Sometimes cutting things out is the way to add great value to your life. I recently discovered that simply by driving in my car. As a pastor I spend a great deal of time in my car. I drive to work. I drive to people’s homes. I drive to meetings. I drive to hospitals.

As I would drive I would listen mainly to sports talk radio. I listened on my car radio to Mike and Mike in the Morning on the way to work. At midday I would use the Tunein Radio app to listen to my favorite Milwaukee area sports radio station. And on my way home I would listen to Steve “the Homer” True on the same station. Anyone who knows me knows that I am a rabid (ahem!) Green Bay Packers and Milwaukee Brewers fan. I ate up everything I could about sports in general and my teams specifically.

I began to learn that the more I listened to these stations the more they brought stress into my life. Sports talk radio is in the business of hype. They do what they can to generate interest in games that are to come and reflect on games that are past. So they do what they can to generate controversy. The more I listened the more I my blood pressure would go up. Not only that, but sports talk radio is filled with commercial breaks. It’s become worse and worse in recent years. It’s so incredibly frustrating: Just when a conversation is heating up in breaks a commercial.

I finally decided that cutting things like this out of my life would be in my best interest. For the past few months I’ve been watching the games on TV but cutting out all the radio hype. Man, it feels good. The games still stress me out. But my overall stress level now rapidly declines between games.

That’s the least of it. In place of sports talk radio I have begun listening to podcasts that have enriched my life beyond measure. Since I have started listening to podcasts I have learned more about myself, more about leadership, more about goals, and moving forward, and entrepreneurship, and ministry, and art than I ever could have listening to silly sports talk radio.

Cutting out sports talk radio in the car has immeasurably added to my life. I have been enriched by these and other podcasts:

• Michael Hyatt’s This Is Your Life
• Dave Ramsey’s Entreleadership
• John Lee Dumas’ EOFire
• The Eric Metaxas Show
• Duct Tape Marketing
• Life in the Woods

Cutting out stress generators and time wasters is a great way to get things done that you never thought you could before. They add the value of education and sometimes restore wasted time. Instead of heading home and sitting in front of the TV create something of value; generate some art; learn something new. Respect the value of time. It slips away far too quickly.

When has cutting things out added value to your life?