Some Good Ways to Waste Your Life

"There are any number of ways to waste your life."   Guy Tal, More Than a Rock, copyright Rocky Nook, 2015, Used by permission.

This will be a challenge to write about. What is "wasting time" to one person is bliss to another. Who's to say what is wasting time or a productive use of time?

But I'm up to the challenge.

Someone who enjoys fishing would say "If this is wasting time, I want to waste as many hours as possible."  Someone who doesn't like to fish might see those hours as time that could have been invested in something more productive--work, family, other recreation, etc.

It is estimated that by the time the "average American" reaches the age of sixty five,  he will have watched nine  years of television. Those nine years are based on average viewing of five hours per day. These same people estimate that this person will increase the television viewing to seven hours a day after retirement. Let's talk about this. Read my question in the previous paragraph. You may say, "I really enjoy watching television. I don't really care if it's nine years or nineteen years, when I'm home there's nothing I'd rather do than watch TV. If that's wasting time then so be it." But let's look at it from another perspective. What else could you do with nine years besides being glued to a TV?  In nine years you could get a four-year college degree, a two year masters degree and three years toward your doctorate. Since you've used all your free TV years, you might have to spend a few more of your own years to become a heart surgeon, but you're well on your way with all that TV time.

What if on day one of your nine years you started walking ten miles a day in a straight line?  At the end of nine years you will have walked 32,850 miles.  That means that you would have walked completely around the world and 8,000 more miles back to your favorite place  All of this to say that there is nothing wrong with enjoying TV if that's your bliss,  but it's worth taking an inventory to make sure that's the way you want to spend those nine years.

By now you're thinking, "What's the point in this strictly a matter of preference and opinion discussion of wasting time?"  I agree.

Now I want to suggest a very popular way of wasting time that I think we can all agree is actually wasting time.  Hundreds of millions of people spend their lives worried about something. Many times I've read "worry and anxiety" in the same breath.  Worry and anxiety are not the same thing. The worrier chooses to worry. There are a multitude of reasons for someone to be anxious that include complicated medical issues. The dictionary definition of "worry" includes "allowing one's mind to dwell on difficulty or troubles."  That says it pretty clearly, n'est ce pas?

"Allowing" is a powerful word in this context.  The worrier is in full control of his thought processes. He could choose to think about any number of good things; he could consider any number of good outcomes. He could allow the mental pumps to flood his nervous system with good feelings. Instead this person chooses to worry and allows those pumps to flood his system with all kinds of toxic poisons. I read the best illustration of the futility of worry years ago and I have never found anything better.  I know it helped me. "When the boys left home to fight for the north and the south in the American Civil War,, many of the mothers were afraid that they would never see their sons alive again.  This was a legitimate concern and became true for tens of thousands of mothers. However, many of these mothers worried themselves sick all day every day for four long years.   And many of those boys came home. What if you could have  combined all the worry power of all  of those mothers over those four years, would that incredible ball of worry have changed the trajectory of a single bullet?"  I'm not suggesting that it's easy to give up a worry habit. I know by experience that it's not.   I am suggesting that it's possible to substitute positive thoughts resulting in positive feelings for the futility of worry. I know this by experience as well. As bad as things seem to be these days, as many dire warnings as I read about the future we're creating for my granddaughter and her future children, I constantly remind myself of that "ball of worry" and those bullets.  My worry contribution isn't going to make Spaceship Earth one iota better.

What if we gave up habits that are taking significant time off the "last years of our life"?
There is no need for specifics and statistics here. You know who you are and you know what this is.  I know you may feel like you need it and even enjoy it, but is it worth robbing yourself, your  family and friends of months and years of your life? Okay, you're right.  Life should be measured in quality than in quantity.  But what if you could give this up and have more of both?

Okay, it's your turn to ask me a question. "What about the countless hours you  spend each week listening to music, reading and writing?  I know you enjoy it, but why isn't that just as much wasted time as watching TV or any other pastime?"

Let me think about that and get back to you.

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