No TV for you!

No, I'm not channeling the Soup Nazi from Seinfeld. I have actually decided to fast TV for the month of July. It might look and sound a little strange but it's something I felt I had to do.
First off, I don't claim to be some religious nut but I am striving to be more like Him and I have accepted Jesus as my savior so that makes me a Christian. Because I'm human, I don't always do right, nor do I always obey. I'm working on it, Lord knows I am, but it's an uphill battle.

To let you guys in on a secret about Smarty, I watch a lot of TV. I mean, a lot. Like, on a regular night, I get home from work around 6, maybe. Then, I proceed to watch TV until I go to to bed around 3 a.m.-ish. If you're counting, that's about nine hours of TV.
What could I be watching pray tell? Well, there's always CNN and Headline News and an episode of "Law & Order" on, whether it is the original, "Criminal Intent" or "Special Victims Unit." Then of course there is "Wheel of Fortune" and "Jeopardy!" Of course I have to get my dose of reality TV with "Jon & Kate Plus 8" and "Little People, Big World." And if "Grey's Anatomy," "In Plain Sight" is on, I'm watching that too. Let's not forget the shows on Nick @ Nite plus reruns of "Girlfriends," "Half & Half," "The Golden Girls" and believe it or not, there's almost always something worth watching on BET-J, TV One and HGTV.
The thing is, I didn't realize how much time I wasted watching TV, particularly those shows I've seen before, until I turned off the TV. Today is Day 7 and I think I am going through withdrawals. Seriously, I don't ever recall going this long without CNN since I've been working in the media. I hate not knowing what's going on in the world.
I know some of you may be asking why I'm doing this to myself. Trust me when I tell you that there is a method to my madness. Stay with me now.
There are a lot of things I have been praying for and asking God to do in my life and they all require me doing something first. That's not hard, right? Wrong, I noticed that watching that much TV served as a distraction and actually made me procrastinate even more.
The main thing I have been praying for is sleep. I have had a jacked up sleep pattern since high school and I haven't been able to get it together since. I usually require four hours of sleep to function. I need five to be productive and I need six to be cordial while doing it all. Anything after that is icing.
So, add to that the fact that I am trying to get my non-profit organization started and for that, I have to put together a business plan. I can not and I will not throw something together just to say I have a plan. I owe those kids more than that and I owe myself more than that.
Add to that the fact that I really need to stop being a punk and take the GRE so that I can apply to graduate programs for non-profit management. I was blessed/super fortunate/lucky (whatever you prefer) to have made it through four years of high school and three and a half years of college without learning how to study. As you can imagine, that leaves me at a disadvantage in prepping for what is no less than the SAT on steroids.
The plan was to take the test before my birthday, that didn't happen. I got discouraged after seeing my scores from a practice test. I allowed fear to set in and I haven't taken it. Yea, ya girl Smarty gets scared sometimes.
At any rate, since abandoning TV, I have managed to nearly complete my business plan. I need perhaps a solid day and a half to complete the plan. From there, I have to identify grant-giving public and private organizations and pull together the research for the presentation to board of directors for my uncle's ministry and the focus group I've pulled together. And this is only Day 7.
In addition to this, I'm sleeping so much better it's not even funny. I don't remember being this well-rested in all my 26 years of life. It's not that I'm going to sleep at a set time, I'm getting more sleep when I do go. Instead of knocking off at 3-ish, it's more like 12:30 and then a nap when I get home in the evenings.
There's a lot to be said about this no TV thing, but then again, I hate to be in the dark about the world happenings. CNN.com only gives you so much.
Anyway, I think the purpose of this post is to get you guys to hold me accountable. Plus, being a Christian, we are supposed to 'speak' things into existence. Personally, I think that if you shout it out to the world, folks are going to expect results and this is what I'm doing. I want you guys to mention my nonprofit or ask me how my "studying" is going or something just to sort of keep me on track.
Can I count on you?