It’s been 30 days since I put out the challenge to not watch TV for a month. Speak up and share your experience.

Here’s what I found over 7 years ago when I stopped watching TV…

1. More time – This is pretty simple. The average American adult watches 5 hours of TV per day. Convert some of that into work or starting a business to increase or replace your income. Convert some of it into personal enjoyment.
2. Lower discretionary spending – I am susceptible to materialism. When I allow my brain to be bombarded with advertising, it creates a desire to buy things, and I act on it. Advertising continues to happen because it works. The fact that it works means that the more advertisements I see, the more things I will buy. This increases the amount of work I’ll have to do in my lifetime to support my lifestyle and proportionately decreases the amount of time I’ll spend doing things I enjoy.
3. More productive mode – Watching TV is a non-productive activity. It requires no thinking and no physical activity. Getting into this mode makes it hard to get out. No TV means better mental and physical health.
4. More sleep – Watching TV at night makes me stay awake for longer. I used to tell myself the TV helped me go to sleep, but a basic comparison taught me otherwise. Without TV, I’m always caught up on sleep.
5. Better sleep – Going to sleep without noise actually makes me require less sleep.
6. Did I mention more time? I have a clear set of goals for myself. When I have to decide whether or not to do a certain activity, I ask myself Will this move me towards my goals, away from my goals, or neither? Taking an away activity and turning it into a towards activity has a very powerful effect on how quickly I accomplish my goals.

What else do I do with my time?

In a work week, I work more than 40 hours. Sometimes I work a bit on the weekend. This may sound undesirable, but I truly enjoy most of my work.

The trade off is that I have less work weeks – I enjoy my life… now. Instead of deferring having fun (“retirement”) for another 20 years, I do it all the time. I take a 1 to 2 week vacation every 2 to 3 months. I don’t work less than the average worker, but I also don’t work much more. I take 5 times as many vacations simply through converting wasteful activities into personal enjoyment.

Would you stop watching TV altogether if it meant taking an extra 3 – 5 vacations per year?

I do a lot of things differently in an effort to enjoy my life. Sometimes I forget just how abnormal some of them are. This past week I co-instructed the IRA Association of America professional member enrollment course in Denver, CO. During a lunch conversation, one of our new members asked me what my secret is to accomplishing so much so rapidly. I half jokingly explained that I don’t watch TV. I guess this type of statement is more unbelievable than I had thought because a couple of hours later he still couldn’t believe it: “You really don’t watch any TV at all?”

“I don’t own a TV,” I explained. “I occasionally watch DVDs on my projector.”

I don’t watch TV for two reasons:

Mental & Physical Health – I believe that everything that goes into my body or mind becomes part of me. Turning on the TV means that I can choose to watch what’s available from a menu, but only if I also watch other things which I have no control over – commercials. Our thoughts create our reality. Having others’ thoughts shoved into my brain means letting other people create my reality.

Time – I want to enjoy my life. Every second is a decision. When I pit TV against snowboarding, snow skiing, wakeboarding, water skiing, bicycling, car racing, motorcycling, playing musical instruments, and traveling to new places… TV always loses. To afford some of these activities, I’ve had to work very hard in a field that I am very passionate about: investing. In that process, I’ve come to enjoy working, reading, writing, teaching, and learning. So any time I have the decision before me to watch TV or do any of these activities, I also choose against TV.

Years ago, as I first made the leap into entrepreneurship, my mentor forbade me to watch TV. He was a 30 year old self-made millionaire who I had agreed to follow without question.

Examining the effects of a specific behavior is only possible by contrasting it to its inverse behavior. In other words… I don’t think you could possibly understand the effect of watching TV unless you quit watching TV to have something to compare to.

The Challenge

Stop watching TV for 30 days.

Seriously. You wouldn’t be reading my blog if you weren’t out to accomplish something. What are you capable of accomplishing if you can’t do something as simple as not watch TV for a month? It may be hard, but it’s simple. If somebody in your household turns on a TV, go in the other room. Completely stay away from TV 100% for 30 days.

But what about the news?!

Anything life altering will be passed on to you from all your friends, family, and co-workers who watch TV every single day. I think you’ll find during this 30 days that nothing life altering will be reported anyways. The result? Instead of focusing on other people’s lives for several hours after work, you can pay more attention to your life.

Exceptions

This isn’t a TV reduction experiment. Don’t cut everything except your favorite 1 or 2 shows; cut everything.

This is an extremely simple task, and it will help you realize your willpower. For me, this was a first step in exercising my willpower into a muscle capable of accomplishing much more.

Magazines & Newspapers

To make the most of this test, eliminate magazines and newspapers as well. Before you start complaining about how absurd this is, you’ll need reasons. You can’t develop those until you experience both sides, and that is only possible by taking this challenge.

A 3 Step Program

1. For 30 days eliminate TV watching and newspaper/magazine reading from your life.
2. Come back here, and share your experience in the comments.
3. [I'll fill this in 30 days from now.]