The Biggest Obstacle To What You Want In Life
The biggest obstacle to what you want in life is too much entertainment.
What do I mean by entertainment?
In this context, I define entertainment as something effortlessly delivered to you that makes you feel good in the moment but somewhat hollow afterwards. Like an addiction, you feel you need more and more of it. Examples of this kind of entertainment are:
- Social media-scrolling
- Youtube
- Movies and TV-series
- Podcasts
- Books
Now you might ask, “Why books?”. “They are the primary sources of explicit knowledge, and a reading habit is highly beneficial?”
I agree that books are wonderful. In moderation, I do not have anything against everything listed (as you can read every Sunday). However, there comes a point where you read/listen to a book primarily to remind yourself of what you already know. Instead of learning new information, you continue to chew on the same insights, feeling good in the process. When you do not learn anything new, then this piece of literature is entertainment.
The problem with too much of the good
Let me be super-clear again: there is nothing wrong with entertainment in moderation. You need this entertainment to balance your life.
The problem arises when entertainment either 1) becomes too much or 2) hinders you from doing the activities you know you want to do. Entertainment becomes a distraction, an alluring force that sucks endless hours out of your life, taking advantage of the least resistant path.
For example, I found myself last Saturday spending 6 hours on pure entertainment (a k a Youtube). Although this was my day off, I felt worse and not refreshed afterward than when I began this rabbit hole. Furthermore, whenever I have been late or slow to start a work activity, excessive entertainment has always been the cause. All the times I have procrastinated have always been a result of always falling back to what is easy.
Worst of all, some entertainment creates an illusion of productivity. Until now, I strongly believed that constantly plugging into more constructive entertainment was the key to a productive life. It is not.
The solution: define your limits and stick to them
You do not want to remove entertainment completely from your life. After all, it is important to have fun whenever you can.
Instead, the solution is to define your limits. Make it clear when, where, and how you will consume entertainment. Do not set extreme limits immediately but gradually work instead.
For instance, I am now allowed to consume entertainment as long as it does not slow me down. In this case, it is during walks, exercise, and adjacent to meals. No longer when doing chores unless there is no video.
You might have different limits, which is essential. Find out what works for you and stick to it. As long as you become a master, not a slave to entertainment, you can finally break free and accomplish whatever you want in life.
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