142: Is Netflix Ruining Your Flow?

Welcome to Fit for your Mind Friday where I share an insight from me to you. If you've been listening to my podcast for quite some time, you'll see that there's a theme with people that I've interviewed, people that are successful, that have achieved massive success in their life, and that is their habits. They have become their habits. And they, they all speak on my podcast about how habits really do define us, but they're also human and they can get sidetracked on habits that aren't. Aren't so great sometimes. And I want to share what, what happened to me recently because I was going through a period of where I was not sleeping very well and my creativity was not as strong as it normally was. And I even found myself feeling more negative through the day. So focusing on why something is not possible versus how I was normally l in the idea of things are always possible, that all things are possible and potential and living in vision. And I didn't really know what was going on with me. In fact, I looked at my diet, I looked at how I was, you know, my ha. My other habits, like was I still walking every day, was I still moving? And I really didn't know what exactly was off. And then it hit me, it hit me and I want to share it with you because this might be something in your gap right now. You see, for years, as I said, I was a peaceful sleeper. I'd wake up with creative ideas, productive thoughts and a great mood. And I was great about not watching the news and instead I would read regularly, I would listen to podcasts and I was very intentional with exactly who I'm surrounding myself with and learning from. And in fact, that's a big reason I started my podcast is I wanted to be interviewing people that were living a leveled up life and I wanted to surround myself with that information. And I honestly never understood the Netflix or reality TV addiction, even though so many of my friends would mention, you know, did you watch this show or did you hear about this? I never fully understand the addiction, but recently I really noticed that I had formed some new patterns. Like I mentioned at the beginning of this, having a harder time getting in a productive and creative mood, I started to drag on my wake ups. Instead of my normal 6am wake up with lots of ideas. I was sleeping slowly becoming that 7:30 wake up person without an alarm. My sleep was getting more disturbed, my mornings were dragging, it was taking a lot longer to get myself in a creative and positive mood. And as I mentioned, I was not sure what was happening Because I was still on point with what I was eating. I was still on point with my workouts, my walks, my podcast listening. None of that had changed. And then it hit me. You see, I have TVs at my house, but until a few months ago, I was only using them for the occasional documentary or movie. That was it. But then. Drumroll. Drumroll, please. I discovered Netflix and Hulu, and it honestly started so innocent. It was with, you know, one show at a time. And it quickly escalated. I would watch one series, and I would get addicted to it and watch the whole series, and then I would get on to the next. And now, you see, instead of being intentional with my nighttime routine, I was starting to binge on the Netflix life. And you know what? I justified it. I justified it all the time with being a way to veg out and relax. I said, I work hard during the day. I'm always on the go. It's a way to veg out and relax. I didn't look at it as something that was harming me. But then I started to connect the dots. Maybe what I was putting in at night was changing my days. Maybe binge watching five seasons of Orange Is the New Black, for example, was changing my mood and my focus and my creativity. I knew better, and I still fell into this trap. And I'm sharing this with you because many of you might be, too. Now, as challenging as this felt, I made a decision just recently. I decided no more junk tv. I decided that I was going to pick up the books again, and I was going to intentionally read and put the good stuff at night before bed. So I simply shifted, and instead of turning on the boob tube, as my grandparents used to call it at night, I decided I was going to journal and read before bed. And I was only going to read things that were in the personal development space, that were going to help me level up, help me think new positive thoughts.