Six months ago I suggested life was about more than sitting around and watching TV. Today I’m saying maybe you should watch a lot more. Confused? Let me clear it up.
Enjoying Life
If you ask the average person if they want to enjoy life, they might look at you like you’re nuts. Of course we want to enjoy life. Despite the fact we all may find different ways to enjoy life, finding joy and happiness in life is a common thread amongst people.
And as we go through life, with all it’s challenges and difficulties, sometimes just sitting in front of the TV and relaxing brings us a great deal of joy. It’s nice to sit back, forget our troubles, and just melt into the couch.
It’s a great way to enjoy life. For awhile anyway.
Enjoying Life
Unfortunately, the more we do things that take our time away from more productive activities, the less enjoyment we may have later on in life. Time and money have a common theme in that the more we spend now, the less we have to spend later. Investing both can pay great dividends later.
It may be great to sit and veg and ignore that leak under the sink today, but it won’t be fun when we have a rotten floor and have to pay a contractor tomorrow.
This may seem like a life full of work, work, work, but it could be that we’ll end up watching more TV.
Enjoying Life
I have been spending a lot of time on things I’m passionate about. Beyond my day job, I invest an average of two and a half hours a day following my passions. I read, I blog, I shoot and edit videos, create special effects, and learn.
Some of that requires me to watch a lot of TV. I watch thirty minutes a day of training videos on things that I’m really interested in. On many days that might be it. But on other days I might watch movies or TV shows that help me better understand angles, lighting, script writing, etc.
When we tend to think about being productive, we often think it’s that boring, fix-a-leaky-sink type of activity. But if you are a plumber who loves what she does, this is awesome fun! Some people love to play competitive video games and are so passionate they will make and memorize spreadsheets of moves and talent trees and defensive tactics. Others have no interested in video games, but love to spend their time in the woods hiking, researching trails and studying plant life.
Enjoying Life
In short, when you love what you do, you may end up doing things that don’t seem like work. You may end up doing things that seem like you’re just goofing off. But isn’t that the kind of job you want to have: the one you feel like you’re playing all day?
You may be busy taking notes, rewinding and replaying angles over and over again as you watch TV, or you may be knee deep in spreadsheets as you hone your video game skills, or you might be giving your iPad a workout as you learn every bit of plant life on your trek. To you it’s just a blast, because you’re using your skills and abilities to better yourself and enjoy life to the fullest.
So maybe you should watch TV all day, if making videos and movies is your passion. Maybe that’s how you make the biggest impact in the world. As long as you find what drives you and move in that direction, you may find that you can make the most of things you wouldn’t have expected.
