus on the things that are important to them, but yet they find the time to focus on things that will be meaningless in a few short days or months. We are often quick to judge the lives of others we see on tv, but are unwilling to clean up our own.

Through reality tv we get caught up in the lives of others and in turn we allow others to determine what we focus on. Have you ever found yourself watching tv when you know you should be doing something important like attending to your family? Or looking at people on tv enviably because they are doing what you long to do? Yet you prefer to attend to the remote control.

If so, then it is not to late to reclaim those lost hours. I am not saying that you have to stop watching tv completely, just choose more carefully what you watch and when. Decide how much and when you want to use your tv, rather than just having it on for the sake of it. Watch what you really enjoy and gain value from and ditch the rest. Remember the people on the screen are strangers and forever will be. Don't let your own greatness pass you by whilst lounging on the sofa watching life, but not living life.

No Time? How Much TV Do You Watch?

You may recall in the '7 Ways Consume Less, Create More' blog entry I discussed turning off the television to get your creativity flowing. We often don’t realize how television eats away at our time. For example let's do the maths:

• If you watch 4 hours of tv a night (say you watch tv between 6pm & 10pm, which arguably many households do)


• Therefore in a week that amounts to 28 hours


• Not including the weekends where many people watch more sports etc or in the cold winter months when we tend to stay inside & tune into the box more


• On average in a month that is 121 hours of tv


• Therefore in a year that amounts to 1,452 hours


• Which equates to a staggering 60 days


• In other words you spend two months of each year watching tv..

Sounds hard to believe, but if you check the figures they are correct. When I discussed this with my partner he found it hard to swallow as he is often attached to the remote control.. Now don't get me wrong there are certain programs that I thoroughly enjoy and I am not suggesting that you ditch the telly completely, but I am hoping that by reading this it makes you aware of what you could achieve if you watched tv less.

Personally I have many plans in the coming year, most importantly to give birth to a healthy baby a the end of October, to work more on my business and establish my writing & speaking career. With a busy toddler in tow it is often tempting when he has finally fallen asleep to retreat to the lounge and mindlessly watch tv for a couple of hours. However, I often find when I do that I end up irritated and actually have trouble sleeping, unless it is 'Secret Millionaire' of course which I think should be compulsory viewing for all aspiring millionaires. I try to limit the amount of tv that I watch and will only watch programs that I can learn from or that I thoroughly enjoy.

Seriously though, next time you hear yourself saying 'I would like to do that, but I don't have the time', think about unlocking some of that valuable time by limiting the amount of tv you watch. The least you can do is press the mute button whilst the adverts are on so you don't expose yourself to promotions for things that you don't actually need. Use the three minute advert breaks to ponder on the things you would do if you did have the time...