Tom

?Thanks for the advice! The book is now on my Kindle, will read when done with the one I'm reading now.

Hey Thomas. Thanks for your journal. I like your honesty. If you are this good at analyzing and writing down your thoughts you will surely accomplish a lot! If you want to grab some coffee write me a PM. I live in The Hague.

Day 5. I woke up before everybody else. Quiet time in the morning is always a blessing. Wrote down my dreams, came here to write my other journal and started reading others. I had to force myself a bit to connect with fellow GameQuitters. Why should anyone care for what I write? I thought it over and came to the conclusion that we are here to get out of our comfort zone, so I won't allow myself to lurk. A productive workday, interesting and challenging as usual. Morning break with the book in Dutch. It does become easier if I give it some uninterrupted time and enter a state of flow. In the afternoon yesterday's mom came to visit with her daughter so I had another quick break, enjoyed coffee and homemade cake. Work would never end so I had little playtime with the children. They were playing an educational game on the emulator I set up on the TV. This made me feel a bit anxious for them. We are caring parents, we don't allow much screen time and they usually keep busy otherwise, but I'll be wary anyway. I know the causes and the symptoms to watch out for, so I guess my experience will come in handy. We had a Skype chat with my brother. We don't talk often enough. This changes as of today. Lifted weights after dinner. All in all a good session. So close to my personal records, gonna crush them soon Shoulder presses are a bitch though.

Hei SpiNips. I'm just checking out the latest album by Ensiferum. I'm quite a metalhead so Finland is definitely on my radar \m/ I'm also keen on Jujutsu. As soon as I get the chance I'll get on the tatami again and get my black belt and beyond. I'm a red belt now, and I only stopped because I had to move countries. Wanting many things can definitely make you anxious. ?Just make sure you get what Horatius intended with "carpe diem"! From Wikipedia: "The ode says that the future is unforeseen and that one should not leave to chance future happenings, but rather one should do all one can today to make one's future better. [...] not to ignore the future, but rather not to trust that everything is going to fall into place for you and taking action for the future today." Maybe you knew that already but so many people take "carpe diem" for the exact opposite It does look to me that you got the right meaning though. Keep going! And no worries with the girl: you'll figure it out together. Just have a chat with her. Anxiety by definition goes away once you get rid of uncertainty.

Hi Rodrigo. I love the perspective that transpires from your posts. Do you study philosophy? I've never read anything by Marcus Aurelius but I appreciate Stoicism. Seneca is one of my favorite reads. Just like Joe I find Stoicism to resemble Buddhism at times. Good stuff

Hey Joe, nice journal! 10 things to be grateful for, with such consistency every day. You set an example. I used to focus on the same ones every day, and in broad strokes (my wife, my children...). Now I look at your mindset and learn. Thank you!

Hey Travis. Thank you for sharing your journal and congratulations on your blog. Not only on the post about quitting gaming but on the very first one too. It really resonates with me, and you got me to grin and nod with your "perfection, like Superman, can be pretty boring". Please keep writing.

Right, so I tripped on my way home and smashed on the ground. I was looking at my phone to get directions and didn't pay close attention to my surroundings. Of all places, my glasses fell down on the train rails. Not that it would have been that easy to find them as I need them to see in the first place First thought? That's what you get for going out: you should stay home and play games, saving money and trouble. This thought kept popping up for a bit but I didn't have time for it: I still had to get home. I brought my mind to think of it as such: I had a fun evening. It was time to get new glasses anyway. I'm fortunate that many years of martial arts taught me how to minimize fall damage. Day 4. A few hours of sleep, some work around the house, and out to meet a local family at the park. Good connection, we'll meet again soon. Shooting hoops becomes more fun the longer I do it. Fell asleep telling bedtime stories. Make no time for gaming = have no time for gaming.

Hi Primmulla. May it be that you play games to take a break from being social? That's how it was for me. I never really cared for the social aspect of gaming and always declined "friendship" requests. The whole point of gaming was to get away from others and carve out some personal space. If you like me are an introvert, being social drains you and you recharge by being alone. For extraverts it works the other way around. So I interpreted Cam's point as "gaming feels like you are replenishing your energies".

Day 3. Isn't it cool to run through tall grass, faster than anyone else and as deadly as the shotgun you are carrying? Good morning. You are still dreaming of gaming, aren't you? Whatever. Some quiet time in bed. Focus on breathing. Mind is calm and up we go. I made lunch for everybody and did some chores. Sang along to some French songs: if I don't use it more I'm going to keep searching for words when I need it at work. Felt good. A nice walk, then play time with the kids. Focusing on their fun makes all the difference. My wife remarks that I never go out by myself. She's right, so here I go. No gaming tonight. Time to get off the train.

Thanks Chris! What tricked me back into excessive gaming was thinking I had almost arrived where I wanted to be in life, combined with all the stress I accumulated along the way. I told to myself I deserved a break, and that's absolutely true. But my situation is not the same it was when gaming worked as a relief. It was like taking the wrong medicine, and I'm also not the same patient anymore. So yes, realize that we're in an endless journey and that we're constantly changing, suck it up and carry on :}

I was sticking blocks together with a pickaxe. Wait, what? I never played Minecraft in my life! This must be a dream. Oh yes, it is. Good morning. Dreaming about gaming is not new to me. Scrolling lines of text. Exploring. Fighting. Rocket jumping. And games I never played or that don't even exist. Thinking about gaming is not new to me either. Lately I've been going over map routes and card combinations at the most bizarre moments. This happened today as well, in flashes. I just took notice of the thoughts and let them go. Deciding to quit had a good effect on my mood. I found it easier to focus on work and I felt a bit more energetic. For my weight training session I switched the usual metal for some reggae, just for fun, and I was pleased with my performance. Then I grabbed a basketball and went to shoot some hoops at the park across the street. I chatted with a couple of mums and appreciated the fact that I wouldn't have met them had I been playing video games instead. My wife and kids joined me and we spent the rest of the day together. I felt even better. Now I'm writing ten lines and deleting nine, recollecting good and bad times and making the necessary comparisons. It's so simple after all: identify your real priorities, draw your own map and follow it. Rinse and repeat. I've done it before, I'm doing it again. No problem.

Thank you for your welcome Cam! And do give me a shout when you pass through the Netherlands again. Joe, I see you are very active on this forum. I'll snoop around your posts and get to know you a bit. Sure it will be nice to interact. I'll follow Cam's suggestion and post a picture of my calendar in the Main Room. Maybe somebody will find it useful. I have no questions right now but sure they will come later, and I won't hesitate to ask

Hi guys, My name is Tom and I hail from the Netherlands. I'm pleased to meet you all. Today for the first time I open up about my gaming habit, and to know that you are here, that we are in this together, makes it a bit easier. I'm 33 years old and a PC gamer since my early childhood. I learned reading and writing on a Commodore something, maybe a PET, when I was three. After that I took to learning English and IT in order to really understand computers. I was growing up to be an astronaut, so that's what I needed to do! Also I'm visually impaired, and the PC is both an invaluable accessibility tool and a marvelous entertainment platform since viewing distance is not an issue (I can smell the pixels). I also work in IT because I know and love computers. It's so easy to play a game when I need a break since the PC is a natural extension of my senses and always right there next to me. Besides being an ex-gamer (oh yeah baby, I'm not messing around!) I'm also a husband and a father of two. We are all busy integrating in this new country, learning the language and trying to make friends. We feel a bit lonely, not having any support network despite being here for four years already, but all in all life is good and we are quite happy. I'm dropping gaming because I don't want to make time for it anymore. It nibbles at my personal and professional life, and sometimes it even bites whole chunks off. Playing games while pretending to be busy with something important? Come on! This is not who I want to be. So what did I do? I deleted all my games and accounts, of course (oh wait, the backups... done). I replaced Windows with Linux. I printed 90 checkboxes on an A4 titled "90 day no gaming challenge" which I pinned to my whiteboard. How will I spend the time I used to dedicate to gaming and keeping up with the industry? Easy. News and casts will be replaced with extra contact with distant friends and family. I will also make more of an effort to meet locals. The first step is done: I just wrote to the local TEDx asking how I can help. This will cover my need for connection. For a quick break there's the Dutch book I'm reading, which wouldn't be much of a chore if I just kept at it. Also I'll double my efforts in learning Dutch songs. This will keep me mentally stimulated. I will resume meditating (why did I even stop?) and keep lifting heavy to take care of stress. How about my need for escapism? There's this thing I once mastered called oneironautics. It will take a while to get back to the level of lucidity I once had but it's definitely worth the effort. Which reminds me: let's put a cross on that first checkbox and go to bed!