Brian Tracy argues that excessive television watching wastes time and harms family relationships, goal attainment, physical health, and mental sharpness. He urges viewers to set limits on TV, replace screen time with active family activities and goal-focused work, balance TV with exercise, and engage in mentally challenging pursuits; the talk closes with a call-to-action to reflect and comment.
Hello, I'm Brian Tracy, and today I want to talk to you about your habit of watching too much television. Probably my habit as well. I said before that television can be a wonderful tool or a terrible master depending upon what you watch and how you watch it. The fact of the matter is that with each day offering so much potential for new experiences and challenges to overcome and memories to make, spending the entire day or evening in front of a growing screen is nothing less than a wasted opportunity, which means wasted life. While there's nothing wrong with watching TV every now and then as sort of a tension reliever, there are plenty of times when we go overboard with our television consumption today. What do they call it? They call it binging. Many people binge five to seven hours a day, every day, irrespective of what special program is on or not on. So to better understand the drawbacks of too much tv, let's take a look at some instances in which watching TV can be detrimental to your health, physical and mental. First, TV can rob you of quality time with others. For many families, watching television is their primary family activity. The problem with this is it's not really a family activity at all because no one is communicating. No one is growing closer together or engaging with each other. Watching television is largely a solo activity, irregardless of who is watching with you. It's basically you and the television. That's not to say that a family movie night or watching a sports game together isn't a lot of fun or a great way to bring people together. However, if watching television is the only activity you ever do with your family, then you're missing out on opportunities to communicate with them, grow closer, and make memories together. The solution then, is to mix it up from time to time. Go hiking or a walk around the block with your family, have dinner together, or play a board game. The possibilities for fun family activities are every endless and should certainly be not limited to watching television. Television can get in the way of your achieving your goals. Television is a tempting distraction, and it can easily rob hours from you before you even realize it. What you may have intended to be a short break suddenly turns into an entire day or evening spent in front of the tv. Now, some people don't have any goals outside of their day job, so when they get off work, it doesn't bother them at all to spend the rest of the afternoon watching tv. For the rest of us, though, it's important not to let TV get in the way of accomplishing our goals. Keeping the television from distracting you from your goals, the attraction of distractions. What I call it, whatever those goals may be, is an exercise in self control. So set a limit for how much TV you're going to allow yourself to watch and stick to it. Once you've reached that limit, dedicate the rest of your time to pursuing whatever goals you want to accomplish. In the end, the hours spent pursuing those goals will be so much more rewarding than hours spent watching tv. TV can become a detriment to your health Chances are that when you were a child, your mom probably warned you more than a few times that watching too much TV was bad for your health. As is often the case, it turns out that Mum was right. Studies show a correlation between too much TV consumption and negative health consequences, and they are numerous. And the side effects of too much TV are wide ranging. Watching too much television has been associated with weight gain, eye damage, diabetes, increased aggression, sleep problems, stunted language development in children, and even premature death. A big part of the reason why too much TV is unhealthy is the fact that the time spent in front of a TV is time that you are not spending doing healthy physical activities. So be sure to balance out your TV consumption with plenty of exercise. Finally, too much TV can slow down your mental functions. According to USA Today, you actually become dumber the more hours you watch television. Your IQ kind of depletes. Like a muscle becomes weak without use, your brain becomes weak as well. So when you're watching television, your mind is spaced out, almost in a dreamlike state. The problem is that if you are spending hours each day in this spaced out state, you are dulling your mental functions. Like any other part of your body, your mind requires exercise to stay sharp. Watching TV all day does to your mind. Lying in bed all day does to your body. It starves it of the exercise it needs to stay in shape and slowly erodes your mental strength. Make sure you are challenging your mind each day, tackling new problems that require critical thinking skills. Read, work on puzzles, write, paint or do any of the countless activities that challenge your mind and keep it sharp. Otherwise, you risk letting TV slow down your mental functions and dull your sharp wit. Before we wrap up, I'd like to leave you with a thought to share with your friends and followers. Television can be a wonderful tool or a terrible master depending upon what you watch and how you watch it now. I'd love to hear from you. So my question today is how much more would you get done every day if you watched a little less tv? Leave a comment below and I'LL be sure to follow up with you. Thanks for watching. And remember, if you want to change your future, take action. And take action now. If you enjoyed this video and you feel it was valuable in teaching you about successful habits, subscribe to my channel and like this video and share this video with your friends. 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