You might be wondering what modern diseases are. When you think of the term disease, pictures of ill people in a hospital come into your mind.

“But what has this to do with me? I am completely healthy!” You keep wondering.

Modern diseases don’t necessarily affect your body and can’t make you ill by raising your body temperature. However they can have an indirect impact to your health.

They have the power to ruin your life more than anything but only if you let them do so. The fact is that you can have complete control over them, but if you fall in the temptation to relinquish control you will be beaten to the ground.

“Every human being is the author of his own health or disease” – Buddha

What are these modern diseases?

They are activities that affect your way of living in a negative way and are obstacles to everyone who wants to become successful in life.

These activities are:

• Video games
• Television
• Social media

If these three are leveraged correctly they can give you a huge boost in your life and can be a really powerful tool, but only if you don’t fall in the trap of relinquishing control.

The technology expansion has given us amazing benefits and made our life much easier and more comfortable. However it has created activities that enslave our brains and make us live like zombies. Zombies which don’t think, don’t take risks and don’t seek growth in life but only in a virtual reality.

Activities that distract us from finding our purpose in life and make us believe we are not great enough to break out of homeostasis.

If you still believe that video games, television and social media can offer you benefits, make you more productive and improve your life’s quality then try to find someone who is really successful and you will be astonished by the fact that he doesn’t spend time in these worthless activities.

I don’t know any successful person who achieved his goals and spent more than half an hour per day watching the latest popular series in TV or killing dragons in his Xbox.

1. Video games

After many years of spending unlimited hours in video games and staying in front of a digital reality world from morning to night (with breaks only for food and WC) I came to the conclusion that I have lost a ton of precious time.

I would give everything to have that time back. Unfortunately when your life goes away it never returns and never forgives you. It doesn’t care about how you spend it, it just goes away. When you realize that it’s gone, it might be too late.

Fortunately for me, I have realized it soon enough in my life and that’s the reason I want to share this with as many people as possible because making that realization when you are 40 or 50 will destroy you. You won’t be able to handle the repressed emotions, you won’t be able to turn back the time and do all the things you didn’t do.

Some people might say that video games offer entertainment. Some might say that video games are proven to improve mind and reflective. Even if this is true, these little benefits aren’t worth your TIME . You could do a million things that have a huge positive impact on yourself instead of killing monsters or playing football in front of a TV screen.

You spend all your time in front of a reality world and then you keep wondering why your life is so miserable, why your girlfriend dumped you for somebody else or why you don’t have money and need to live with your parents.

But why are you wondering? The only person who has control over your life is you and by relinquishing that control you let circumstances ruin your life’s quality.

2. Television

Okay, not all TV programs are terrible and time-wasting. You can find shows or movies which are entertaining and give information. Unfortunately the majority of TV shows are crap and don’t offer anything at all. They are a total waste of time.

There was a period in my life that I could spent 4-5 hours per day watching TV. I have spent an entire summer in front of a TV screen watching worthless shows and movies instead of going to the beach and enjoying my life.

When I rewind those moments my feelings are mixed. I feel so ashamed about myself 5 year ago but I also feel so proud for me today. I don’t watch television at all, I don’t even have a TV at home and if I want to see a movie I simply watch it online.

Television has a major disadvantage. You don’t have many choices about what you can see. You just open it, search the 4-5 best channels and check what they have to show you. On the other side internet provides countless information and choices.

At least you have the ability to choose what you will see instead of opening the TV and being fed up with the program that X or Y channel decided to show at 6pm. Does this mean that you can’t get lost in the internet? Of course not, but at least you have a little more control over your choices.

Fred Allen has said that “Television is the triumph of machines over people” and he was completely right. Do you know how awesome it feels when you stop brainwashing yourself with stupid TV shows?

You instantly have 3 to 5 free hours to spend on yourself by exercising, reading a book, starting a new hobby or just sleeping. You have more time to socialize, meet new people and do something meaningful with your life. You aren’t a slave to TV anymore.

“I find television very educating. Every time somebody turns on the set, I go into the other room and read a book.” – Groucho Marx

3. Social media

The growth of social media in the last decade was astonishing. The internet was flooded with millions of people full of narcissism and insecurities trying to validate themselves through a social profile where they showcase their experience, beauty and life.

Social media can be a really great tool to communicate, connect and meet new people or even help your business grow. They have a great power, but you have to use them in the right way. If you let them control your life then you have lost the game. How do you know that you have let them control your life?

When you go for a drink with your friends and the only thing you can remember from that night is that Becky liked your profile picture at 2.20 am or the “check in” you did on Facebook at 3.00 am with title “having amazing fun with my buddies“.

Sure, you had amazing fun. That’s why you spent almost all the night scrolling down your social profile timeline. You know that you have let them control your life when you are continuously checking your smart phone and the only thing you care about is how many people liked or shared your photo.

When you eat dinner with your family and instead of talking with them you check your snapchat updates. Or when you don’t have something productive to do and you decide to kill your time on Instagram. That’s how it is when you let social media control your life.

How to take control of your life:

Many people suffer from addictions to these three “modern diseases” and can’t find a way to take back control over their lives. It’s easy to give advice like “come on, just shut down the TV” or “the only thing you have to do is to close the video game” but it’s not so simple.

When you are deeply addicted, both emotionally and pshycoligically it’s so difficult to disconnect and just close the video game or simply shut down the TV. That disease doesn’t let you grow and keeps you static and mediocre.

Personal growth occurs because of two reasons:

• Because of a tragedy.
• Because of a huge goal, a burning desire that makes you want to succeed. These are the only two motives that force personal growth. The truth is that the first one is much stronger.

Think about it. When is it easier to run faster? When you know that if you run fast enough you will win $10,000 or if your life is threatened and you know that if you run fast enough you will save your life.

In both cases you will run, but the second case is a tragedy and is more likely to force you to succeed and run fast enough to win. The only way to cut these worthless activities and regain control over your life is by creating a tragedy.

How are you doing that? Easier said than done but you have to:

• Delete all your data in the video game.
• Sell your TV or video game.
• Throw your video game/TV out of the window or break it down(though it’s more profitable to sell it)
• Delete your social media accounts.

These might sound a bit extreme but the only way to stop doing something is by not having the ability to do it. When are you more likely to binge eat and gain weight? When you have a kitchen full of biscuits, sweets and chocolates or when you have a kitchen full of fruits and vegetables? If you don’t have the ability to do something then you will end up not doing it.

When I moved to my new house I noticed that I didn’t spend time watching TV because I haven’t bought a new TV yet. This saved me 2-3 hours per day and I ended up never buying a new TV because I realized the time-saving benefit. 

If you find yourself in a situation where your life sucks and your dreams fly away, then modern diseases are probably ruining your life. Sell your TV, video game, burn it or break it down. Delete all your data from your social profiles. Just get rid of them completely. That’s the only way to take back control of your life.

What’s your experience with modern diseases? Do you believe they have a negative or positive impact on your life? Let me know what you think in the comments below.