Andre2807

Day 1 - New I'm restarting this detox. I'm know this is going to be hard, but I'll try.

Day 38 - An update My inactivity on the Game Quitters forum should not be seen as a sign of a relapse. I merely don't make time to update my Game Quitter journal. I've been doing many things these days, and realised that I feel so much more fulfilled - even when compared to how gaming made me feel.

Day 30 - Well... that was weird Removing gaming from my life has made me explore areas of my life I'd never thought I would. Spiritual awakening (with my Christ as my foundation)MindfulnessYogaClassical guitar (I already play guitar, but something inside me wants to take this path)Cooking school (I'm more serious about finishing the course)A special thanks to Cam Adair for starting this community. You have my sincere gratitude. Also, a big thanks to those who take the time to read my journal updates. A word of encouragement + some reality: Quitting gaming is the start of your "new" life. It's a new chapter. But how much you change will depend on how much introspection you're willing to do. And if you do, and stick to it... You will change. You will do things that you were made to do. You'll know who you are, and realise that you weren't created to play video games. You were made for so much more. And that there's more to life, than just "this".

This happens to me as well. I don't know how to say this, but it will get better. Might I suggest doing some introspection? - This helps me a lot Questions like: Who am I? Where am I going? What do I love doing and can I teach it to somebody? Digging into these questions can only be answered by yourself. No YouTube video, book or podcast will have the answers. Gaming removes our ability to be fully aware of the present moment, and how beautiful life (and our life) actually is.

Day 21 - Three weeks of no gaming Gaming has its benefits, but I don't miss it. Gaming takes what is real (life and everything in it), and puts us in virtual reality. This virtual reality makes use of sense perception, mainly hearing and sight. Our feeling perception is subdued to pressing buttons on a controller or keyboard/mouse. Our focused attention is on the virtual reality in front of us. Virtual is defined as follows: "not physically existing as such but made by software to appear to do so" Stopping gaming, is a major step to switch off virtual reality and focus on what is real. Our life. Our body. Our experiences. The present moment. Focusing all my awareness to the present moment and the "real" life has pulled my attention so much that I find that the detox is easy. Almost effortless.

I've learned that the more we put attention to stopping something, the more likely it is to continue. If I put my attention to stopping to procrastinate, I end up procrastinating. Might I make a suggestion? You don't have to do it. It's completely your choice. Ask yourself: What was I made for? Why am I here? Who am I? What would I do today, if I knew that I would die tomorrow? The reason we are so drawn to screens, is because we intentionally/unintentionally avoid the difficult questions above. Those questions forces us out of inactivity. It forces us to change... and we humans... we don't like change.

Going cold turkey on so many things at once is a huge shock for the system. I've tried. In one month, I once made the commitment to do: No YouTube and no gaming. This commitment was made to limit my own screen time. It didn't work. After a few days I went back to YouTube, watching documentaries etc... then full YouTube started again. The brain (mind) is brilliant at coming up with thousands of excuses to do something you're deliberately trying to avoid doing.

Day 18 - 20: A weekend away Sometimes, we need to go away for a weekend. Sleep well. Spend some time with friends. Run next to the ocean. Smell the flowers. Enjoy a great meal. You can't do those if you're distracted. You have to be present.

Days 16 - 17: In the end, it doesn't even matter Everything is meaningless. Utterly meaningless. The moment that matters is now. The past is the past, it's history. The future has not arrived yet, it never will. The future, arrives as the now. We float, in our minds, constantly thinking about the past and about the future - so much so that we forget that now... is the only moment we experience. Right now, I'm drinking coffee and typing this journal post. My focused attention is on the taste and smell of the coffee, and the words as I type them. Does it matter? No. Everyone dies. Everyone is forgotten. Life goes on, whether we're here or not. Why so negative? It is not negative, it is fact. Live your life while you have it, but do not fret about what was or what's coming... Because all you have, is today. Now.

Day 15: The beginning of many things I'm listening to the Power of Now. Yesterday I wondered if anyone read my journal update. Today, (now) it's not important if anyone did read my journal update. What matters, is whether I was fully present when I made that journal update. Yesterday was in fact, one of my best work days. Improvement - here we go!

This. I can totally relate to this. I have a morning routine (set in stone = 66 days habit stuff), but my evenings are... a blur. With no plan, and my wife that hits the bed early, night time from 20:00 - 21:30ish is my worst time of the day. My willpower is completely drained by that time, so I struggle to do anything productive then...

Are you excited about your life?

Day 11 - 14: Because life without purpose... is meaningless I don't know the truth of life, but I do know this: if you don't find something outside of consumption (YouTube, gaming, Netflix, books, social media etc), you'll drift aimlessly through life - You'll hit your deathbed thinking... why was I given this life? Why did I waste it? Victor Frankl, author of the book, Man's Search for Meaning - mentions three things necessary for a meaningful life: 1. A cause to serve. 2. Someone to love. 3. A meaning for suffering. The answer to the question: What is the purpose of life, can only be answered by yourself. All our various forms of consumption (listed above), are our ways of escaping our existential question - we are scared to face it. We are scared of how it might change us. tl:dr I took this long weekend to ponder about the meaning of life, where to find it, and what we do to avoid those questions.

Welcome to the forums due88. A game-free life is amazing (but not easy).

Day 10 - Confession to a friend Yesterday, I confessed to a friend about my gaming addiction - although he could directly relate (he's not a gamer at all), he was a mentor to two other gaming addicts in our church. He referred me to them, so I can bounce ideas from them and how they dealt with it. Day 11 - here I go!

Day 9 (Wednesday, 20 September 2017) - Ups and downs Another Miracle Morning, got 3 out of 6 again. I need to make small changes if I want to turn it into 6 out of 6. The day went great, but when it was cooking time, the ground beef was frozen... I forgot to take it out of the freezer the night before. Frustrated, I struggled to pull it together and actually get the job done. I also took some of my frustration out on my wife... Anyway, eventually - after some struggle, the ground beef was thawed and I made the spaghetti and meatballs. If I have to say so myself, those meatballs reminded me of the ones my grandmother used to make - they tasted amazing. Went to bed early after that fiasco. Lesson learnt: Sometimes, our greatest struggles, produces the greatest results. Onto Day 10

I use soundcloud often, but I try to download the MP3 file of the podcast episodes (where possible). Yeah, Jocko's podcast is very good. The only issue is, you can't skip really through any parts of it - there's nuggets of advice / ideas all over the 2 hour episodes.

Welcome to the forum SlackRamen, Nice to have you here.

Day 8 - Much better The butterfly effect is a well known concept which boils down to this: "small causes can have larger effects" Combine this concept, with the Pareto Principle: "20% of our efforts produces 80% of our results" I tried taking on a Miracle Morning. It advocates one to do 6 (important) things before 8 am. 1. Silence 2. Journal 3. Exercise 4. Visualisation 5. Affirmations 6. Learning I did 3 of 6. Silence, Journal and Learning. So far so good. I'm also reading the book: The ONE thing. Onto Day 9.

Morning journal. I'm awake and fresh. I tried night time journaling, but I find myself making too many excuses. In the morning, I'm way less likely to make excuses. Also, it's just part of my morning routine - so it would actually be weird if I didn't journal, because then it's no longer routine.

Hi there, Jocko Willink (Ex US Navy Seal) has a leadership and discipline podcast. http://jockopodcast2.com/ It's one of my favourite podcasts - and it's 2 hours per episode, so it's great for the long road / long stretches of repetitive, easy work

Day 7 - Monday blues Made it past Day 7. The day was rough though. I felt tired and lethargic at work. The night before, I went out with friends to watch Stephen King's - IT at the cinemas. Eventually, at around 11:00 - I got a boost of energy and blasted through the rest of the work day. Went home, and listened to some podcasts by Rick Warren and two talks by Simon Sinek. It's time to turn my life around. Onto Day 8.

Day 4 - 6 - The weekend wobbles I didn't game, but it just takes a weekend to make you realise how much gaming was a part of your life - the point being... without gaming, what do you fill your life with? It's a rhetorical question - but does beg a time for quiet reflection and thinking: Without our eyes glued to a screen (TV, series, video gaming, live streaming, social media) - what do you fill your life with? I'm not saying that one shouldn't enjoy a good movie or learn some guitar pieces on YouTube or follow the Game of Thrones series. What I'm saying is... when you step away from it - what then? The weekend asked that exact question to me, and I had some difficulty answering it. Although I didn't spend much time in quiet reflection, I did watch a good movie: The Infiltrator In the movie, Aunt Vicky calls on Robert Mazur (protagonist) to "do something extraordinary" - this is after he and his customs team did a minor drug bust. What followed, was the one of the greatest drug bust in history - spearheaded by same Robert Mazur. That is the question posed to me. "What is my "something extraordinary" within my abilities, my passions, my experiences and my personality?"

Day 3 - Sneaky wife; happy life Of the three MIT's I had set out to do, I managed to do 2 out of 3. My wife was "tired" from work and the weather wasn't all that great, but I motivated her to go on a run with me. I also uninstalled Steam, Origin and related games. I signed up for an Obstacle Course Race in October. Then my sneaky wife asked me to sleep earlier than normal (she goes to bed fairly early; I'm a night owl). Despite not working last night and clearing my emails as I planned to, I slept like a baby - and I feel great this morning. Conclusion Sometimes, we set out to do a number of things for the day... but when it matters, choosing to sleep earlier or to spend more time with a loved one may trump another item on your to-do list. As Stephen Covey calls it - Integrity in moment of choice.

For example, I know quite a few people here use learning a new language through something like duolingo to be a positive distraction, I threw myself head first in my study, or something else that will work for you like personal development or fitness. Cam gives some ideas on his youtube channel or there is a PDF of hobbies in his resources section. Thanks for the advice Giblets. Yeah, I've got a few hobbies/personal development things. 1. Obstacle Course Racing. I'm doing an obstacle course on 21 October 2017, and I need to train for it. 2. Music. I've got plans to learn to read and write music - it's a lot similar to learning a new language. 3. Cooking. Currently, I'm a student of the Rouxbe Online Cooking School - I hope to complete the course this year. 4. Reading. 5. Podcasts.