Seems impossible that 19 years ago today we witnessed one of the most bizarre events in our lifetime. OJ Simpson, of football fame, driving in a white SUV, in a slow speed chase by the police around the roads of Los Angeles. Yes, it was June 17, 1994 when the country was glued to the TV to watch this craziness unfold. The question crossed everyone’s mind is this real? Could this bizarre situation be played out on national television? And as we came to find out in the subsequent trial the “bizarro” world was just beginning to show itself.
In the most unscientific of ways, I think it was the start of the reality TV craze. And with that we started this slow process of changing what we were interested in as a nation. The formality of the news was going away and we had this kind of “morbid” curiosity becoming more and more prevalent. With 19 years of track record I would argue that we have fundamentally changed our interests and our desire to see life, very close up, has grown to epic proportion. From Survivor, to Americas Got Talent, to the Bachelorette we have become a nation of “watchers”. We live by watching; yes, there is a lot of entertainment value in these reality shows and real time news shows – but this kind of focus flies in the face of THPL and our own mission of Life, Learning and Fitness. And so it seems like the right time that we stop this growing movement to be “passive”, to leave it to others to entertain us, to accept situations and behaviors that are of someone else’s doing. Instead we need to be active, to seek out challenge and to be our own reality show.
Letting THPL and not the TV Guide drive our lives is recommended. It may be a bit painful or frustrating at first but we all know that it is how we grow. “Dream it, Plan it, Practice it, Do it”. It works. “Watch it”, I am sorry to say, does not help us grow.
In a few short days we all have an opportunity to turn the tables on “reality TV” and to find out what we are made of – in fact you can think about this being the first episode of your own reality show. As a reminder, on Saturday June 22nd we are having the first ever Max/Max challenge day. Maximum sunlight, Maximum activity. 24 hours to get done as much of anything that you want. Read a lot of books, do a lot of pushups, run a lot of miles or do more than one. And, oh yea, please take a video of yourself doing some part of the challenge and send it to me. We will compile the Max / Max THPL video and have some fun with it. We will send out one more reminder on Thursday. We will reveal some of the challenges we have been told about. So start thinking or doing so that you are ready for Max / Max day.
Loving life while not watching it happen on TV
Ciao
joe