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WARNING: THIS POST WILL BE LONG. BUT I HOPE IT WILL HELP YOU. IF YOU ARE LOOKING TO DO THE STEPS BELOW, I STRONGLY RECOMMEND YOU GRAB A PIECE OF PAPER AND WRITE OUT THE QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS.
I was reading the book: Allen Car's easyway to quit smoking. I have been smoking / vaping for about 4 years now and wanted to quit.
As I was reading the book, it dawned on me that the total point of the book was to shift your mind into believing that by quitting smoking you were not sacrificing anything, but in fact gaining everything. To rid yourself of the brainwashing that you cannot do life without nicotine.
THIS POST IS NOT ABOUT QUITTING NICOTINE, but about taking these strategies to quitting all bad habits and addictions.
The book goes on to discuss the illusions of craving nicotine and how the "withdrawal" symptoms were simply caused by the previous cigarette you smoked.
And so the epiphany began.
I was taking a freezing cold shower this morning as I normally do and thought on this philosophy. Then it hit me.
YOU ARE ONLY SACRIFICING IF IT IS SOMETHING YOU CRAVE.
Seems obvious right? I don't believe that I am sacrificing by not doing heroin, as it is something I don't crave and have never done.
As I recently made a post about quitting video games and how consuming they were, I thought of how this philosophy that can cause you to quit something physically and mentally addicting such as nicotine, how could it transfer to something like entertainment which is only mentally addicting?
Then it hit me like a ton of bricks.
You don't have to sacrifice for your dreams. The idea of such is an illusion. I don't have to sacrifice entertainment for my dreams. I don't have to sacrifice video games, or T.V., or time with friends to be successful. IT IS THE OPPOSITE.
I AM SACRIFICING BY PLAYING VIDEO GAMES, WATCHING TV, OR HANGING OUT WITH FRIENDS.
I crave success, I crave freedom, and I crave a life on my terms. By doing something other than pursuing this, I am in turn, sacrificing.
By engaging in such time-wasting activities, then you are sacrificing.
Your dreams do not require sacrifice, in fact, doing anything other than pursuing your dreams is sacrificing your dreams.
Although it seems a little weird, and backwards, what I realized was astonishing. I realized how video games, or other bad habits are simply an illusion.
HOW TO BREAK YOUR BAD HABITS AND THEIR ILLUSIONS:
I am going to take my bad habit of video games, and show you how I rid them from life entirely. Feel free to insert any bad habits you may be looking to rid yourself of, in place of video games in this example. All of these steps follow the principles of the book on how to stop smoking, but I recognized how it correlated to every facet in our lives.
1. The first thing I did was break down why I played video games (or insert bad habit).
Every time I felt an urge to play a game, I asked myself: why? The essential reason in this instance was, when I feel a lack of direction on what to do next, I feel the urge to play video games.
The illusion of video games:
"they are fun" "they are relaxing"
In fact they are not fun. The only reason we view entertainment as "fun" is because it relieves the uncomfortable feelings of reality. When I feel uncertain on what steps to take next, by playing video games, I am numbing out from reality, and therefore removing the uncomfortable feeling that reality gave me. Ultimately, it is not that video games are entertaining, it is that the remove you from the reality of your current negative feelings making you believe that they are "relaxing" or "fun".
2. Next, I broke down whether or not video games (or insert bad habit) were fixing the problem.
As stated above, the problem in my instance, was feeling a lack of direction on what I should be doing with my time. Are video games fixing this problem?
No, in fact they enhance it incredibly. Video games are a rabbit hole of energy, time, money, and where real life dreams go to die. All time, energy, and money spent on said activities are robbing me of the resources I could be using to fix the problem that lied beneath the behavior.
After playing video games and coming back to reality, I am left with the same "lost" feelings I had, and worse, the negative feelings of wasting my time on such activities. This in turn, perpetuates the need to continue playing. Playing to escape the negative feelings, to give the false illusion of pleasure.
3. The most important step. Recognize that you are not depriving yourself by giving up this behavior, you are enhancing yourself.
This was the "epiphany". This is what tied it all together.
By giving up video games, I'm not depriving myself. Hell, I'm not even sacrificing anything, because are not what I ultimately desire. I am only sacrificing by playing video games, because my dreams are what I ultimately desire.
The key to kicking a bad habit, is to recognize that you are not giving up anything, you are just gaining everything.
Whether it's going on a diet, ending procrastination, getting rid of time-wasting activities, or smoking, the common barrier to giving up these habits is the feeling that we are losing something. When we want to go on a diet, we start off by feeling like we are losing all the foods we "love". When I tried giving up video games in the past, I felt as if I was losing a past time that I "love".
The opposite could not be more true. What made this epiphany powerful was not because of what I consciously knew. It was, like all epiphanies, powerful because when I knew, became something I believed and felt.
I hope this post can somehow help someone who is struggling with habits they are wanting to change. It is difficult for me to articulate how I did it, as the most important part is it becoming a belief, not just something you consciously recognize.
The primary mindset shift was my belief that I had to sacrifice things to become successful. But in reality, I am only sacrificing my desires by not becoming successful.
Please feel free to ask any questions so I can better explain. This was difficult to write between my excitement, being able to articulate it, and finding a way to word it that made sense.
I was reading the book: Allen Car's easyway to quit smoking. I have been smoking / vaping for about 4 years now and wanted to quit.
As I was reading the book, it dawned on me that the total point of the book was to shift your mind into believing that by quitting smoking you were not sacrificing anything, but in fact gaining everything. To rid yourself of the brainwashing that you cannot do life without nicotine.
THIS POST IS NOT ABOUT QUITTING NICOTINE, but about taking these strategies to quitting all bad habits and addictions.
The book goes on to discuss the illusions of craving nicotine and how the "withdrawal" symptoms were simply caused by the previous cigarette you smoked.
And so the epiphany began.
I was taking a freezing cold shower this morning as I normally do and thought on this philosophy. Then it hit me.
YOU ARE ONLY SACRIFICING IF IT IS SOMETHING YOU CRAVE.
Seems obvious right? I don't believe that I am sacrificing by not doing heroin, as it is something I don't crave and have never done.
As I recently made a post about quitting video games and how consuming they were, I thought of how this philosophy that can cause you to quit something physically and mentally addicting such as nicotine, how could it transfer to something like entertainment which is only mentally addicting?
Then it hit me like a ton of bricks.
You don't have to sacrifice for your dreams. The idea of such is an illusion. I don't have to sacrifice entertainment for my dreams. I don't have to sacrifice video games, or T.V., or time with friends to be successful. IT IS THE OPPOSITE.
I AM SACRIFICING BY PLAYING VIDEO GAMES, WATCHING TV, OR HANGING OUT WITH FRIENDS.
I crave success, I crave freedom, and I crave a life on my terms. By doing something other than pursuing this, I am in turn, sacrificing.
By engaging in such time-wasting activities, then you are sacrificing.
Your dreams do not require sacrifice, in fact, doing anything other than pursuing your dreams is sacrificing your dreams.
Although it seems a little weird, and backwards, what I realized was astonishing. I realized how video games, or other bad habits are simply an illusion.
HOW TO BREAK YOUR BAD HABITS AND THEIR ILLUSIONS:
I am going to take my bad habit of video games, and show you how I rid them from life entirely. Feel free to insert any bad habits you may be looking to rid yourself of, in place of video games in this example. All of these steps follow the principles of the book on how to stop smoking, but I recognized how it correlated to every facet in our lives.
1. The first thing I did was break down why I played video games (or insert bad habit).
Every time I felt an urge to play a game, I asked myself: why? The essential reason in this instance was, when I feel a lack of direction on what to do next, I feel the urge to play video games.
The illusion of video games:
"they are fun" "they are relaxing"
In fact they are not fun. The only reason we view entertainment as "fun" is because it relieves the uncomfortable feelings of reality. When I feel uncertain on what steps to take next, by playing video games, I am numbing out from reality, and therefore removing the uncomfortable feeling that reality gave me. Ultimately, it is not that video games are entertaining, it is that the remove you from the reality of your current negative feelings making you believe that they are "relaxing" or "fun".
2. Next, I broke down whether or not video games (or insert bad habit) were fixing the problem.
As stated above, the problem in my instance, was feeling a lack of direction on what I should be doing with my time. Are video games fixing this problem?
No, in fact they enhance it incredibly. Video games are a rabbit hole of energy, time, money, and where real life dreams go to die. All time, energy, and money spent on said activities are robbing me of the resources I could be using to fix the problem that lied beneath the behavior.
After playing video games and coming back to reality, I am left with the same "lost" feelings I had, and worse, the negative feelings of wasting my time on such activities. This in turn, perpetuates the need to continue playing. Playing to escape the negative feelings, to give the false illusion of pleasure.
3. The most important step. Recognize that you are not depriving yourself by giving up this behavior, you are enhancing yourself.
This was the "epiphany". This is what tied it all together.
By giving up video games, I'm not depriving myself. Hell, I'm not even sacrificing anything, because are not what I ultimately desire. I am only sacrificing by playing video games, because my dreams are what I ultimately desire.
The key to kicking a bad habit, is to recognize that you are not giving up anything, you are just gaining everything.
Whether it's going on a diet, ending procrastination, getting rid of time-wasting activities, or smoking, the common barrier to giving up these habits is the feeling that we are losing something. When we want to go on a diet, we start off by feeling like we are losing all the foods we "love". When I tried giving up video games in the past, I felt as if I was losing a past time that I "love".
The opposite could not be more true. What made this epiphany powerful was not because of what I consciously knew. It was, like all epiphanies, powerful because when I knew, became something I believed and felt.
I hope this post can somehow help someone who is struggling with habits they are wanting to change. It is difficult for me to articulate how I did it, as the most important part is it becoming a belief, not just something you consciously recognize.
The primary mindset shift was my belief that I had to sacrifice things to become successful. But in reality, I am only sacrificing my desires by not becoming successful.
Please feel free to ask any questions so I can better explain. This was difficult to write between my excitement, being able to articulate it, and finding a way to word it that made sense.
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