What are your priorities?
What are the things that you think are important RIGHT NOW?
One way to judge this is by reviewing New Year’s resolutions-when we traditionally list the things that are most important to us.
It is interesting to note how many there were in the self-improvement category:
- Lose weight
- Get out of debt
- Learn/keep- a budget
- Start a business
- Get more organized
I decided, for no reason in particular, to see if we put our money (or time) where our mouth is…(actually it was this post by Len Penzo that triggered the idea-not sure why- as they are unrelated, but I will give credit where credit is due….)
I decided to see what the numbers were like-what we really do with our non-work time.
Television: Do we use the television to assist us in the pursuit of the above noble goals of improving ourselves?
- Most watched network television shows: The top ten TV shows have between 14 and 20 million viewers per episode. Nope, no self-help show here.
- Cable shows (everyone knows the network viewership is down with all the cable channels: The top ten shows rank between 4 and 10 million viewers. Nary an educational opportunity in this list either…
Well, no business or self-help shows made those lists.
Well, maybe the folks who are really dedicated to improving themselves are reading magazines instead:
- Check out this list of popular magazines: Cosmopolitan rules the roost at 1.75 million copies.
Well if not magazines, maybe newspapers: Aha, this list of most read newspapers has the Wall Street Journal as the most widely circulated. That can count as self-help, don’t you think?
Then, I had a revelation. Young people these days are not reading newspapers, they are on the net. That is where all the folks live that are dedicated to improving their lives:
- Top rated websites: check out this ranking from Alexa. Sorry, not much in the improvement category here…. This list is dominated by Social Media-Facebook, Yahoo, and Twitter rule the roost.Of course Google is the King Rooster!!!! Maybe Wikipedia counts as a self-improvement site. But a couple of porn sites are right in there with Wiki…..(no I didn’t link to the porn sites-though it would probably improve my Alexa ranking…)
Nobody reads books anymore, so I didn’t bother with the Amazon best-sellers. Although I know the top selling books were not dedicated to self-improvement. They are dominated by teenage vampire stories, and romance novels…..
Just for fun, I did try to find out the most popular business websites: Check out this list. Now here are some big numbers:
- Yahoo Finance: 35 million page views per month
- CNN/Money: 34 million
- WSJ: 23 million
So here is where everyone is going for education I thought. Till I remembered the numbers for TV were for one program (20 million per prime time episode). Multiply that for a month (let’s say 20 prime time episodes per month- that makes 400 million viewers of prime time TV just for one channel) and Yahoo finance looks pretty lonely at a measly 34 mil/month…..
Does it surprise me that people’s self-improvement desires have absolutely nothing to do with their leisure activities?
Of Course Not! The Road To Hell is Paved With Good Intentions……as they say.
Do I think you would be better served by reading books on improving your life rather than watching “Lost” or /”24″. Yep!
But, I look at it as a challenge. My job is to make this blog so interesting, people will choose to read it instead of reading the latest Lindsey Lohan story. And Oprah is leaving, so there is an opening.
But maybe I will start putting a few nude pics here, for scientific study and artistic value, only, of course….
Reader comments:
Do you have any thoughts on why we say we want to improve ourselves, but don’t bother trying? What do you think would help motivate, and stimulate others to act on their self-help desires?
Change of Shift, a great collection of Nursing Blog’s best posts is up at “The Makings of a Nurse“-check it out, and tell her Dr Dean sent you…
Tags: how we spend our leisure time, Priorities, self help, self-motivation
“Nobody reads books anymore….”???
I average reading about 3 books per week. The last one I finished was “The Devil’s Brood”…and no it wasn’t about Satan…it was a great book about Henry II and Eleanor of Aquitaine. But, I have also read the Twilight series…yes vampire trash. I don’t read to improve my mind…I read for pleasure. That is a cheaper vacation than going to an exotic island
Yes ,reading is cheaper than visiting an exotic island. And no- reading is not “dead” but probably most publishers would say it is on the “ventilator!!!”
And one man’s trash is another man’s treasure-or woman as in this case, Lisa!! Thanks for reading my blog!!!
Improving ones self is too dang hard…just thinking about it makes me want to sit down and let the TV help take my mind into a far away place..
Seriously though, it’s easy to make goals but without proper planning, and motivation, those goals will be on our list year after year.
This year, I AM actually losing weight, will be out of debt within a few months and have started pouring more into my side businesses but it isn’t easy to start. Once you get going and seeing results, it’s easy to maintain these habits but starting them is really difficult.
[...] You settle in for a couple of hours of mindless entertainment after 3 straight 12 hour shifts. [...]
Hey Dr. Dean,
Stumbled on your post. Great read. Even though reading is dying a slow death. Sponge Bob isn’t considered self help? Haha. Talk is cheap, what else can you say? On the frugality tip, books are cheaper than vacations and movies for that matter. However, a good blog beats them all!
Thanks. Buck.