February 13, 2013

CHALLENGE // GIVING UP TV


Today marks the first day of Lent. I'm not one for making broad proclamations about religion, but I am personally devoted to living a life that exemplifies it. I attribute much of my personal growth, sense of purpose and life experiences to the community that I've found because of it. Since high school when I began to take the religion I've grown up around (Christianity) as my own, Lent has been a 40-day period of time where I focus on personally growing.

For me, Lent has always been about bettering myself in some way. Some years, it was kicking my caffeine craving or chocoholic tendencies. Some years, it was by devoting myself to doing something positive like journaling or remembering to give thanks. This year, it's about cutting something out of my schedule that is slowly suffocating my life.

I hinted about something weighing heavy on my conscience a few days ago. I called it my guilty pleasure in this post. Television. Lately, it's felt more guilty that pleasurable but I haven't been able to kick the habit. When I have a spare 40 minutes, I find myself on Netflix or Hulu catching up on my long list of favorite shows. For the past month or so, I've felt time slipping away from me, both on an hourly basis and when thinking of the looming future. How much time do I waste watching television when I could be with friends? Can you imagine all of the things I can get done in with my day without this drain?

I'm beyond excited to hit the refresh button and ditch TV for a while. I am giving myself an exception - when friends gather to watch something, because I don't want my challenge to hinder any social aspects of my life (in fact, I want the opposite). I'm sure it will be difficult when my twitter feed is blowing up about the latest television drama, but I'm going to focus on the things I'm adding to my life because of it. For starters, I'm planning on doing a bunch of leisurely reading, teaching myself a bit of French, planning some loose itineraries for Paris in three months, reconnecting with this blog and of course, hitting this whole job search thing with a fresh energy.

Any challenges that you're planning to take? What would you fill your days with if you gave up watching television? And (more importantly), what should I read?!

1 comment:

  1. Wow, I kinda wish I was dedicated enough to do something like this! Best books I've reasd for a while are The Maze Runner (James Dasner) and The Fault in Our Stars (John Green) - Good luck!

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