What are the Best 5 Alternatives to Watching the Super Bowl?

This year will see the fifty-second Super Bowl, American football’s most important game. 2018’s contest will be between the New England Patriots and the Philadelphia Eagles.

Who will win? And does it really matter.

The truth is, I don’t really care. Much. (Go Eagles). But that hasn’t always been the case. In fact I used to care. A lot. And I would spend hours watching the run up, game and then reading all the media reports.

The funny thing is I’m not even much into American football – I’m not even American. So why was I watching in the first place. And why am I writing this article?

Before we go Further, I Want you to Imagine

Imagine that instead of watching sporting events that you didn’t care about, you took all that time, bottled it up and used it for something else. Something better?

Imagine lying on your death bed. Are you really going to regret missing the pre-game in 2016 because you over-slept?

Or remember how you had to record the game because of the US-UK time difference and were all primed to watch it on the Monday but then checked Facebook when you got to work only to find that the Patriots had won again ruining your evening’s entertainment (true story)?

This isn’t a ‘hate on sports-ball, especially the Super Bowl’ rant. It’s more a ‘enjoy the Super Bowl if that’s your thing, but be aware of the wondrous things you could also be spending your rime on’ article.

I love sports. But I used to watch too much. So I decided in a life audit to just watch sports events where I cared about the outcome. No neutral fannage, no ‘just insterested’. It was ‘watch it cos I care or not at all’.

Instead I channelled that time and energy into positive things, but more on that later.

So far, this decade, the Superbowl has lasted an average of 3 hours and 44 minutes (Source). So what else could you do with that near four hours of your life? Keep reading and I’ll tell you.

1. Start a Side Hustle/Business

Imagine if someone said this to you:

I will give you £1000 to not watch T.V. or sports you don’t care about for a whole year.

Would you do it?

Ho-yeah you would! A grand? For not watching junk telly?? Too right you would.

There is one caveat. To get your thousand quid, you need to work for it. Not every night. But one or two hours most nights a week.

In other words, you trade the unproductive ‘waste’ time for something financially productive.

A couple of years ago, I went back to freelancing and it worked out great. All I traded was time that I was wasting away doing nothing. Now I’m better off and have learned some great skills.

It only takes a couple of hours to set up your profile on somewhere like Upwork or Fiverr and then you can start bidding on jobs (or gigs).

2. Run A Marathon (Almost)

If you’re male and live in the United States, the average length of time for you (if you enter) to run a marathon is…

4 hours and 20 minutes.

OK, Ok so it’s a little longer than the average Super Bowl, but if you train really hard…

Real talk: it’s unrealistic that you’ll run a marathon instead of watching the super bowl. And it’s also questionable whether that’s a better use of your time. But there is a serious point.

It doesn’t take much time for you to get outside, get some fresh air, exercise and experience life. You could even take the kids.

No generation has been more sedentary than ours. No generation has spent more time in front of a screen than ours. Liberate yourself. And hey, at least the parks will be quiet.

3. Climb A Mountain

Do you live close to mountains? I do. And I go walking in them whenever I can – which isn’t very often because I’m looking after my young kids. But when they’re older…

I do most of my mountain climbing when my wife and kids are away visiting family. One occasion I’d left climbing till the afternoon to avoid the rush of the crowds at Loch Lomond (one of Scotland’s beauty spots). The only problem was I hadn’t left myself much daylight.

So I had to get up and down in under four hours. And I did.

The views were incredible – miles and miles of snow capped peaks.

So which is better, climbing a mountain or four hours of television?

4. Start a Blog

A few years ago everyone was starting blogs, mainly because they thought they would get super rich from doing it. A few did. Most didn’t.

But that doesn’t mean it’s not a good idea. When I started this blog, it wasn’t to make money (and still isn’t). Instead it was (and still is) a place to share my stories and connect with the world. Somewhere to give back and tune in to the Universe.

Or something.

In that time tens of thousands of men, many of them fathers, have read these web pages. Many have responded and their lives have improved. Being a part of that is an incredible privilege.

If you start a blog for the right reasons (giving back) then you will enjoy it and make a success of it. Expect to make lots of $$$ and you won’t.

You could easily set up a self hosted blog and publish your first post in under four hours if you know what you’re doing. Or a bit more if need to learn (PRO-TIP: when you get stuck, Google ‘How to do [thing I’m stuck on]’ for the answer).

5. Become the Best Dad You Can Be

In the middle of last year I published my first book ‘A Father’s Mission: Strong Fatherhood in Our Modern Times‘.

It’s my manifesto of what fatherhood should look like in 2018 (and any year going forward). It contains actionable advice on how to be a better father and has had good reviews (4-5 stars on Amazon).

And at 144 pages, it will take you around 2-3 hours to read. Maybe a bit longer if you take notes, or break for the bathroom/something to eat.

Maybe you’ll agree with it. Maybe you won’t. But you will learn about yourself, your style of fatherhood and (most importantly) a different perspective on raising boys and girls in our times.

You can get it here.

Connection Not Consumption

If you must watch the Super Bowl – do it with other people.

If you’re going to sit and watch the Super Bowl later despite my five alternative suggestions then I don’t judge you. I hope you enjoy it.

But I hope you’ve learned something from this short post – that time is valuable and can be spent in so many productive and enjoyable ways that don’t involve watching TV or consuming media.

As for me this year (as in the previous four or five years) I’ll be in bed – the game starts around midnight UK time. But whatever you do come Super Bowl weekend, enjoy yourself and cultivate connection over consumption.

Neil

P.S. I wasn’t joking about buying my book. You don’t even need to read it in one sitting. Get it here.