What would you do if I gave you nine whole years to add to your life? Would you think, what a big opportunity?
In a former life as a cameraman travelling around the world, I had what I call a ringside view of life. I got so close to a lot of people and saw, in many cases, intimately, what makes them tick.
I met many successful people and many unsuccessful people. Over time I began to notice patterns in both successful and unsuccessful people.
One of these patterns ... and this is going to sound very odd … is that successful people collectively watched relatively little TV. Successful people couldn't tell you who won Idol or America's Got Talent. A very general statement for sure, but there is a truth to it I experienced.
I recently read a quote by Jim Rohn that said,
Consider this:
Well, the average TV viewer watches 3-4 hours a day. A beautifully benign statistic because it doesn’t sound bad, does it?
That’s 52 full days of non-stop TV viewing a year.
By the time you are 65, you will have spent 9 whole years of your life sitting watching something that at best can be described as average.
This is the nine-year curse as I like to call it.
Now here's my question for you:
If you were designing the perfect life for your child or grandchild, would you include 9 years sitting on the couch?
I've never heard one person answer yes …
Then why do we collectively as a society barely raise a whimper?
Time to summon the courage to change our habits. I did.
Here are two alternatives to being a passive TV watcher.
Trade an hour of sitting and watching TV at night for an hour of walking and listening to podcasts in the morning. This simple switch makes you smarter and better looking. I call it Footpath University and I’m there almost every morning.
Trade places. Get on the other side of the screen and deliver the content yourself. It’s achievable. I know. I did it. I created a successful Youtube channel as a middle-aged man. As a cameraman, I spent decades hiding behind the camera, and now, I’m in front of it. I show people how I developed the confidence to be on video - a skill we are all going to need as hey, this is the video age - in my Camera Confidence Workshop. We will all be using video to communicate, especially in business.
So do something about the 9 Year Curse. Discuss it at work. Ask your friends if they know about it. Imagine if you were able to even make it the 8 Year Curse. What could you be doing with a whole 365 days x 24 hours of your time? What opportunity could you create for you and your family? All it takes is the courage to be a little bit uncomfortable.