How much do you watch sports? Do you obsess over sports? Are you always checking your phone to see what the latest news is about your sports team? Do you spend hours every week watching the game, and then many more analyzing it after the game? Does it stress you when they’re doing poorly? Do you put emotional energy into your team?

That’s exactly how I used to be. But this episode is about a better way. This is not to say that you cannot or even should not have a sports team that you are invested in and keep up with. In fact, there are reasons to do so, including the added happiness that it may bring into your life.

However, it’s important to be completely aware that any time, energy, and emotion put into that is directly being taken from something else. Any effort, time, money, or energy that you put into sports cannot be used in any way to further other areas of your life.

The trade-off is the most important thing to understand. If sports makes you happier, perhaps it is worth it. But maybe you can find a better way to keep up with your team. Maybe you just watch the highlights, or a recording after the fact so you can skip all the commercials and save tons of time. Whatever your strategy is, ensure that you have a strategy, and that you aren't just following the flow of what it seems like everyone else is doing. Be purposeful about exactly how much of your life you want to invest in sports.

Key Takeaways:

• People get caught up in sports teams like they rarely get caught up in anything else
• Anything that makes you happy has a certain amount of value
• However, it becomes a problem whenever your obsession with a sports team takes away from other parts of your life
• There is an opportunity cost, when you are putting too much time and emotional energy into a sports team
• 3 hours spent on a game is always going to be 3 hours not spent on something else in your life
• Understand the cost in terms of the opportunity to do other things
• Consider following someone you want to emulate with the same sort of fervor you would put into following your favorite sports player
• Look into creative ways that you can scale back your sports obsession, and put that valuable time into other areas that will have a larger payoff for you
• It’s fine to watch and enjoy. Just be purposeful about how much time, energy, and emotion you put into it, knowing that it’s all being pulled from some other area of your life

Resources:

Change Your Habits, and Change Your Life: 47-Day Habit Hacker