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danielk-The art of doing nothing


Danielk

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Well it is an art. And in todays society it is truly something in need of practise. This might sound like a booring journal, hey are we going to read a journal of a dude doing nothing?

Well yes and it is also about slowing down in life. And when you do commit in doing something you take your time and live in the present moment. As I said practise.

I think this is much needed for ex-gamers. Our brains are now hardwired to high speed entertaiment with fast stimulation. We or atleast I need to really slow down and this leads into my journal.

First two weeks without games.

So I have for the first time in 20 years been totally free from games. 14 days of no fast paced enetertaiment, no flashing gaming streams and "must buy game reviews".

Let me tell you this, I have never charged my batteries better the now. When I have free time or sleep I get high quality rest and relaxation.

But it has taken a great deal of effort not doing something. I do my rutins like cooking and even in this area I see better results. That is because I take my time reading on recipes, buying high quality products and letting the food cook as long as it needs. As I have mentioned before I love the financial markets and trading. It is not because I want a new addiction or hunt dopamine. It is to gain better financial success and understanding our global economics better. And since I have been slowing down I see better results in my trading. I believe it is because I spend quality time with my charts and actually think the market in a slow pace. I am allowing myself to spend hours just studying on single market without doing any trades. So my trades have become less but also my losses and my wins have increased. This month I have increased my trading capital with 70% doing only two trades. How about that. I never thought that could be done. I plan of updating this journal every two weeks or so, so until then ????relaxing-dog-wallpaper.jpg

The art of doing nothing. Why the hell not? I say screw todays society.

 

 

 

 

Edited by Danielk
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I would think of it more as the art of patience. Games make us impatient by screwing with our reward systems. So, we don't just focus on doing the activities that eventually grow into powerful skills and accomplishments - those processes stop being enjoyable when you're some powerful being.

This slowing down of activity is what makes reducing input so nice. It's fricking incredible enjoying just sitting down and doing interesting homework assignments, then spending some time actually practicing at the piano (something I haven't done in months) or practicing my artwork.

I'm glad to see that you're experiencing this same slowing down that allows for greater focus.

Edited by Alkan
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Interesting perspective you have on free time... mine happens to be the exact opposite.

I'm only 13, but I've found that without gaming I have a whole LOT of free time, and my issue there is: I don't know how to spend it. I have just been unable to find a hobby that I enjoy, something that can hold my interest for long periods of time like gaming did. On the other hand this abundance of free time (even more so because I've been snowed in the past few days; school has been cancelled for a while), isn't helping with my laziness and procrastination. I thought that gaming was adding to those problems, and I assume it was, but not to a large extent, because I still struggle with them.

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Interesting perspective you have on free time... mine happens to be the exact opposite.

I'm only 13, but I've found that without gaming I have a whole LOT of free time, and my issue there is: I don't know how to spend it. I have just been unable to find a hobby that I enjoy, something that can hold my interest for long periods of time like gaming did. On the other hand this abundance of free time (even more so because I've been snowed in the past few days; school has been cancelled for a while), isn't helping with my laziness and procrastination. I thought that gaming was adding to those problems, and I assume it was, but not to a large extent, because I still struggle with them.

Aim high. My god, aim high. If I knew what I knew now about just sitting down to do something towards developing some skill at 13, I would be rich and/or famous by now. I'd have put a good 15,000 hours into assorted skills. I want you to imagine this - you could start by learning how to be productive during the day, and learning to make it an enjoyable process.

I want you to imagine what you could do if you had 10,000 hours of practice on something, by age 20. That's about 27 hours per week. You'd be at a world-class level at some skill by spending time developing yourself. And, you're at an age where your brain works differently - to your advantage. You'll learn faster, and what you learn will be crystallized. Mastery, by Robert Greene is quite good for this.

So, basically, what do you get by quitting gaming? The time to become basically superhuman. Don't let people fool you into thinking that there's some mediocre limit. As you change your habits, they will crystallize into behavior. Your gradual steps will accumulate over time, and the next thing you know, you'll be at the top of a mountain while your peers are still finding the first steps.

http://www.artofmanliness.com/2014/05/19/10-overlooked-truths-about-taking-action/

http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/guest-blog/you-can-increase-your-intelligence-5-ways-to-maximize-your-cognitive-potential/

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I would think of it more as the art of patience. Games make us impatient by screwing with our reward systems. So, we don't just focus on doing the activities that eventually grow into powerful skills and accomplishments - those processes stop being enjoyable when you're some powerful being.

This slowing down of activity is what makes reducing input so nice. It's fricking incredible enjoying just sitting down and doing interesting homework assignments, then spending some time actually practicing at the piano (something I haven't done in months) or practicing my artwork.

I'm glad to see that you're experiencing this same slowing down that allows for greater focus.

I fully agree with you patience is an art form and the enjoyment you gain, especially long term, is the highest form of reward.

But I do mean the art of doing nothing is important aswell, or allow yourself to do nothing if you wish. This is a subject that somehow conflict with todays society as we are expected to always do something productive with our time. But the other side of the coin shows more health issues and stress related illness aswell.

What is life? What is it supposed to contain? Each persons life is a blessing. I belive that one should allow him/herslef to just enjoy the wonders of nature or social interactions from time to time and do absolutely nothing. Just enjoy our planet, it sounds and smells. Live life slow and live in the present and as you said have patience in developing your skills and actually enjoy the journey meanwhile. Because every second in your life is a lost one never coming back. To be here and now.

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Interesting perspective you have on free time... mine happens to be the exact opposite.

I'm only 13, but I've found that without gaming I have a whole LOT of free time, and my issue there is: I don't know how to spend it. I have just been unable to find a hobby that I enjoy, something that can hold my interest for long periods of time like gaming did. On the other hand this abundance of free time (even more so because I've been snowed in the past few days; school has been cancelled for a while), isn't helping with my laziness and procrastination. I thought that gaming was adding to those problems, and I assume it was, but not to a large extent, because I still struggle with them.

Paul you are young so don't feel stressed about having trouble finding your path in life. Do everything in small steps and enjoy them as you move forward. Test things out.

Test things you think are cool. Do you like scouts that track animals in nature? Do you like basketball players, are they cool? Do you like motorcykles or airplanes, do you watch youtube movies of WW2 airplanes? Do you like horror, would you like to test playing a zombie in a movie?  Do you enjoy eating? Would you like to be the best to barbecue steak in your block? All this testing and small steps leads you into another path in life and you might end up married with a resturant owners daughter.

Let me tell you, gaming is booring. You do the same things over and over again. You  play the same games that are like the previous ones over and over again. You are playing and meanwhile you are wishing the game could be so much more. Like an artificial superlife. But that never happens. Instead you could be practising shooting in your local club and in real practising with your AK47 or Glock 17. Or you could in real life be an archer or riding horses in nature and get the social interaction from animals.

Games are a light version of real life. A poorly attempt of replicating what is going own in the real world. And if you feel you absolutely need a competative screen time environment, you should test trading the financial markets. Trust me you will get competition but you won't get addictive because everytime you lose control of yourself you lose money, and that hurts like hell. But you get a competative internet environment I can promise you that ☺But do allow yourself to just exist from time to time. No demands or stress. Just relaxing and being present in now.

 

Edited by Danielk
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Did you take that picture?  It's stunning!

Learning to live in the present moment is my favorite benefit from quitting games.  I wish you the best of luck on getting there!

Thanks mate, no it is a internet picture but I loved it. Glad to hear you enjoy living in the present moment, I am all with you on that being the favourite of things quitting games ☺

Edited by Danielk
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Awesome to see another journal up here. Excited to follow along man. That picture looks like it's from Southeast Asia. Reminds me of the incredible times I had there.

Thanks Cam ☺I think I will follow your advice and explore meditation.You been in Southeast asia? That is awesome, where did you do?

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Awesome to see another journal up here. Excited to follow along man. That picture looks like it's from Southeast Asia. Reminds me of the incredible times I had there.

Thanks Cam ☺I think I will follow your advice and explore meditation.You been in Southeast asia? That is awesome, where did you do?

I went to Bali, Singapore, Thailand and Shanghai for one rainy day. :D

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Interesting perspective you have on free time... mine happens to be the exact opposite.

I'm only 13, but I've found that without gaming I have a whole LOT of free time, and my issue there is: I don't know how to spend it. I have just been unable to find a hobby that I enjoy, something that can hold my interest for long periods of time like gaming did. On the other hand this abundance of free time (even more so because I've been snowed in the past few days; school has been cancelled for a while), isn't helping with my laziness and procrastination. I thought that gaming was adding to those problems, and I assume it was, but not to a large extent, because I still struggle with them.

Aim high. My god, aim high. If I knew what I knew now about just sitting down to do something towards developing some skill at 13, I would be rich and/or famous by now. I'd have put a good 15,000 hours into assorted skills. I want you to imagine this - you could start by learning how to be productive during the day, and learning to make it an enjoyable process.

I want you to imagine what you could do if you had 10,000 hours of practice on something, by age 20. That's about 27 hours per week. You'd be at a world-class level at some skill by spending time developing yourself. And, you're at an age where your brain works differently - to your advantage. You'll learn faster, and what you learn will be crystallized. Mastery, by Robert Greene is quite good for this.

So, basically, what do you get by quitting gaming? The time to become basically superhuman. Don't let people fool you into thinking that there's some mediocre limit. As you change your habits, they will crystallize into behavior. Your gradual steps will accumulate over time, and the next thing you know, you'll be at the top of a mountain while your peers are still finding the first steps.

http://www.artofmanliness.com/2014/05/19/10-overlooked-truths-about-taking-action/

http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/guest-blog/you-can-increase-your-intelligence-5-ways-to-maximize-your-cognitive-potential/

@Alkan thanks for the advice. I loved the first article, "10 Overlooked Truths About Taking Action," it's just what I needed. I even changed my signature to match: "Just do it." I admit, taking action seems daunting, but I will at least try to implement it into my everyday life. I especially liked truth #9: action makes you humble. It was offensive (I'M a teenager) but true. So, so true. I admit, I'm not excited for the failure I'm destined to achieve, but what can you do? The truth is, it took some willpower on my part to even post this response, funny isn't it? I'm an incredibly lazy person :P

Edited by Paul A.
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  • 3 weeks later...

So here comes a quick update :)

I have been "clean" from gaming for 4 weeks now. Today I also canceled all my pre-order games. So I have no connection to gaming anymore.

I also made clear to my old gaming friends I have quit gaming. I feel my entire life has taken a new turn and I can honestly say I feel much better in so many ways.

I feel I have control and I have no desire to ever game again :) I am strong and very optimistic about my future. 

I want to thank all of you for your support and wish you all the best in jour journeys to a quality life aswell. 

My daily rutine in doing less and relaxing more is working good aswell, I sleep better and are more healthy, I really love my life at this point.

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Congratulations on reaching your latest milestone! I just wanted to say that your point about enjoying life's little moments while doing absolutely nothing resonates with me so much. It's something that I've really tried to work on in the past few months. All too often I was preoccupied with looking back or at what may come in the future. This would sometimes cause me to rush through the day, perhaps with the goal of getting home to play that new video game in mind, when in reality I would have been better off enjoying the present moment, no matter how little.

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Thanks Mark :) 

Glad to hear we share the same view in so many ways. I find that mindfullness is a wonderfull tool (form of yoga) to practise to improve living in the present moment.

It is logical aswell, there is really nothing one can do about the past and the future is formed in the present moment. So living in the present moment not only increases life quality and every second we are blessed with life, it helps shaping our future goals aswell. Doing less in life will increase quality instead of quantity. 

Monks have practised this for thousands of years. There are wisdom that a modern human can apply. In the end it gives you control of yourself and your life. 

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  • 1 month later...

3 months without games! :)    Well it is something to celebrate! :) 

The best thing is I don´t miss it. During these 3 months I have filled my life with new activities  especially music. I have purchased instruments and started practise, it is hard work learning your favourite songs since childhood but the emotion you gain when nailing a song is really something. 

I have also started with dating. Not so much to get a girlfriend actually, but more to talk to women and get used to be around them. 

I am a strong beliver in the fact that anything you get exposed to will sooner or later become second nature, communicate with women included. 

I hope I can step it up perhaps 6 months from now and try to find a girlfriend. But it is all a part of a life changing plan,

I am not stupid, I do realise I have to have somthing to offer a female. Thats why I try to maximize myself in anyway, I spend time on the gym to get a athletic body,

I try to improve my cooking skills, I continue to trade the market to gain better financials, I continue to upgrade my wardrobe and clothes, to sum it up:

I really don´t have time to play games!! And that is a fact! You might think, all that sounds booring, especially if you are a gamer, well it can be sometimes (especially coocking!) but playing music really have replaced gaming for me as a fun activity. And I am very blessed and thankfull I have found a new passion in my life :) 

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