By MICHELLE HARKEY-WILDE
Los Alamos

As I’m typing this it is the week after the Super Bowl, about a week after the Grammy Awards and a few days before the Oscars. That’s a lot of high-powered entertainment, not to mention everything else being broadcast every day, streaming into our devices. We have plenty of entertainment.

Furthermore, there’s the non-digital entertainment as well: shows, performances, competitions.

Many forms of entertainment are a delightful distraction and relatively harmless.

However, not doing harm is not the same as creating good, or better yet, greatness.

I believe we all hold greatness within ourselves. My purpose is to help people move through the layers of hurt and confusion to tap into vitality, purpose and the ability to use their greatness to improve the world we all live in. Step one is to improve the physical and emotional well-being so there’s an increased capacity for the greatness to thrive. We touched on those aspects earlier in this series and we’ll return to them as we spiral upwards.

Consider for a minute the amount of time you spend allowing yourself to be merely entertained versus the amount of time you invest in education each week. This is your own personal Entertainment to Education ratio (E2E).

Is your E2E ratio likely to lead you to the results you really desire? Or will it only take you to a place of comfort?

Think about the people you know who are doing something great in the world. How much time do they spend being entertained? How much time do they spend educating themselves?

In my study of amazing self-actualized people, I have found they spend much more time educating themselves than entertaining themselves. One of my mentors admitted on Monday that he hadn’t watched a football game all season, but did enjoy the Super Bowl as a way to connect with those people in his family who were highly engaged in the sport. Now that sounds like time invested well. He wasn’t watching for the sake of being entertained, he was there for connection with family – and evidently he made it quite an event.

So, maybe it is just a small adjustment to turn entertainment into something more or maybe it is adjusting the amount of entertainment versus education in your life -or neither or both or something else. This week I encourage you to consider whether what you are doing with your time and effort leads you to creating the outcomes you truly desire.

Michelle Harkey-Wilde is a Body-Connection Coach, licensed mental health counselor, massage therapist and integrative wellness specialist. This column is for educational purposes only and does not create a client-practitioner relationship. You are responsible to exercise caution in implementing any ideas contained herein and accept responsibility for your actions. Consult with your physical and mental health practitioners before implementing any new practice. Follow Michelle at michellewwilde.com.