Need more reasons to turn off the TV? Not convinced yet? Let your logic chew on these little gems:

1. TV destroys your love life

How many couples start their relationship chatting till late hours of the night, going out for coffee to romantic corner cafés and giving each other erotic massages all night long? TV is never even considered in those early, heady, honeymoon weeks of a new romance. Then someone turns on the TV! What a stupid thing to do. He says, “Honey, let’s go explore each other.” She says, “uh, I’ll be there later my love, I just want to finish watching my soapy… you don’t mind do you?” He goes to bed and falls asleep before she gets there. The next afternoon she says, “my love, let’s try position 37, I don’t think we’ve done that yet.” He says, “Not now honey, Liverpool just have to score one more goal and they’re through to the quarter finals.” Before long, a once-romantic couple is in a constant state of distractedness and lifelessness. Television has sapped their energy, their passion, their libido and their reason for being together. There are thousands of woman everywhere screaming “I wish the stupid *&^%$ would turn off the *%^$% TV!!!!!”

2. TV is noise pollution

It is a fact that we are not ‘quiet’ enough. Check out http://www.quiet.org and this article about the consequences of noise on our health. There is a worldwide move back to being more spiritually aware. Generations have lived under a noisy flood of religion, media, television, radio and other sounds that fill our heads with words, clichés, convincing facts and a dull sense of mental anesthesia. To get in touch with ourselves, separate from our need for approval and validation from others, we need to become quiet. We need to learn to sit quietly in the garden, or under a tree, and… think, allowing our own consciousness and self developed opinions and paradigms to form. Some call it meditation; others call it having a ‘devotion’ or ‘quiet time’, (though often these terms refer to another tactic of the institution to influence even your silent thought processes). What we really need is time to be truly quiet. This heals mind, body and spirit, and injects new energy and opportunity into your life. TV is a sure way to keep the quiet out and fill your head with useless buzz.

3. TV is a money drain

Having already established that TV is a waste of time with a list of negative consequences on your life, it would make no sense to spend any money on it, right? Well, we do spend money on TV, and lots of it. Let’s consider the impact of television on your budget. This is a South African scenario but I’m sure the principles apply anywhere. Firstly, if you own a TV you have to pay a TV license fee to the national broadcaster. This enables them to keep churching out rubbish on 3 channels 24 hours per day. A TV license costs about R250 a year. Then there’s the TV itself. Most people aren’t content to watch TV on a small box anymore, after all if you’re spending 4 hours per day watching the thing you may as well do it properly right? An 81cm flat screen LCD TV costs around R7000, which of course turns into R10000 when taken as credit installments. Then, most people aren’t happy to have only three channels of local rubbish to watch, they want 100 channels of international rubbish too. A full ‘bouquet’ of DSTV channels will cost about R6000 per year, and throw in another R4000 for an HD decoder and, hey presto, you’ve spent R20250. You could be paying about R800 per month to keep up the TV addiction, and that doesn’t include TVs in other locations like offices and holiday homes. On top of that, time is money, and if you’re spending 4 hours per day watching TV and let’s say you might be investing at least one of those hours into an earning opportunity (like writing this blog), then TV is probably costing you well over R5000 per month in wasted opportunity. Instead, the poor masses stare vacantly at the screen waiting for their ‘ship to come in’ and throwing away opportunities for success, happiness, wealth creation and relationship building, all the while making companies richer – hmmm.

Started your TV fast yet? It’s easy – just unplug your TV from the wall and put it high up in a cupboard for a month. Move your couches around to fill the vacant space and start doing other things with your time. Start a small business. Invite some friends over for games. Read to your children. Make love to your partner. Read a book. Play an instrument. Improve your garden. Start a hobby. Get fit. Discover a new restaurant. The possibilities are endless. Have fun.

The timeline is the spoken and unspoken social requirement that everyone should get registered, schooled, graduate from college, get married (forever), have two and a half kids, buy a home, have two dogs, go to church, get a safe job with a regular income, start saving for retirement and death, get promoted, buy a fancy car, teach your kids to live the timeline, retire and die – and by the way, through all of this try not to look for trouble, don’t challenge the system, fear God, fear your government and don’t take any risks.

We are programmed to be acceptable, fearful and amiable. The only ambition that is taken seriously is the ambition to make more and more money. We are driven, practically foaming at the mouth, to make more money, all with the end goal in mind of “retiring” in comfort and having nothing to “worry” about. We earn and earn at the expense of our families, our relationships, our health and mental and spiritual wellbeing. We give up our own personal and meaningful dreams to adopt the myth in the understanding that one day we’ll be happy if we just follow all the rules.

Here are some reasons why the timeline is a myth:

1. Money is a means, not an end

Money can certainly relieve some immediate stresses, like paying off debt or hiring domestic help etc. However the real problems in our lives are caused by the way we think, not the lack of money. Often we have no money because we’re too fearful or depressed to attract any. When you have a real and meaningful personal vision for your life, and you pursue the vision rather than the money to make it happen, the money starts finding its way to you. People with a dream attract likeminded people and resources to make the dream happen. Money becomes a side issue, secondary to the main event. If you’re working “for money” and waiting for you “ship to come in” you’ll probably be waiting a long, long time. My advice: Focus on your dream, not all the things you “don’t have”. The more you fear money (or the lack of it), the less you’ll have. You need energy and positivity to be productive and achieve worthwhile goals – fear will steal all that away from you. Project your vision and attract the resources to you.

2. Retirement helps you die quicker

People have this surreal image in their heads of what retirement is. They see themselves sitting on the beach from age 55 through to uh… 120, sunbathing and doing crossword puzzles or other such arbitrary and apparently pleasant things. They have a sense that this will be complete bliss and that they’ll never have to “work” again. This is such fantastical nonsense. Firstly, we all have an innate desire – need – to work and be productive. Yes, you may hate your current job, but that’s because you’re on the timeline, your attitude is wrong and you’re doing something someone else told you to do instead of what you were born to do. If you’re living your dream you’ll be “working” and therefore earning until you die or your body shuts down, which should be long after fifty five. Secondly, if you’ve ever tried to do “nothing” for a few months you’ll realize how brain deadening and dull it is. Sure, the first few weeks can be great stress relief and recovery time, but soon you start to feel like you’re wasting your time and your internal urge to “make a difference” kicks in. People who retire to nothing start to deteriorate and eventually give up on life altogether. What’s the point of working and saving for retirement for the sole purpose of breathing and existing till you die? My advice: discover your dream and start working at it. In time your passion and ability will make way for you and you can live the rest of your life doing what you enjoy without the need for retirement.

3. Life without risk is no life at all

A careful look at the timeline and the clichés and rhetoric that support it reveals a few interesting themes. The two that stand out most obviously for me are “make more money” and “be safe!” Everything we learn from childhood reinforces the notion that we must reject risk at all costs and set up our lives for maximum security and minimal personal discomfort. Think about it, we live in prisons behind high walls and burglar bars. We insure everything we own just in case we lose it – heaven forbid. We medicate ourselves and our children into a coma. We get any job we can find to secure that all-important monthly pay cheque (for what its worth). In the process we have lost our sense of adventure, our creativity, our imagination, our pioneering spirit, our individuality, our sense of excitement and freedom, and most of all – our joy. People live lives of quiet desperation behind their physical and emotional fortifications, secretly hoping that something great will happen but always disappointed. They say the definition of stupidity is doing the same thing and expecting a different result. If you want something great to happen, you’re going to have to step out and take a few risks. My advice: create your “bucket list”. Write down three or five or ten things you want to do before you die… then do them! You’re probably going to have to face all sorts of fears and obstacles, but that’s exactly what makes life worth living. Take a risk, swim out to sea, go get your ship and bring it in. Yes, there’s a chance you’ll drown in the waves, but it’s no more risk than dying in the desert you’re waiting in.

PS: I’d love to see your bucket lists. Please post them as comments on this article J