We humans are an ambitious bunch of people. We want to accomplish all sorts of things in our short time on earth. We want to write books, help others, learn sign language, learn musical instruments, skydive, start businesses, learn foreign languages, make a difference, break world records, ride in a hot-air balloon -- the list goes on and on.
What about you? What do you want to do? At the end of your life, what would make you successful? What must you build, accomplish, change, achieve, invent, establish, develop, cultivate, cause, launch, produce, or create that will make you feel like you have been successful? It's yours to decide. Nobody but you gets to make this decision.
Now write it down on a piece of paper.
Everyone has a different answer, but no matter what that thing is, it will require work. In fact, it will probably require a considerable amount of work. But it's the most important thing to you, right?
Assuming you sleep for eight hours, work eight hours a day and spend at least two hours commuting, preparing for work, doing housework, laundry, cooking and all the other stuff you have to do, that only leaves about six hours each day.
According to Nielsen's March 2014 Cross-Platform report, American adults watch an average of five hours and 15 minutes of TV each day. That eats up most of your six hours. In fact, it only leaves about 45 minutes. Granted, there's more time on the weekends, but not much. Weekends usually contain more projects, more work, more activities and probably even more TV.
Those five hours and 15 minutes of TV each day come to 37 hours each week. Most full-time jobs are 40 hours a week. It's almost as much time as a second full-time job. And when you include the additional three and half hours of time shifted TV (DVR) that Nielsen reports Americans watch, it's more than a full-time job.
Is 45 minutes a day enough to get done what you must in order to be successful at the end of your life? If you are working a full-time job, have even a negligible amount normal life responsibility and watch five hours and 15 minutes of TV each day, that's basically what you're working with. We haven't even included social activities. We are left to assume that social activities are relegated to Facebook at stoplights.
Now take that piece of paper on which you wrote what would make you successful and tape it to your TV screen. Put it right in the middle so it obstructs the view of the screen.
Now every time you watch TV, you have to move success out of the way.