I know… I know it sounds dramatic especially in today’s world when questions like “you watching anything?” and “wanna Netflix and chill?” are so common. Ok, there is a lot more associated with that second question, but you know what I mean…
I actually suggested that I would give up Netflix to a friend and he said, “Oh wow! that is sooo extreme!” … that’s when I thought man this has to happen… how can it be extreme to give up Netflix?
It’s just such a time-sink that it is crazy. I am literally writing this after watching 5 hours of The Flash (don’t judge me… it’s an easy watch ok!), 5 HOURS!!! 5 hours that I will never get back and 5 hours that I could have spent doing some productive or even just more enjoyable.
It’s not like I don’t want to do anything with my life. I want to travel, learn languages, make phone apps, learn to play the guitar, write and read more; the list is pretty extensive. But that is 5 hours gone, which, I could have been learning or planning some of those things.
Just imagine the possibilities! Take those 5 hours and add them to all the other hours spent on Netflix, YouTube and social media and think if you were to dedicate those hours to achieving the goals and aims you have how much more fulfilling life would be!
The worst thing is a couple of hours in to watching you start to multitask your distractions! During the third episode I was scrolling through Instagram and researching several things that have been on my mind all while “background watching” Netflix.
Then sometimes you take a break from the show you’re watching to watch something else!
True to Myself…
In Bronnie Ware’s blog post Regrets of the Dying and in her international bestselling book The Top Five Regrets of the Dying she says the number one regret that people in palliative care was “ I wish I’d lived a life true to myself, not the life that others expected of me”.
This isn’t even what people expect of me! This is just sitting in front of the TV like a zombie!
So, it is time to change…
I have decided to give up Netflix (and other streaming services), YouTube (unless it is a tutorial of something I am doing in the moment) and all social media.
Since I am not a masochist, I am going to give myself as a choice to watch whatever I want on Saturday or Sunday, not both. This is not something I have to do… but if I want to, I can…
Giving up these things has to be coupled building some daily habits that I want with specific outcomes or goals will (hopefully) lead to progress towards my goals which would lead to a purpose and fulfilment (as cheesy as it sounds).
The Goals
I have had some of these goals for the last 15 years and nothing has come of them, so the following is what I want to achieve.
- Learn German – I have spent some time in Germany recently and I have really loved it, I have always been keen to learn different languages but never really got round to it.
- Learn to Code – This is something that I have been wanting to do most of my adult and teenage life (the past 20 years!) but I either got discouraged from the material or the goals that I set myself because they didn’t relate to anything that I want to build with the code.
- Learn to Play the guitar – My brother had an old acoustic guitar that he hadn’t played in a long time, and he was looking to get rid of… so I took it. Have had a passing interest in playing an instrument and think it would be amazing to be able to play some music.
- Get Six Pack – I know I know, cheesy as fuck, but there is more too it. In order to live the best life I can and to achieve everything I want to achieve in my life, I have to be in the best shape I can be. The main objective here is to have more energy that is sustained throughout my waking hours. Just thought I would stick a cheesy metric in there.
- Improve Mental health – this is a big one although it is a lousy goal ‘improve my mental health” as it is so vague but, in all honesty, I am not sure what improving my mental health looks like or the steps I am going to have to take to get it to a place where I think I am looking after my mental health. I suffer from some anxiety and what seems some deep-seated guilt which, I think, is affecting my focus and causing some serious procrastination. I am keen to try therapy and see where it takes me.
I am going to have to think really hard about the habits I want to have that are going to get me to my goals… and I think I know just the man that has all the answers I need…
Enter James Clear and Atomic Habits
James Clear has been writing about habits and decision making and continuous improvement since 2012 (yes that line is straight from his about page). His work culminated with his #1 New York Times bestseller Atomic Habits.
Atomic Habits lays out a framework to build systems around your goals… if the goal is the destination the system is the vehicle that is going to get you there.
“You don’t rise to the level of your goals. You fall to the level of your systems”
I will give the book a full review and break down in another article, so I will attempt to be brief here.
There are four rules in the book for forming new habits which the book is sectioned by. They are:
- Make it Obvious
- Make it Easy
- Make it Attractive
- Make it Satisfying
The book gives a myriad of examples, which are accounts individuals improving 1% a day. If this 1% a day lasted for a year it would lead to a x37 improvement…
This is all done by the “Atomic Habits” that are created and maintained over time.
I plan to take each one of my goals and create habits around them to get me there one day at a time… I just need to enjoy the journey and not stress the completion of the goal to the point of procrastination… I’ll make it eventually…
Final Thoughts…
I have wasted an unbelievable amount of time on video content consumption in my life… and I really mean wasted. Just watching something for the sake of watching, sitting down to browse for something to watch something and nothing in particular.
This would all be fine…
But it all comes down to waking up one day and think am I living the life I want? or am I hiding from the work that needs to be done to get to where I want to go… it was and is definitely the latter…
So, time to change…
