It’s common that we go into a scrolling-induced trance before drifting off to sleep. Click, type, scroll, double-tap and repeat until we acknowledge the time and groan with dissatisfaction accompanied with dying a little inside. We wake up wondering why we are so exhausted and why we can’t be morning people as we smash “snooze” six times. I could just be speaking for myself but I’m not so sure. We know good and well that what we are doing is detrimental to our health, so why do we continue to do it?

We have forgotten, or maybe never realized, the value of time and hand it over to many distractions. It’s hard to see the opportunity cost of displaced time, but let’s take watching too much television for example. I didn’t do much research into how much time we spend watching TV so don’t lose your mind over these numbers, but according to a quick search the average adult will spend nearly 5 hours a day watching TV (a little more than 77 days per year). WTF?! If that’s accurate, then the average US adult gives over one-fifth of their life away to TV. I hate that, so let’s be a little more generous and assume it’s just 50 days per year (before I make myself sick). That is still 1,200 hours... Hours that could be going toward learning a skill or following a passion in your free time. Today’s youth watches less TV than our older generations, but I think we could insert other distractions and see that we are still misusing a significant amount of our time. Instead, why aren’t we mastering something with the time we are given?

So recap of our two main questions:

Why do we continue to do things that are detrimental to our health?

Why aren’t we mastering something with the time we have?

There are so many variables but I want to highlight the ones that I have had to rethink. Although we know that some of the things we do are detrimental, we keep convincing ourselves that they are the right things for us until we are finally brutally honest with ourselves and understand just how wrong they are. What does it take for us to see that we are so often shrouded in smoke and clutching at dust? Perhaps the realization that we have no idea what we want to do with our lives. I know it seems counterintuitive, but being active gives you energy, spending time learning satisfies your curiosity, and doing the work that you have passion for, even though you may not get paid for it yet, will invigorate you. And you will know what you want to do with your life, but you can’t wait for it to come kick you in the teeth while binge watching Friends for the tenth time (that’s not a personal attack).