Here's Why Entertainment Destroys Your Life

Entertainment is around you 24/7. You can instantly find something to entertain you with the tap of your fingertips.

Movies. TV shows. Video games. Theater. YouTube videos. Social media. And so on… Entertainment is everywhere.

Entertainment is pleasurable. You pursue it because it’s fun. But it’s even more destructive for you.

You waste your time, energy, and ambition pursuing endless entertainment.

For the purposes of this blog post, entertainment refers to the things you pursue mindlessly. The things that don’t offer productive benefits for you. These are the things that waste your time.

Entertainment distracts you

Having goals and dreams is crucial to living a great life. These goals and dreams are your guiding stars. They are the things that you want to achieve or have in your life. Things that would make your life better than it is right now. These things would bring you lasting happiness or fulfillment.

Most people have these goals and dreams. But they never fully realize them. Why? Because there’s a roadblock in the way: Their daily habits and actions.

Your daily routine is what gets you to your goals and dreams. This routine is the path you take to

Your goals and dreams.

If you do things every day that help you get to your goals, then you’ll most likely achieve them.

But if you aren’t doing things to help you reach your goals, then your goals and dreams will slip further and further away from becoming reality.

Entertainment is a part of most people’s daily lives. It’s a distraction that pushes your goals away from you. It steals your focus from the goals you want to achieve.

Your energy gets drained, too.

It feels like too much effort to do the things you need to be doing. It’s much easier to turn your mind off and submit to instant pleasure.

The more entertainment you consume, the harder it is to do your work. And it gets more and more difficult to keep your focus on your goals.

It steals your time

There are only so many things that we can do in a day. If you don’t prioritize your daily routine, then you’ll fall into time traps. You’ll waste your time.

Entertainment pulls you in. You get hooked by the flashy visuals. The music. The story. And so on…

As a result, you just can’t say “no” to it. You’re intrigued. So you go down the rabbit hole. You want to see more.

What starts out as “just a few minutes” on your phone turns into a few hours.

What starts out as “just an hour” of video games turns into the rest of your night.

Before you know it, you have no time for other things. You wasted it on this entertainment. This realization leads to you feeling shame and regret.

You know that you can be better. But your actions proved otherwise.

This shame and regret are natural feelings. You feel it because you know the truth. Thankfully, these negative feelings can be avoided.

Prioritizing what’s important to you will help you decide how to best spend your time. It’ll help you figure out what you need to accomplish each day to move closer to your goals and dreams.

Your time is precious. It has to be spent one way or another. Why not make good use of this time?

Let’s say you want to lift weights and get big. But you can’t get yourself to actually go to the gym. The months and years are going to pass by. Would you rather get big in those few years? Or would you like to remain unsatisfied where you are now?

Do things every day that gets you one step closer to your goals.

Entertainment = enter tame-ment

Entertainment makes you complacent. It’s too easy to sit and consume more and more. You get sucked into the content. Your brain shuts off, allowing you to consume mindlessly. It takes no effort from your mind.

As you’re being distracted by this pleasure, your time is slipping away.

Yet, entertainment puts you into a trance that keeps you hooked. You let more and more of your time pass by.

This harms you psychologically.

Subconsciously, you know that you could be making better use of your time. But, you keep consuming the entertainment.

This tames you. It kills your ambition. You let your goals slip further and further away. They become less important to you than entertainment, which has become a drug for you. You stop caring about your goals, surrendering to a purposeless life.

Entertainment is addictive.

You become dependent on entertainment for your happiness. But it only leaves you unfulfilled.

This unfulfillment makes you unhappy, sad, and anxious.

And then you keep coming back for more entertainment, day after day. You keep coming back to the things that are making you unhappy. It’s a vicious cycle.

Once you realize this, you’ll be able to make the lifestyle change necessary to get your life back on track.

A little bit goes a long way

I’m not saying that you should not consume any entertainment. That would create a boring life.

Entertainment has its value.

It is beneficial to relax and unwind at times. Having things to make you laugh can brighten your mood. Especially after a long day at work.

And entertainment should have a place in your life. But that place in your life is less than what you’re most likely giving it right now.

It should not take up your entire night after work, school, etc. Entertainment should not be the only thing you do in your free time.

How to spend your free time

You see, free time is a luxury. It’s an opportunity for you to take time for yourself. You get to do things that you want to do.

Spend your free time doing those things you say you don’t have time for. The things you say, “Maybe one day.”

These are usually the things that’ll bring you more fulfillment than mindless entertainment.

Lift weights. Run. Exercise. Read books. Write. Journal. Learn an instrument. And so on…

The possibilities are endless. You have more time than you think. If you see your free time as an opportunity, then you’ll realize how to prioritize the way you spend it.

Your free time is your time to improve. It’s the time you can spend upgrading your life.

A little bit of entertainment is fine. Schedule it into your day. And be sure to stick to that schedule, no matter what.

Don’t let yourself fall down the rabbit hole. Stick to your routine, let it guide you to do what’s best for you.

Wrapping up

Entertainment can destroy your life if you let it. See this blog post as an opportunity to build self-discipline. Build it so you can resist the temptation to surrender to entertainment.

Setting boundaries with your entertainment consumption is necessary to live a productive life. A little bit of entertainment goes a long way.

Keep what’s most important to you in mind each day.