I love me some Succession.
I also dig the show Billions.
But both forms of fiction provide a mere hour long of light entertainment here and there.
I love my real life so enjoying fiction plays a small part in my experience. Being enthusiastic about:
- circling the globe
- helping people through blogging
- strengthening my mind
energizes me to persist.
Oddly enough, some folks get incredibly excited about a new show or movie being released 1 week or even 1 month down the road. But much of the same crowd feels depressed if not outright hopeless about their real life. Why would you reserve boundless enthusiasm for fiction but feel flat about life?
I love entertainment like the next guy or gal. But streaming video plays a small part in my life. Save a tiny bit of light entertainment I reserve little energy for fictitious characters, celebrity gossip and other illusory stories. Reality become my priority years ago. I decided to follow my dreams well over 14 years ago. Now my real world is not too unlike a Hollywood movie but only because I became enthusiastic about my real life and spent little time focusing on fiction.
Twitter seems odd to me. People devote hours gossiping about celebrities, flipping out over movie premieres and displaying wild excitement over their favorite show debuting on Netflix. But many of the same people despise their job. Some of this crowd feels deeply depressed about their family life or feels rejected by their friend network. Why would you choose to NOT address life problems but fill your days with hours of distraction via entertainment?
The real world is your life. Face it. Edge into your fears. Feel your fears. Release your fears. Live your dreams. Leave your comfort zone. Let go a bizarre, rampant obsession with entertainment. Or in less extreme circumstances, stop allowing hours of streaming video to consume every single one of your days.
Relaxing with some entertainment is certainly A-OK. But when a few moments of delightful streaming becomes hours, days and weeks of distraction you need to re-assess your direction. Take care of your life before spending valuable time and emotional energy getting caught up in Oscar shows, Golden Globes and other forms of entertainment. Make YOUR life the dream affair. Never settle. Do not waste time gossiping about your favorite actor. How about becoming the star of your life? Make different choices. Stop living in survival mode. Step into thriving mode.
Imagine embodying the same level of enthusiasm for your job, business or family life that folks tend to reserve for sports, entertainment and celebrities. I have seen people go bonkers about the teaser for their favorite show 6 months before the show debuts. But some of the same people choose to work a job that feels as boring to them as watching paint dry.
Surround yourself with powerful people. Learn how to live a life of purpose. Anyone can become seasick on the ocean of circumstance, being tossed to and fro by various situations. But powerful people become the shot callers of their life.
Passionate, generous servants live their dreams by designing their lives around their dreams, not by making dreams a passing afterthought one ponders for a few seconds each week before sprinting back into:
- survival mode
- distractions
Chase your dreams or you will be watching others live their dreams as you distract yourself with a life of pleasant fiction but unpleasant reality.