I am a recovering information junkie. I fall off the wagon sometimes but mostly I am recovering well. That doesn’t mean I don’t learn things, I learn new things every day. I hope by the end of reading this you get the difference and start applying the information diet.
In the know
There are things you need to know and things you do not need to know. It isn’t overly complicated, and when you look at it logically it makes sense.
Thing you need to know: Information based around your job, information to make your life easier, knowledge of arts & entertainment, places to travel, people around you and their days.
Think you don’t need to know: Most news, bad information about strangers you will never meet, and too many self help books.
Kill Your TV T-Shirt – Size Lg in Red
I admit, when I see “Kill Your TV” shirts I get a little roll of the eye because of the extremist of it all. I get a double chuckle when they have cable internet connection and 2 ipods. Trading out one technology for another isn’t exactly going to solve the problem. Denying their importance is equally as moronic in my opinion. Do I think the TV is your enemy? No. Can it be an enabler and a bad thing? Sure, anything in life can be like that. If something can take pain away from you or distract you well enough, it can be just as dangerous.
Funny enough the only TV shows I watch for the most part are reality tv shows. The majority of them are competition based. I enjoy seeing people struggle to push themselves to be better than they thought they could be. Watching things like So You Think You Can Dance or even Top Chef brings far more satisfaction to my life than dissecting crazy people on CSI. I’ve met enough of them, I don’t need them to come into my living room. Maybe that is the difference? It is hard to find things entertaining that you have seen touch people first hand.
I could talk for days about the things I have done, the fun that could be had, and my dreams. Others, no that is boring or intimidating. You wonder why people can’t gather without having a distraction of drinking and eating. Don’t get me wrong, I love eating and drinking with people, but put people in the middle of nowhere with themselves and a beautiful sky, and things get “real” very quick. This is a big reason why when people want to start to change their life for the better, most get uncomfortable.
What are you going to do about it?
What I didn’t mention earlier is the things I watch correlate with things I take action on. I dance and I will continue to dance, so I watch others who dance. I cook, I cook a lot and am a self pronounced foodie, so I watch cooking shows. I like people and relationships. I like sex, love, and friendship, so I have no problem sitting down and watching human interaction. I love to travel or physical challenges, so give me a show like Amazing Race or No Reservations.
I don’t waste time. Even my entertainment has to have a purpose. I try to get as much as that entertainment from experience and people as I can, but I like to lounge sometimes too. It didn’t always use to be like this by the way. Trust me 10 years ago my path was an incredibly different one. Hell, 3 years ago I wouldn’t have imagined things would be this way. This isn’t superiority,this is the tale of a recovering junkie.
When watching something or when involved in a movement of life I will say to myself “So, what are you going to do about it?.” If the answer is nothing, then I limit my time spent on that topic.
When I learn of things that bother me, they do just that, bother me. That would be fine if I was an activist whole spent their life marching for change, but that isn’t me. For the time being I get to laugh at Colbert Report and call it a day. For the time being it isn’t my focus, so why frustrate myself with something I know I am not going to do anything about? Sure maybe in 10 years I will be saying something different, maybe 10 years from now I will be involved in politics and striving for actual change, but that time isn’t now. Now I need to change what I can change and play the role I am meant to play in my life and others. So politics, for example, is not my battle.
You have to pick your battles.
Here is what I know. I know that right now for whatever reason my goal day to day is to help people with motivation, to change their lives, to open them up to ability to use their common sense, and to provide my own personal dreams more room to grow.
Everyday I achieve it. Everyday I go to bed knowing that I either helped further my own life or helped to further someone else. I close off all other outside distractions and bs information that I don’t need. Doing this has allowed me to live day to day with getting the information that I want to get, talking about the things that I like to discuss, and being around people that have the same kind of mindset.
This isn’t about pretension and it isn’t about judging, different people fit each other. For you politics may be your passion, it may be what you are supposed to be apart of. Maybe for you it is parenthood, teaching, helping children, etc. It doesn’t matter what it is, but to get there you need to limit the bad information and the wrong kind of people. To do that here are some rules to follow.
Rules for an Information Diet
-Put down the newspaper. Anything you every really need to know you will find out anyway. If you must find something out, ask a person, not a paper. At the very least it will make your day more interesting and get you working on talking to people more.
-Other peoples misery shouldn’t be your entertainment so limit your gossip. Try to share the stories that celebrate peoples lives, not the ones that are breaking them down.
-Live your own life instead of living it through others. When you do that you don’t need the crutch of the E! channel.
-Don’t complain, act. You may think that is hypocrisy given that I have been known to trash a book or two, but guess who hears from the publishing companies? When you put a good rant into action it can help bring about change. There is nothing wrong with being a critic and striving for change, but don’t do it on a soapbox to no one. Make your own stand, even if small. It matters.
-Limit what you watch/read that doesn’t help you. Think about what something is really doing for you that you give hours of your week to. If it isn’t helping you achieve your goals or making you feel better, what is the point? What purpose do it serve? If it is just to give you more fears to keep you from action, then you got yourself something worse than distraction, you have dependence.
-Meet new people. Don’t be afraid to move on from the ones you don’t need no matter how long you have known them. There are a lot of good people out there looking for better friends. Make it your goal to talk to at least 1 new person every week, even if just for a moment, and remove one negative event or person.
-Find mentors, and stick to them. Sometimes the grass on the only side is brown. If you find people in your life or in education that inspire you, stay for a while. Stop bouncing from place to place trying to find the exact answer you are looking for. Here is a big tip – you don’t know what that answer is or else you wouldn’t be looking anyway. This isn’t about guru, it’s about trust. Trust that your time will be valued and respected. Only when they break that for you do you move on.
Following all of this will lead you towards a better understanding of what you are looking for your life to be. I know this isn’t the normal diet that I talk about on this site, but less really can produce more in outcome.
An amazing read Leigh, one that I’ll have to sift through again nice and slow and see what I can take away from it and apply to my own life. One thing that I have recently done is let go of some old friends, the strange thing is after a couple of weeks it didn’t bother me that I was the one who walked away. Makes me wonder what I really saw in them in the first place, what I thought they “brought to the table”. OK, enough rambling. Have a great week Leigh!
Really neat post, Leigh. A while back I realized that I was letting things that I was reading on various message boards, etc., get me angry or get my emotions all hyped up. Since I’m living a real life and not a life online, I decided that I needed to step away a bit and lower my involvement. After all, the world lines up to beat us up, right? Why should I go somewhere that will just stress me out or aggravate me? Of course, my three little monkeys have added to my information/online diet, too, because they take up most of my time!
This is one of the greatest things you have ever written. I make a daily effort to stay on my information diet. I know in the past (10 + years ago) I would do so many things that I didn’t want to because I thought I should. I have learned since then that there is no reason to torture yourself with something just because. If you hate the movie turn it off you don’t have to finish, if your friend of 5+ years is and ungrateful person, maybe you don’t need to be there friend.
Sorry for the rant. Great job.
Haha I have known so many of those kill your tv people with iPods. Nice article.
Been on a big information diet recently as well…. well, not really. I’ve just taken time away from what I was spending RE: fitness and nutrition, and applying it towards research in my next big project – developing an electric vehicle. Somehow, somewhere along the way getting a training cert has been back-burnered. I think I just needed to focus on my own training/nutrition first, and balance life out a bit by having something completely new and different to bleed some of that energy off, cause I do get a bit obsessive about everything and eventually burn out.
Funny you talk about your entertainment having purpose, I’m the same way. I like “nerdy” stuff like Mythbusters, Alton Brown, and anything else that talks about science and technology.
I also like anti-consumerism/consumption type documentaries, well documentaries in general, but especially the ones that challenge people to minimize their impact and live/purchase with purpose, not mindlessly as if there’s an endless supply of resources available, or feeling they need to buy everything just to keep up. I think this came about from a situation in my own life, where I had to figure out how to live on $10,000 per year.. and I managed to do it, and live comfortably at that, albeit a very simple life, but a freeing one too basically bowing out of the rat race. Now I like watching things that showcase other people doing similar.
Wow, great post Leigh! I feel like that was just what I needed to read right now – thanks = D
You know, I think I actually look forward to your ‘lifestyle’ topics than your fat-loss discussions….I get fat loss now, I just need to do it, and your off-topic discussions seem to help me more with the doing it! (by helping me get more out of my life and making food seem less important)
This is great information! I will be updating my fitness training site later this week and will mention your site!
Thanks for all of your advice and realistic approach!
Jason
I hate when people post links in their posts.
Very good Monday morning read! I struggle with this one: “Limit what you watch/read that doesn’t help you. ” – simply because most of the time, I read stuff thinking it will help me and it ends up hurting/confusing. For example, I saw the newest edition of FitnessRX magazine for women, which has Jackie Warner on the cover. I read her article and she is saying things like” for every pound of muscle you add, it burns 50-100 extra calories a day” and a lot of other things that lately I have read are “myths”. When I read stuff like this, I always wonder – Who is right and how do you know? I mean to look at her, she has the body I would love to have, so I figure she has to know what she is talking about; yet her new book coming out (This is why you are Fat) in 2010 sounds just like Jillian Michaels latest. So all that to say – I read stuff, thinking it will help me but end up more confused because I don’t have the smarts to read research and understand it!! (BTW, if you get a chance, read her article and let me know what you think!)
I am better off sticking to Alton and cartoons!
But really (AS USUAL) a masterpiece article!!
When you go to bed tonight, just know for sure that you have helped us further our lives today
I almost never read or watch the news because it is always so damn depressing! Which is why when I get a chance to watch TV, I love catching shows like So You Think You Can Dance. So much talent! Its inspiring to me as an amateur salsa dancer, even though I know that I will never get to that level because I simply do not have the time to devote to that kind of training.
Love love love Alton Brown… and actually, I also really like Paula Deen. Her food looks so disastrously bad for you, but delicious
Interesting post, Leigh!
I’ve been on a “media ban” for several months now, and I’ve got to say, my overall perspective has changed. Dare I say, that I do feel a bit more relaxed even though I have a tremendous amount of stress. Without all that overstimulation, negative banter, excess advertising and bad news, my irritibility is far lower than I can remember. There is genuine wisdom in what you just reminded me of!! Thanks for pointing it out! Now if I could finally let go of all the clutter!
Chris-I have done that very thing and questioned who was surrounding me. I try to be very pure about the feeling I have for people. Almost in a childlike manner.
What are they doing for me?
Do they make me laugh?
Do I like who I am with them?
What can I do for them?
These are people I want to spend my life with, so why settle? I think that people in general should be just as picky about who they are friends with as is who they date.
I am sure it is going to pay off for you.
Sinead- Don’t even get me started about online frustrations. When I start thinking about online drama when I am driving in my car, I realize I need to pull away a bit
Katie-Egg rolls belong in the information diet
Coverme-It’s funny because I just saw that guy yesterday while at the store reading a gossip magazine. That was such a fail.
Leigh, no doubt. I refuse to let online stuff bring my temper to a boil. I’ve got enough stuff in regular life waiting to do that for me. hehehe Thankfully, daytime tv around here is usually Noggin and nighttime tv is brainless reality shows. No stress there!
Mike-I have a huge nerd crush on Alton Brown. He is geek badass.
I think you have a great skill of being able to take in information quickly and “get things” in a very fast manner. Sometimes that can be a curse as much as a blessing
Sally-Thanks a lot. I enjoy writing article like this the most to be honest. Article where I have to look up a lot of research and do a lot (a LOT) of investigating are needed of course and part of what I do, but the “emotion” of these type of articles always leave me feeling good and are the types I like to read a lot from others as well.
Missy-If you are going to read all that stuff then you need to be the one who figures out who is right. If you continually get bothered by the confusion then eliminate the confusion from its source (research) or like I said, pick one mentor and believe in them until they give you a reason to no longer.
For example, and this is a weird one, but in my business moves I have one mentor. Just one. He provides me with all of my information and research points to make my business decisions. It is his area of expertise and while the final call of course is mine, and my ethical feelings on things are the biggest factor, I don’t go trying to find the easiest answer to suit my situation. I try and find the best answer that has been determined at the time from someone who has an excellent record.
So let’s look at Jackie Warner’s record.
-Is more business than research
-Uses a lot of myths on training and nutrition and most of what she says has been refuted by science. Sure there are certain topics that can have more finer and opinionated lines, but some just do not at all.
-Does dangerous and irresponsible movements and form with obese clients
In the end the choice is yours but maybe you have to start thinking about what the questions you are really asking are anymore? What is it that you really want and who is going to be help you to get it? Pick them until they fail you and then figure out if they did or if you just lost faith in the process.
Truth be told most “gurus” will help people succeed if you blindly follow them. Its when you start getting into the why of it that you see that some just don’t know what they are talking about and some do.
Jamie-Most people see that as such a horrible statement of leaving in “denial” btu I think its the way to go. Also Paula Deen is f**king awesome.
Meg-Ridding negative clutter=FTW
“Trust that your time will be valued and respected. Only when they break that for you do you move on.”
That is a really cool thing to write. I feel like that the people I follow in training or hobby do just that. They put effort in, are respctful of my time, and make me feel good about using it on them. I just never thought of how to put it in words.
Thank you for respecting my time!
Great post as always! Agree with Missy that I spend a LOT of time reading stuff that I think will be useful – as a trainer I half feel that reading other people’s methods is a kind of research! And even the really good guys have differing views – such as ‘don’t count calories’ vs ‘do’ and you see that everyone seems to get great results, but as Leigh says, this is because they are following one system and following it – not flitting around, piecing together bits to suit from different ‘gurus’!
Also love the lifestyle stuff as much as the fat loss stuff – people say they have ‘no time’ to spend a few moments weighing / logging food, but how much is wasted on stuff that takes you no-where near your goals? I’m trying very hard to cut down on stuff, without feeling like I’m missing out on the good stuff (like this post! Read it due to Facebooking when I should have been writing client programmes but glad I did!!)
Thanks Leigh!
I don’t know how old you are Leigh, but going only by the pictures you have posted of yourself… You are are wise beyond your years Girl. Such enlightened and insightful words from such a young woman.
Have you ever considered cloning yourself?!
Great article, Leigh. I have always been a skeptic, but lately it has been serving me well. And reducing my time in front of the teevee especially for mainstream and local news media.
Leigh, chamelion ninja at your service.
This weekend in the heatwave we lost electric power. I was so totally cut off. No TV, internet, landline phone, even my cellphone battery was dead and couldn’t be charged. It was tolerable in the daytime, but come dark and I felt really disjointed, uncomfortable, what could I/we do? My girlfriend and I sat on our deck in the dark quiet night facing the woods. As I sat there uncomfortable, resisting the quiet… Conversation came slowly, different conversation than when the TV was on, or when I was distracted by the internet. More intimate conversation. Thoughtful, but in a different way. It reminded me of when I lived in my commune in the 70’s w/out electricity and we played music and danced and sang. My life is such an information clutter.
Good post, Leigh!
Good read Leigh.
But can’t one look at T.V. as being FORCE FED POP CULTURE and an IPOD as being “SELF SELECTED” Pop Culture?
I.e. T.V./cable networks make you Believe you have many choices, but ultimately the programming (including “Reality” TV shows), and News stories are PUSHED through to you by a “panel of experts” who want to shape American Culture and the only “control” you really have is either to watch or not watch?
The IPOD user can chose what songs to download that caters to their individual taste and it’s basically self programmed.
As a Fitness Professional “Kill Your TV” means to me, stop sitting on your ass for 3 hours and telling me you don’t have time to workout and get more active.
*OR*
It could mean, stop accepting “Popular News Stories” as the correct point of view (e.g. Health Care Reform or IRAQ War) and research the issue from other sources and formulate your own opinion instead of having CNN,FAUX News or MSNBC form your opinion for you.
Okay I’ll shut up now. LOL
[...] This post is in part inspired by a recent blog post by Leigh Peele (see it here). [...]
Thanks Leigh!
This was a reminder to keep ‘first things first’!
I always find your frankness refreshing. Keep up the good work and positive attitude.
Information culking is where it’s at.