SPEAKERS’ CORNER | What our favorite speakers are blogging about

If you feed your mind poison, your perspective will suffer.

While this should be obvious to us, often times, we don't live like we believe it. I have countless friends that consider watching reality TV or cable news their "guilty pleasure." Or they still tune into radio programs, where loud mouths stir the pot and grant a platform to numbskull callers. Others insist that Fox News or CNBC keep them informed on politics and current events.

Bull.

We likely watch, according to a 2010 research project (The Frontal Cortex) to reinforce our deepset beliefs. We watch to be affirmed (The Age Of Affirmation). Often, by watching these screamers on cable, we bolster our biases. In other words, we become more extreme and balance chips away. Worse than that, the pretty hate machine (the flat screen TV) puts out a product that's designed to create a emotional reaction in the viewer. One University of Texas professor believes that we become over-reactive when we are exposed to too much TV programming - especially news/reality.

One of my friends told me that he's recently been baited into watching the news while he worked out at the gym. "It's up there on the screen, the only thing to do for thirty minutes while I exercise," he told me. "But after watching it, my blood is pumping, in a bad way. I'm pretty upset too, mostly about politics." I told him to find another solution for entertainment: iPod, book, anything.

Think about it this way: A negative cable mouth or radio shocker in your life is like having a standing appointment with the worst person imaginable - once every day. That standing appointment is upsetting, provokes negative emotions and likely changes what you talk with your friends about. It's like choosing to share a cubicle with the most hateful person at work. Eventually, this will drag you down. You can't avoid the impact of the pretty hate machine if you expose yourself to it long enough.

Sure, there's good guys on Fox News (like Dave Ramsey) or radio (think NPR's "All Things Considered"). I can even stomach a little Cramer from time to time, mostly because he's got a positive POV in the end. But I do not graze on cable or radio, no-sir-ee. I care way too much about my personal level of emotional balance and how much it influences my ability to forge and maintain relationships. And so should you. To quote Maxwell Maltz: "Glance at the negative, focus on the positive."

This is from Today We Are Rich: Harnessing The Power Of Total Confidence (Principle One - Feed Your Mind Good Stuff). Coming April 2011. For more, follow this Facebook page.

See comments.

• Go to Tim’s Blog
• Invite Tim to Speak
• Facebook
• Twitter
• Order Tim’s book: Saving The World At Work