wookieshark88

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Here's a bonus post. My baby is wide awake but needs to be sleeping! I got homework to do. I'm just holding her calmly while trying to be unstimulating and pecking out this entry with one finger at a time. Bahhhhh! Oh well, she's awesome, and this is a way better "waste" of time than video games. Speaking of games, they've been stuck in my head for a few days now. I don't want to play or even think about them. I have vivid dreams where I played games, and I'm devastated about it. It's been 75 days for me so I don't know what's up. I get actual cravings for nicotine when I think about it, but I expected that. I've quit that before and got cravings for nine months until giving in. Hopefully my baby gets sleepy soon! All the travel has her off her schedule. Now she smells bad. I'm betting it's poop. Maybe getting the poop out will make her sleep.

?This is exactly what I got out of it! Congratulations!

Okay, now that I have a moment of time I can break down my trip a little more thoroughly. We flew from the East Coast to the West Coast last Thursday. That morning, did my meditation and run in the morning before we left. On the plane, I was able to do some reading which was nice. I was worried that my baby wouldn't handle the break in her routine and different environments of the plane and hotel room, but she did great! I think she actually fared better than my wife and I did! We got into town late and were starving so we went looking for a place to eat. We found the Cheesecake Factory and ate there. It was some pretty high calorie food, but it did well in a pinch. I've never been there before, and I probably won't go back. There's just too many better and more affordable options out there. We got to our hotel late, unpacked, put the baby to bed and passed out. The next day, Friday, we woke up super early because we were still on East Coast time. This gave me a chance to get my meditation and exercises in before the sun was close to coming up. We then had breakfast at a wonderful little cafe and went to my parents house. When we got there, I was sad to see that my dad was doing as poorly as I thought he was. It's so sad to watch your parent's health decline especially when you live 3000 miles away. He was in good spirts though as he and my mom got the meet their grandbaby for the first time! She cried at first because she was over tired so we had to put her to sleep for a while. After that, she was quite happy to socialize with grandma and grandpa! We ended up going to a park and zoo together. My parents were able to take my baby on a carousel, her first ride! It was great to see them so happy to be able to experience that first with her. We then went to the her first zoo which my baby loved. She was laughing and smiling at all the animals, but the cow was her favorite. She spent a good fifteen minutes laughing at that cow. My parents had a ball seeing how her experience all those animals for the first time. In the early afternoon, my wife and I decided to take a mid afternoon nap because we had only gotten five hours of sleep the night before. When I woke up, I was surprised to see that the sun had gone down before 4PM. After thinking about it, I realized that we had slept for 13 hours instead of one hour and that it was now Saturday morning! At least we were all refreshed! Getting up that early was good because I was able to get in my meditation and exercise early again. We then went to my aunt's house where her family, my grandmother, and my parents were. We spent the whole day there and had a great time! My aunt cooked breakfast for us all and everybody was able to get their baby time in. My grandmother was overjoyed to be able to hold her first great grandbaby! I put my baby on her lap and held her hands in my own as she held the baby because she's not strong enough to do it on her own. My dad spent the entire day just talking to my baby and laughing with her. It was a beautiful thing. For dinner, my aunt made food that my grandma used to make when I was a little kid. She had been practicing those recipes for years now, and they're indistinguishable from my grandmother's! I let myself have seconds and thirds because I wasn't about to pass up that trip down memory lane. I spent plenty of time next to my grandma that day and listened to her the words she gave to me despite how difficult speaking has become for her. She was really sad that we only got to spend the one day together, but I made sure to make it count. Sunday was our travel day to go home which went as well as the trip out. I got to exercise and meditate in the morning again and read on the plane. We got home at 2AM and promptly passed out. Monday was our day to prepare for the week ahead. We worked hard all day to unpack, do a bunch of laundry, clean everything we could, and get our groceries. All habits were completed that day! Today is back to work and school. I'm going to need to wake up earlier on school days because I was a little bit late again. My morning meditation was spectacular this morning. It was the first time in a few days that I was able to meditate in my usual spot. Being there in the right spot really rejuvenated me for the week ahead which is good because I have to catch up on my studies! All habits are going well today as things return to normal. I'm thankful for: My morning meditation.Having my normal morning coffee.Being productive at work.Losing one of the two pounds I gained on the trip.Not destroying my budget on the trip.My wife really helping to make the trip a special one for everybody.Having the energy to go 100% on Monday to get everything taken care of.Getting back to my routines quickly and easily.A four day work week.All the memories I formed in just a few days!

The trip was everything I had hoped for! My family had a great time meeting my baby and spending time together. My habits went fairly well, but I didn't get in a journal entry on the trip. I read 3 out of 4 days, meditated every day, exercised every day, but I didn't food journal. This will be a quick entry because we're working hard on getting back on track for the week ahead. I'm thankful for: Letting my parents have a few "firsts" with my baby. They went with her on her first carousel ride and her first trip to the zoo!My grandmother was thrilled to hold her first great grandbaby!My baby traveled like a champ!My aunt and uncle made some amazing food for us all.My wife got to learn more about where I grew up.Being able to relax all day on Saturday.Showing my wife some tasty local cuisine.Getting back home safely.My mother in law put some food in the refrigerator for us when we got back.Having excellent family time.

Today was my last day of work before going to visit my family! This is such an important trip for me because it is likely the last time I'll see my grandmother and possibly my father too. Wow, that was a really sobering thing to acknowledge. It makes me keenly aware that life is always changing. People will enter and exit our lives all the time so it's vitally important that we take full advantage of our time and make all the meaningful human connections we can while we can. When we do that, I think that we take away some of the pain of loss and add some beauty to it. I have many fond memories, photos, letters, and other things with my grandmother and father that I'll be able to keep with me as long as I live. They remind me of some of the richness in my life that I have from knowing them. I would rather have a million great memories with great people and lose them all than to live my life isolated, detached, and numb. It's a great reason for me to never kill my time again. I'm trying to create a strategy for maintaining my good habits while traveling. Here's my shot at that: Meditation - wake up before my family and meditateReading - read on the plane and before bedFood journaling - short spurts throughout the day when I have internet accessExercise - before and after meditation and walking around a lot with my familyJournaling - after the baby goes to sleep I'm thankful for: Having this opportunity to see my family.Having a wife and daughter I'm proud of.Reaching a new record low weight. 24 pounds down and 11 to go!Having a productive day at work.Wrapping this school/work week up successfully!My "Think and Grow Rich" outline. It's coming along nicely.Being mindful and free of anxiety.Having wonderfully supportive in-laws.My personal growth since quitting games.Enjoying every day.

Is "Fitness and Nutrition" the right place for this topic? I figure that meditation is fitness and nutrition for the mind. I use headspace.com and it works great for me! I've actually used it enough to get a code for one free month of headspace! I'd like to give it to the Game Quitter folks because you're all awesome and deserve it! I do have some conditions for giving it out: I ask that you complete the free 10 day trial first. This is so that you don't waste any free days on the take 10 series. Also, it means that you're invested enough to take full advantage of a free month. I'm not going to ask for any proof, but you'll feel like a better person if you don't lie. First person to post their request will get a PM with the code. I'm online for only a short while each day so it might take a few hours.

?Haha, it takes a real man to admit that! Zane, you'll have to let us know how your karaoke adventure goes! If you do it sober, you're a braver man than I!

?I used to do habits though willpower, but it always failed me after a while. Sometimes I could being doing my good habits for 6 months or so, and something in my life would change (as life always does) and the habit disappeared. What I do know is create cravings for my good habits. You'll read in the book how cravings make habits virtually unstoppable, and you can use this to your advantage. When I'm meditating I always take a few moments throughout the meditation to notice how awesome it feels. During these moments, I just revel in how nice it feels to be still and mindful. After doing this for a while, I start to crave meditation because I know how awesome it's going to feel. When I crave something, I'll go out of my way to make it happen. It was the same thing with video games. I would think about a really fun game, and I would just crave to play it until I finally did. My meditation habit is now really hard for me to stop because of my cravings. I would have to use willpower to NOT meditate at this point because I crave it. I've done a similar process for all of my other good habits too. What's awesome about this is that I can use that willpower that I didn't use to meditate on something else. After all, willpower is not a finite commodity for any of us.

Today was a little frustrating at work. The software that I use to do my job wasn't really working very well (at all) so I wasn't able to be as productive as I wanted to be. Also, my boss had to leave work because his wife might be very ill. I've never lost a spouse to death, but I can imagine how horrible it would be. I really hope for the best for both of them. I was going to have him review some of my work before I release it to other departments, but I'm not able to get that done either. Sometimes work makes me feel like a bit of a slacker, but I just have to keep in mind that I can and do work very hard when I get the chance. It's just a long time to not be very productive. School went very well today! I was fifteen minutes late getting to class because of an accident on the road. Instead of getting stressed out about being late on my first day, I practiced mindfulness and patience. I decided to just accept the situation and make a plan to deal with it. When I finally did get to class, I participated enthusiastically in the lecture by raising my hand to answer most of the questions that my professor asked. I tried to not be overly engaging though because I didn't want to become an annoyance to my classmates or the professor. Striking a balance was a great thing to practice because that has been the theme of my meditation sessions for the last few days. After class I took the time to introduce myself and tell her a bit about my life. She was really nice and shared a bit with me too! It's important to me that I have a friendly relationship with my professor because it will make me feel energized when I go to class and when I do my homework. I'm so surprised how good I feel since starting my newer and busier routine! All of these habits that I've been building up for the last two months seem to have taken my capabilities to the next level! Of course the many hours I have gained from not playing video games don't hurt either. I have to say to say that I could not have imagined that I could ever be the kind of person that I am today. The Power of Habit is quite a good book! When I finish reading it, I want to go back through it and create an outline of all the major parts of the book. I realize that there are many of these outlines on the internet, but making my own will help me to internalize the information much better than just getting downloading one of those outlines. I'm thankful for: Class. I'm back on track toward my goal!My habits. So far so good!Practicing mindfulness on my commute.Chatting with the professor after class. She's very understanding of my situation!My upcoming trip home. It'll be great to see my family!Fresh fruit. It's health and delicious!Podcasts. I remembered to listen and learn while driving. No time was wasted!Writing with a pen on a piece of paper. It's such a lovely alternative to staring at an LCD screen any more than I have to.Having a wife who supports my educational goals!Becoming a morning person. I truly thought such a feat was simply impossible for me! I plan to find out what other "impossibilities" I can accomplish!

Today was a good first day of my new school semester routine! I didn't go to class today, but I had to work 10.5 hours to make up for work time I'll miss when I'm in class. The hardest thing for me missing out on giving my baby her dinner. It's one of my favorite things to do. I'll have to make sure to savor dinner time on the weekends now. Working late means that the office gets really quiet at the end of my shift. I decided to practice my mindfulness and it was great! I left work feeling pretty good. I'll have to make that a new habit! I enjoyed poking around this site and commenting everywhere I could. It's really uplifting to read about everybody's journey. We're not doing this alone, and knowing that helps me immensely. Baby time was fun as always even if there was less time to enjoy. I'm pursuing a goal that will benefit us all in the long run so it's okay to sacrifice a bit right now. I need to get to bed so I can get enough sleep to be on my game tomorrow! I'm thankful for: Dinner. It was quite tasty!The baby's bath. She was quite stinky today, but not anymore!Meditation. It's going to be a key part of getting through the semester.Think and Grow Rich. I'm in an exceptionally interesting part of the book.My wife. She was very conscientious about my longer days, and stepped up to help my evening be good. I'll have to repay the favor!The neighbor's puppy. He and my baby really like each other.My legs. Climbing nine flights of stairs is getting easier (still not easy).My aunt. She's inviting my family over to spend all of Saturday with her and the family!The weather.My cats. I would have a hard time being a crazy cat guy if I didn't have any cats.

As you read further into the book, it gives lots of examples and explains in more detail how to do it. I can share some examples later about habits I formed and the exact process I used to do it.

That's awesome that you've helped others with their struggles! I very much want to do the same with my life. I've done karaoke twice in my life. I'm deathly afraid of it as well. The way I did it was get fairly drunk and pick the worst song I could think of. I sang Britney Spears. For me, picking a song like that was just me saying ahead of time that it's okay to suck and laugh about it.

60 days is amazing! I just passed that milestone myself. How do you feel so far? I feel like the world is a new place filled with possibility.

Today was awesome! I met with my new friend for coffee today, and he really seems legitimate as far as knowing how to be successful in working for himself. He's been saying a lot of things that I have been reading in my books and listening to in the podcasts which is really cool. It never gets old to me to see how consistent the message to being successful is. The one thing is that he's very religious in the exact religion that I left in my early 20's. Oh well, it's good to always practice tolerance and acceptance. I can wait to learn more about what he has to say. All of the chores that needed to get done are done, and much fun was had with the wife and baby as well. My wife is making me a wonderful dinner as I write my entry! She's really happy about it because she doesn't get to cook nearly as much is I do. Her job keeps her away from home a bit more than mine does. This is my first week of my new school routine! I'm as prepared as I can be, and my good habits have been rolling along full steam ahead. I'm so determined to keep on having success even with an increased load of responsibilities! Without my arch nemesis, video games, holding me back, I think it's going to be a success. Of course, I'm a little scared about how it's going to go, but I want to be courageous. I'll continue forward despite any fear, and just trust that my good habits and much improved lifestyle will be the difference maker. I'm thankful for: Getting dinner made for me!Meeting with my new friend. One of my goals was to make two new friends that fit my new lifestyle, and I'm halfway there!The laugh-a-thon that my wife and I had with our baby today. It's the greatest thing ever.Getting to see my family soon. Living far away is rough in some ways.Getting to know some of my neighbors better. There's some nice people where I live, and it's easier to get to know them when I'm not playing video games all the time.Practicing Daring Greatly today. It's not easy, but I did it.My work out routine. It's fast and intense which is perfect for me. I don't have tons of free time to sink into exercising.The unpredictability of life. It can be scary, but I find that it makes for a good adventure as long as your mind is in the right place.Getting back into school. I'm visualizing my future self walking across the stage and getting my degree!My running shoes. Shoe technology is amazing these days!

Today was quite the lovely and productive day again, which has become the new norm in my post video game life. We got all of our laundry and grocery shopping done as well as come general cleaning. We also went to a coworker of my wife's child's first birthday party. I really couldn't think of a better way to write that sentence, haha. This entry will be my second to last habit completed for the day. I'll be reading my book before bed to complete the set. I'm going to need to find another podcast or two so that I'll have plenty of listening material for my five hours a week of commuting to and from school. Suggestions are certainly welcome! I currently have Tim Ferris, Pat Flynn, and another one that I can't remember the name of. I'm not currently looking for audio books though. I like read my books and not listen to them because I find that I absorb the information better, and reading is a great relaxing activity for me. I was thinking about how strange it is that I am so much happier since I stopped seeking instant gratification. The funny thing is that the improvements started almost instantly as well. Does anybody else find that this is the case for them? I'm thankful for: My baby enjoying another party. She didn't do quite as well as she has at other events, but it was still good.My wife taking care of things while I had a nap in the afternoon. Naps are the best!By baby played with the neighbor's puppy. They're mentally on the same level and it's hilarious to watch them interact.We went to our favorite local Vietnamese restaurant today. The banh mi was excellent!Laughing a lot today. I love to laugh and make jokes as much as possible.The funny look my cat is giving me from the top of his cat tree.I got pens that look like race cars at the birthday party. The beauty of being easily amused that that I'm almost always amused. The quiet time at the end of the day. It's wonderful to be still and revel in the victories of the day.Having a plan to finish my schooling. It's been a loooooong process.The camera I got when my baby was a month old. I'm a picture taking fool these days!

The assignment that I was talking about yesterday went well. I got praise for the quality and timeliness in which I completed it. I'm hoping that I can continue to get similar assignments and become known as the go to expert in this area. This particular work is highly visible which should help me to negotiate nice raises or land other positions if I feel like doing something different. It's really just a way to hone more skills as I prepare for the world of self employment. Maybe I can sell an ebook at some point if I can distill my process into something that can be applied across multiple industries and disciplines. I've written instruction manuals for my company in the past so I do have experience in that area. The farmer's market was awesome as usual today. I didn't by any exciting veggies today because we'll be off to CA soon. It'll be nice to see my family even if it's for only a few days. I'm ready to rest after a long week. I'm thankful for: A new record low weight. 23 pounds down and 12 to go.Coming up with some fun activities to do on our trip.My baby getting much better at her social skills so she won't scream at my family when she meets them for the first time.The nice warm cat sitting at my feet.The peacefulness of the evening.Working on developing my weaknesses.Fitting into shorts that I haven't worn in over a year.My grandma for hanging in there so she can meet my baby.Adding some push ups to my daily work out routine.Enjoying my wife on a lovely Friday evening.

?Thanks for the review! I'm going to make a priority of reading it soon!

I hope we get to see another post from you soon!

I'd love to hear your thoughts on the "How to win friends and influence people" book. I've been interested in getting into that one, but there's so many books I want to read! Also, I really enjoyed reading your last few entries!

Andy and Cam, thank you for your kind words of support. I can honestly tell you that I found a not insignificant amount of comfort in them. My grandmother looks like she should be able to hang in there long enough to meet her great grandbaby. I'll be happy if we can help her to achieve one last huge milestone in life. Work was good today. The assignment I'm getting ready to complete should be the first quantitative reputation builder I have in my new job. Hopefully I can use this to carve out my niche in my department. I never like leaving a job until I have achieved a significant degree of mastery in the job. Because I am able to put very significant achievements on my resume for every position I've held, I can leverage this into $5k raises or getting "poached" by a different organization for a $5k raise. Another benefit is that I can look back on my different jobs and feel good about how I've had a positive impact in each one. Still, I want to be my own boss and impress myself. My baby is getting antsy so it's time to call it a journal entry. I'm thankful for: Having a baby who smiles when she sees me. It's one of the greatest things I've ever experienced.Listening to Tim Ferriss today. He's always got interesting and useful stuff.Continuing good habits despite things not being easy.Avoiding the damn cell phone game yesterday. What made put me over the edge on the winning side was not wanting to give up my 61 day "high score". I'm very happy about this.I upped my running pace a bit. It's another small step towards running my first marathon!I'm going to hang out with my consultant friend again this weekend. It dawned on my an hour ago to think of some good questions to ask him.My baby went to sleep without crying at all! (I'm writing my thankfulness list about an hour after the first portion.)My wife and I had a good conversation about how I'm feeling with all that's going on in life right now. It's wonderful to just be myself in the tough moments and know that I'm still enough to her. That's some prime Daring Greatly stuff right there!Starting to notice the patterns that make people successful. I plan to keep studying these people and emulating them!My weight loss even if I haven't hit a new record low in a while. 21 pounds lost feels great! I just have to make the good small decisions every day and I'll be right where I need to be physically!

Today was a tough day for me. I haven't said that very much lately, but it was. My grandma had another heart attack yesterday. I'm hoping she can hang in there long enough to meet her great grandbaby. She won't be around much longer, but I know that meeting my daughter would be the perfect capstone to her life. If she can make it to next Friday, they'll be able to meet. Also, my dad's health is declining. He almost died last year but was spared due to five brain surgeries. He's getting those symptoms again, and additional surgeries aren't an option. I'll be glad to spend some time with him too. I really hate this. I've done all my habits again today even though I didn't have my typical zest for life today. I still believe in and want all the good things I talked about yesterday. It's just a stretch of time where progress is more hard fought, but I'm going to keep going forward. I'll have to read up on Seth Godin's blog and send him an email once I have something relevant to say or ask. I'm thankful for: Talking to my dad and grandma today. I don't want to be passing up opportunities to talk to them.Having more things to do at work lately.Being able to talk to my wife about the tough things I'm going through.Continuing to read my book.Not letting difficulties turn into anxiety.Having all of the travel plans done so we can see my family.Getting more physically fit every day.Resisting my strong urges to download a phone game today. That was my strongest urge since I quit.Having a new day tomorrow.Learning every day.

?I feel the same way. I want to be able to support myself and my family following my passions. I don't necessarily need millions of dollars in a bank account to feel rich. I already feel rich every evening when I relax with my wife at the end of the day. My goal is to feel rich while I work, play, and live as well! I've gotten my schedule all set for the next semester that starts next week. I'm going to be one busy guy, but I WILL maintain my habits (this is what I need to tell myself every day to make sure I do them). They have transformed my life, and it would be a tragedy to get away from them. I'm determined to do great this semester as a student, employee, father, and husband. I will show myself that I'm capable of doing it, then I'll do it again next semester! After that, I need to take a year's leave of absence from work and knock out my degree! I'm going to walk across that graduation stage and be the proudest person to ever step foot on it! This is my plan, and I believe in it! My terrible neighbors are gone now, and a clean up crew has gone into the home. They loaded up a huge dumpster full of furniture, garbage, destroyed carpet, sheet rock, trim, ceiling tiles...things that should have have to be removed from a home. It's truly a tragedy for the homeowner. She's such a sweet 80+ year old lady who needed to move into an assisted living home. She trusted this scumbag property "manager" who let this drug dealing, destructive scum into her house. She's been completely overwhelmed by what's happened to her place and is now selling it because she can't deal with it. The poor lady has probably lost thousands of dollars of property value judging by the damage I've seen. When I'm successful, I don't want to be like that awful property manager who completely neglected the property until the neighborhood basically forced him to take action. We had been alerting him for months about what was going on in that house, and he would just brush it off. He never visited the property to take a look for himself what we were all warning him of. I want to do good in the world, not just look for ways to take people's money. The "manager" might as well just take the nice old lady's cane and break her knees with it while he takes her money. After putting my baby to bed, I took about half an hour of my time picking up trash that the bad neighbors littered to help get us back on track around here. Also, my friend is looking for a house, and I told him to come check this one out when it goes for sale. Sadly, the place is now a fixer upper, but it could be had for cheap. I admit that it would be cool to live two houses down from a quality people like him and his wife. I'm thankful for: Peace returning to the neighborhood!Getting lots of exercise in today!61 days of game free paradise! I forgot to mention that yesterday was my 60 milestone!My baby's appetite lately. I won't have to worry about her food expiring. Beginning to internalize a little more deeply that I can have my own successful business!Tim Ferriss' latest podcast. I was fascinated by that one.Pat Flynn emailing me an answer to a question I had. The guy is successful and still has time for me. It meant a lot.My mind being excited by all of life's possibilities. This is the opposite of the depression that has hung over me for too much of my life.My wife's authenticity. She's just open with me, and I know I can trust her.My cats. They're reminding me that it's dinner time for them.

I've been listening to the latest episode of the Tim Ferriss podcast with Robert Rodriguez. It's really interesting to see how somebody finds success by being outside of the box. One thing he said was something like how he finds success by doing things nobody else is doing. It's a really statement and it goes along with what Pat Flynn says about finding success in the niches. Why compete with anybody when you can solve problems for people that nobody has really tried to solve before. Exposing myself to all of these successful minds has me really fired up to find my own niche. Actually my mind keeps wanting to think about this stuff while I meditate. It's why I've been having trouble having productive meditation sessions. Even in the book "Think and Grow Rich" the author talks about how desiring money and believing you'll get it is the key to growing rich. I figure I can apply this to a business. It's really cool how there is a coherent message that comes from the masses of successful people as to how to find success. I've become fascinated with successful people and want to study and imitate them. I'm thankful for: Starting to develop a burning desire for success.Playing with my baby.Getting lots of walking in today.Learning to be braver than ever before.Having a boss that is supportive.Starting school next Tuesday even if I am a little scared. It's one step closer to my degree!Enjoying day to day life.Using my time and not killing it.Not losing my youthful nature.Having fun.

Today was lots of fun and super productive. We cooked lunch for the week, made salsa and guacamole for a birthday party, went to the birthday party, cleaned the house, had fun together, and had dinner. One thing that's happened to me since I had my baby and quit games is that I've become busier than ever while being happier than ever. Before I quit games, being busy just meant that I was trying to get things out of the way so I could get back to games. This kind of busyness wasn't really enjoyable at all and caused me to have anxiety. These days I'm in the moment while I'm busy. When I cook, I enjoy the process and the smells. When I clean, I enjoy the peace of mind that comes from being in a clean and orderly space. It's a wonderful thing to be able to enjoy all of life's moments. I'm thankful for: A new record low weight! 22 down and 13 to go.My baby smiling at other kids! She's getting much better at socializing.The delicious food at the party and for not overeating.My cat sitting with me.Taking a nap today. It was awesome!I got an email from Pat Flynn. It was cool to hear his thoughts on what I had to say.Having a wife that I trust with my thoughts. It's priceless.Learning how to live without games.My treadmill. It's nice to be able to run inside sometimes.Good habits. They're life changers.