Give Up To Gain Up

Next month I am giving up movies and TV and other online visual entertainment. Why am I doing this? I want to see what happens.

This week I have been cramming my head full of TV. That is what you do before giving something up right? You overload till you get sick of it and it is easier to stop. Or does it just reinforce all of the things that you are trying to change about yourself. Life is about balance, but sometimes we must jump in without looking back.  To make decisions stick, you have to commit.

The best way to stop doing something, is to stop doing it. What would you like to give up so you can gain something else? What will you have instead? For example giving up smoking to have better health or TV to have more time. I would like to practice creativity during my month of no TV. Creativity is a skill which we must commit ourselves to. If we cannot commit ourselves to pursuits that stimulate us then what are we doing to ourselves?

Beginning June 1st, what will happen? Will I finish writing my novel? Will I start drawing more? Will I find other ways to tell stories?

If you start a project, follow through on it. As Seth Godin says on his blog – “If you haven’t announced a date, you’re not serious.”

So get serious, set a date. Announce it to the world. Make it real, then start. Document the process so that other’s can follow along and you can remember what happened. Start a Tumblr or a WordPress site. Tweet your progress. Choose to commit and go for it. It is not self-promotion, it is self-explanation. You never know when you will need to look back and reflect.  Here is a wonderful example of one man’s commitment to Dinovember, where he devotes the month of November to convincing his children while they sleep, their plastic dinosaur figures come to life. You can even chat with Rex on Twitter.

During the month of no TV, I will be taking a course at Nest Coworking, The Artists Way. I am looking forward to how this will all feed into the process. At the conclusion of this journey I will publish my findings on The Shoe Alternative’s Blog.

I cannot wait to see what happens!