Here We Go Again - "The Sky is Falling!"

How many times have we heard THAT before? When I showed my wife this graphic she began to laugh and said, "That reminds me of that New Madrid scare right before Jordan (our youngest, born in January of 1991) was born!"

 

Ah, yes! The New Madrid Fault "end of the world as we now know it" scare of December 1990. Anyone else out there remember that one? You see, living in Northwest Arkansas at the time made the "craziness" even a little bit crazier since we were fairly close AND not too far from the fault line as a whole.

 

Warnings were issued almost nightly from the television as well as the radio for everyone to be making "disaster relief kits" in order to be ready when "THE earthquake" hit.

 

I remember seeing news footage of all of the satellite trucks that had crowded the streets of that little town. Hey, at least BUSINESS was good for the locals, right?

 

The day - December 3, 1990 - came and went. No earthquake. Would you think that I'd be making it up if I told you that some people came away from that day a little disappointed? Well friend, I wouldn't be making it up simply because of the huge, relentless build up for this "event".

 

It came and it went without incident and the media had nothing else to talk about with such emphasis. Well, not until the next "big thing" came along.

 

Currently, if you turn on the national news (yes, and even the local news) you will find wild stories about the "ebola outbreak". Now, don't get me wrong. Death - to and for anyone - is a horrible thing to come due to some disease. I'm not taking that lightly at all. People have died.

 

But, what I AM saying is for all of us to step back, take a deep breath and realize that the sky really isn't falling.

 

Understand that the media MUST report such things to the point of hysteria in order to "stay in business". Like it or not, that is the truth. And, it is also true that there is fierce competition between the different stations to "out-do" one another in their reports and interviewing of "experts" (now, usually that term gets stretched to the breaking point!) or whatever it takes to get them the most viewers.

 

Still don't believe me? What does YOUR local station do when there is some sort of storm in your area that is a little out of the ordinary? You DO know what I mean, don't you? They even come up with daunting "names" for these events: "The Fierce and Frightening Flood of '01" . I just made that up but you've seen similar things, haven't you?

 

Here in Arkansas, the weatherman can predict a couple of inches of snow or a little ice and you would think that the Polar Ice Cap was planning to move in. EVERY newscast has some guy from the Highway and Transportation department being interviewed to find out what they are doing to prepare for this "life-altering event" that is headed our way!

 

And, honestly, "religious people" can be some of the worst ones of the whole bunch! Hey, just remember that I AM A BELIEVER, o.k.? But it seems that any little unusual event brings up the whole "end times" scenario that prepares us for the end of the world.

 

Here's the deal: you can allow yourself to get "sucked in" to all of this and get all worked up and stressed out over these things that are often presented as MUCH WORSE than they actually are. You can believe that or not - that obviously is your choice - but friend, this is part of the "negativity" that I always talk about us having a need to protect ourselves from...know what I mean?

 

I hope so because, after all, the sky really ISN'T falling.

 

Thanks for your time. Until next time, be sure to...

 

"Make it an AWESOME day! (Who else is going to do it for you?)"

 

Mike

 

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Your Informational Filter

"Your Informational Filter"

Take a moment and look at that picture and ask yourself this question: "Would I allow a big pile of garbage like that in my house?"

I hope that I can answer that for you with a resounding, "NO!".

Yes, there are some people that do, but I'm hoping that you are not one of them!

Of course, by looking at the picture you already know what the real point of it is especially when you combine it with what we have been talking about for the past few days.

WHAT JUNK ARE YOU ALLOWING INTO YOUR MIND?

We have been talking about the massive amounts of "news programming" available to us each and every day via the television. This doesn't even take into account what's available to us on the Internet, the radio and even our smart phones. Is there REALLY a need for this much information/news?

NO!

Here's the deal, too, when you start talking about all of this "news programming" - a lot of it (if not most of it) is not even news at all!

You've heard the phrase, "No news is good news" right? Well, let me do my own little twist on that one by saying this: "ALL NEWS IS NOT GOOD NEWS!"

I'm not even talking about the fact that we sometimes receive bad news. What I'm talking about is that everything that might be labeled as "news" in our society is not all GOOD (as in "quality") news. Really think that one over.

The main reason I brought all of this up about the news is due to the fact that I have noticed such an "overkill" on my own "local/affiliate stations" with their "news coverage" AND also due to so many people claiming that they just HAVE to keep up with the "news". Really?

Anyway, enough of that.

What about soap operas? What about sports programming? (By the way, a lot of the so-called "sports programming" is pretty much like the "news programming" when you consider the fact that some of these 24 hour cable sports channels have to fill that much time!).

What about Facebook? What about....? YOU fill in the blank there and be HONEST with yourself on these things.

How much time are you spending DUMPING garbage (useless or negative information) into your mind? Remember, G.I.G.O. (garbage in - garbage out).

Tomorrow I will conclude this series but the battle will be one that continues in your life and it is 100% up to YOU as to what you do about it - if anything at all.

Bottom line again - do NOT think that what you allow into your mind has not impact on your life and the lives of those around you.

Start using your "informational filter" and "clean up" what you are allowing into the "engine" for your whole life.

Think about and DO something about it.

Until next time...

"Make it an AWESOME day! (Who else is going to do it for you?)"

Mike

www.MichaelSpillman.com

Mike's Rant on the Media

The Rant Continues...

I hope you don't mind me taking this opportunity to let off a little steam about a few things. And, yes, I'm smiling as I type that sentence!

Today I'm going to rant about the media and the impact it makes on our lives each and every day. Before I get started on today's "rant" (yeah, I'm still smiling) I want you to try to figure out how much time each day - on average - you spend listening to and/or watching some sort of "news". Could there perhaps be a need for a change in your dose of "news" each day?

As I mentioned on today's podcast, think for a moment about all of the news outlets available to us each and every day. When I talk about this, I'm not even talking about newspapers and what's available on the Internet which would multiply the sources many times over!

How many 24 hour "news" channels can you think of? There are SEVERAL available to us out there each and every day to where, regardless of the time - day or night - you can turn the television on and get the "news".

In case you are wondering why I keep putting "news" in quotation marks it is because I believe that the majority of what is passed off as news is not really news. So, I'm using the term "news" in a very loose and general way.

Now, on top of all of the 24 hour "news" channels on a national level, you also have 24 hour "sports" (yeah, I'm using that one loosely and generally as well) networks as well that tend to try to get into the area of "news" quite often. Then, along with all of that you have the entertainment "news" shows that REALLY get into the "gossip" aspect of all of this.

Are you ready to go to the "local" level now? I can only speak of the way it is in Arkansas, so you will have to apply this to your local "news" market on this part. Most of our local news channels (the main networks - NBC, ABC, CBS and FOX) have an early morning "news" program that starts somewhere around 5 or 5:30 a.m. and goes until it's time for the national morning "news" programs. These generally run until 9:00 a.m. or, in the case of one network, 10 a.m. each day. In Arkansas, on the networks who's morning national program ends at 9:00 a.m. our local channels pick up with ANOTHER segment of morning "news" which ends at around 10:00 or 11:00 a.m. THEN several of them also have a noon "news" program that last for 30 minutes - and even one of them goes for a full hour. On top of all of that, each of these also has a "news" program from 5:00 - 5:30 p.m. (followed by the national "news" from 5:30 - 6:00 p.m.) and another from 6:00 - 6:30 p.m. and now a couple of these have extended this to an additional segment that goes from 6:30 - 7:00 p.m. We're not done yet! They hit us again with a 10:00 p.m. "news" segment that goes for another 30 minutes! However, the local FOX network has their evening "news" begin at 9:00 p.m. and again at 10:00 p.m.

CALGON TAKE ME AWAY!

Now, this is in ARKANSAS - there is just not THAT much to talk about around here!

But the truth is this: even nationally, there just really isn't THAT much to talk about! And, so, many times these networks must CREATE their own news by talking about things that aren't really news. Many of the things you will see talked about on these programs are full of controversy that rival the "entertainment news" (gossip shows) format.

Can you say OVER-KILL?

You could literally sit in front of your television ALL DAY and watch "news" from the time you get out of bed to the time you GO to bed and then, if you want, get up in the middle of the night and catch a peek at a little more. See why I asked you to determine your "dose" that YOU get each day? Might it be a little much? Could it be that you need to "wean" yourself off of this?

So, what does this have to do with what I ranted about yesterday? EVERYTHING!

When you consider the amount of time that is dedicated to "news" (again, for the most part the use of this word is a JOKE) then they have to fill that time with SOMETHING!

And, so, when a professional golfer crashes his SUV into a fire hydrant and tree at 3:00 a.m. and 911 is called - IT'S MAJOR NEWS that is shown over and over again and talked about to the point of redundancy!

Now, let me say this - I'm not letting Tiger Woods or so many of our "celebrities" off of the hook on this, o.k.? We'll be talking more about this tomorrow and on Thursday -- but right now I'm ranting about the media! (Yup, still smiling).

Really think about it - how many times did you see the SAME clip of his SUV crashed into that tree? Over and over again all day for several days!

Let's fast forward a few months to something that happened earlier this week - Tiger's "news conference" (Really? Are you kidding me?) for him to "apologize" to a few close friends PLUS a huge television audience! Was this something that REALLY merited all of those channels to "cut in" to their programming so that they could air this live?

And, because it was relatively short - 14 minutes, was it? - some channels (the so-called SPORTS channels...yeah, I'm talking about you, ESPN) decided it was worth showing in it's entirety more than once! If I had hair long enough to do it, I'd be pulling it out about now!

Wow, have I ranted long enough yet? (Smiling!)

Here's the thing that WE (those of you taking the time to read this) must think about --- IT'S ALL MOSTLY JUNK and NEGATIVE so we need to break away from it as much as possible!

Again, with as much time to fill as these "news" programs have to fill then they MUST find as much doom and gloom as possible. And, with today's technology it is now possible for them to get more and more often from ANYWHERE around the world!

I think it was the old ABC sports show called, "ABC's Wide World of Sports" that used a phrase along the lines of, "Spanning the globe..." Here's the thing - these "news" outlets are no longer just "spanning the globe" they are now scouring the globe to dig up anything that can to try to pass it off as "news".

Really think about that and how it impacts YOUR life and YOUR attitude each and every day.

Ahhhhhhh...now, I feel better!

Hey, seriously, thanks for joining me today and I do hope I've given you something to think about that can HELP YOU in your quest to live a POWERFUL and POSITIVE life!

And, as you do so, remember...

"Make it an AWESOME day! (Who else is going to do it for you?)"

Mike