NEW VIDEO: The EASIEST Way to Stop Gaming
Southern Northerner
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Posts posted by Southern Northerner
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On 1/28/2020 at 12:43 AM, Boltuschkin said:
Thanks for the kind words Mr.!
Yeah the idea of reminding yourself what you are doing all of this for sound pretty good tbh 🤔 But don't you feel that you miss out on new information and don't you miss the feeling of just mindlessly chilling for bit by quitting YouTube completly?
Good luck on your journey too my friend 💪🏼
I do indeed feel like I miss out on new information especially since about half of the YouTube videos I would typically watch would be more on the educational side. But what I came to realize was the key difference between knowing / being familiar with a topic and actually understanding a topic. And most of the videos I would watch on YouTube would inform me of the topic to the point where I felt like I knew it, but if someone actually asked me to explain something in depth, I would not be able to. The other kind of information I would receive from YouTube is news and updates on what's going on in the world which I feel like I'm missing out on now, but I've also come to realize that most of the things I am informed of on YouTube are negative and since I can't do anything about them, it ends up causing pointless stress. I have also realized that really knowing and being up to date on all this information, really doesn't positively benefit my life in any meaningful way.
The other half of content I consume on YouTube can only be described as entertainment and nothing more. And since most of the videos in this half fall into the gaming category, I find other than just wasting my time, it also contributes to having more cravings towards video games.
What I have found helps me greatly is to look really critically at your habits and really establish for yourself why they are bad. Our brains are constantly trying to trick us into justifying our addictive behaviors, sometimes to the point where we convince ourselves we don't have a problem when we actually do. To find examples of this, just look around you at the many people who will tell you they don't have a problem with using their phone, gaming, with abusing alcohol, drugs etc; even though they, to an outside observer, obviously do. I believe many people fail their journey into quitting games simply because at some point they manage to justify gaming in their lives and thus no longer believe they have a problem. And this is where making it really clear to yourself from the start, why these habits are harmful in as much detail as possible allows you to fight back when your brain starts attempting to justify these habits again.
Regarding mindless chilling on YouTube, I defiantly miss it... I miss it a lot actually... Now that I don't mindlessly chill on YouTube, I'm finally actually realizing how many problems I have in my life: Mental, Emotional, Health, etc. And now I can't ignore them, which is really scary since I'm so used to running away from the challenges in my life. What effect having to face all these things are going to have on my life is yet to be determined, but surly facing my problems and not running away from them will, in time, have a positive effect on my life.
Don't know if this helps or applies to you but this is what I've experienced thus far and I thought I would share.
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My boat as well. I thought I was doing pretty good for myself on the whole quitting gaming, that is until I actually evaluated how I was spending my time, at which point I was hit by the train of truth, that truth being that the time I spent mindlessly watching YouTube videos wasn't any more productive than the time I would spend gaming. Thus for the past three days I have quit YouTube entirely in addition to quitting gaming. Hasn't been easy, but I've found telling myself constantly that it will get easier with time has helped. Additionally I know exactly why I want to quit gaming and YouTube, which I use as a motivator any time I feel like I'm about to flop; by that I mean, before making a rash decision to quickly navigate to YouTube for a quick video binge session, I take a minute to remind myself why I am doing this after which I generally find the willpower to steer clear of that treacherous swamp of instant gratification and intellectually crippling balderdash.
Otherwise advice that might help: Go outside and get away from your devices, turn off; sell or get rid of your devices, block those websites using blockers, find alternative hobbies and if you fall... get back up, always keep moving forward.
Alternatively get yourself arrested and put into solitary confinement. (I don't advocate this and I am not responsible if you or anyone takes this route, but I mean it is technically an option for breaking bad habits...)
I hope to hear of your triumphs in the future!
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7 hours ago, ElectroNugget said:
[ GameQuitters : 25 // Meditate : 14 // PornFree : 1 // NoFap : 1 ]
So yesterday evening I decided to try blocking all the time-wasting websites for the weekend just to see what would happen. YouTube, Reddit, Facebook, Netflix, etc. I can't access them on my phone or my PC until early Monday morning.
As a result today was... interesting. 😄 I have spent the whole day in a state of mild boredom/discomfort, feeling a little aimless. The nice thing is that it actually forced me to go out to town just so I'd have something to do. I also played a solo board game for a while, which feels a bit like cheating and is probably not something I want to encourage. That said, all things considered I guess it's OK for today.
Even without access to online media I managed to dig up some Rick and Morty episodes on an external hard-drive and have them running in the background while I do stuff. So that was very illuminating. I've become soooo used to having this constant white noise of entertainment in the background, it doesn't even seem to matter that much if it's new or even entertaining. This is worrisome and I think I'll need to lean into this ban and see where it takes me. I saw on @Southern Northerner's diary that he was planning on making his environment as boring as possible, I think that might be a good tactic to follow. If there's nothing more interesting to do than studying this semester, I should get a lot of studying done right? 😄
I think it's important to note that what we consider boring now won't necessarily always be boring to us. We are so used to living these highly stimulated lives that anything less seems boring. Yet that is how many people before us used to live. It's hard to measure the overall happiness of people in the past vs people of the present but I do believe the increase we see in things such as suicide rates could point to people being more content with their lives back before the modern world.
Also congratulations on getting through your day. Perhaps you could find an interesting book to help fill in the time? I've been reading Norman Doidge's "The Brain that Changes Itself", it's been great so far, highly recommended to anyone that wants to learn more about our brains and how we could change them.
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10 hours ago, Tomas said:
Day 3
I realize that it is a good idea I start seeing my gaming habits as an addiction. I never really looked at it like that before. I kept justifying all those hours I spend on games because its not the only thing in my life I do. So in comparison with "real" addiction, it does not seems so bad. I work, travel, socialize... The thing is, I am addicted. I spend so much time on games while I actually want to learn and do so much other things. Games probably keep me occupied most of the time when I am not working, or socializing. Sad enough, it nowadays does keep me occupied while I am travelling. I am travelling right now. I am in South East Asia, and spend a few days gaming in my air conditioned apartment. Sad isn't it? There is so much out there to see and do. And here I am looking at my screen.
So... admitting it is an addiction is a good thing. Finally I see I am the one who should take responsibility what I am doing with my time. I quit smoking before in my life. And now I quit gaming. I already notice some changes. I feel bored, or excited, stressed or I just don't know what to do with my time. So that's where Respawn comes in really handy. My new "to go" activities will be playing and composing music, drawing, running and reading books.
This weekend I won't be writing because I am going to the beach, snorkeling and maybe diving. Not gaming is going to be easy 😉
It's great that you realized what impact gaming has on your life and are now taking strides to change your habits. I wish you the best of luck on your journey to a new life!
Also do enjoy your time at the beach, there is nothing quite like the experience that a day at the beach can provide.
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21 hours ago, Jordan2020 said:
Today is my 2nd day of my detox and I am feeling really good. Yesterday for the the most part of the day I was really productive. I worked a lot on a program I am taking to create huge amounts of wealth if I am willing to work my butt off. Also I ran 3 miles and that felt really good considering for the past years I would just sit around in front of a tv. It took my brain fog away and made me feel accomplished and mental clarity. I also decided to do a detox on another thing because of the all the benefits I read and watched, and was told online last night which I am decided along with this and they are both on the same day streak so since this is my 2nd day of no gaming then today is also my 2nd day for nofap. I decided to add it to the no gaming because of the benefits. Some of the benefits are the same as no gaming benefits so that'll double the benefits if I do both.
Hey Jordan, I've been reading through your posts and I think what you have been doing is amazing. Yes you have fallen many times but you keep getting back up and that is amazing! Keep going and you will achieve the life you dream of!
I look forward to seeing your future posts and hearing of your triumphs!
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Update:
It seems my hours of lying awake last night have produced many new ideas and have given me more clarity. Something I realized is that I struggle to read through entire articles or sections of text when searching for something online. That brought me to the realization that I need to train myself to stay patient and fully concentrate on one thing at a time. I read a lot of books but I generally read something along the lines of four at a time and I can go weeks in between reading certain books; simply because I become bored of the topic and then I usually have a sudden re-surge of interest a couple days or weeks later. I should train my brain to spread out that interest over a period of time.
I think this all originally came from a lack of self control with gaming. Because this is exactly what would happen with gaming. I would get a new game, play it for 10 hours a day for a week straight and then by the end of the week I would be completely bored of the game in fact playing the game quickly turned into just a grind to finish it rather than having fun. And I know it makes more sense to spread it out over a period of time because there where situations where I'd play a game with a friend, one whom I could only play with once a week and those games tended to never get boring, and in fact I would actually enjoy my time playing. And so obviously I no longer game; thus this no longer applies to that area of my life but I feel like this logic of spreading out an activity over a long period of time but consistently can be implemented in to so many areas of my life.
I hope what I wrote makes some sense, I have this well thought out idea in my head but I'm not sure how to put it into words.
Anyway, enjoy your day... ...or night.
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14 hours ago, Jordan2020 said:
Look into something called Kaizen mentallty which is small improvements each day but more in depth. It's how there are many super successful Japanese people.
Read up on it; and I love it. Thank you for sharing! The thing that I find interesting is that when I look at the positive changes that have happened in my life the past 6 months, almost every single change was a small improvement that grew with time. I'm defiantly going to be working on small improvements every single day!
8 hours ago, ElectroNugget said:Dude! I'm from South Africa originally! My dad was born and raised in Cape Town. Whereabouts are you from?
Congrats and good luck on starting your journey. You won't regret it. I am also going through a messy divorce with YouTube. Incredible how much time it consumes. I completely agree with your experiment to make life as 'boring' as possible. The internet is full of time-wasting distractions... Lifetimes and lifetimes of media. I have installed some blockers on my PC and phone to help me with this. Let me know if you want some recommendations.
Keep us posted!
That's awesome mate! I am from Pretoria and still reside here. Thanks for the encouraging words!
4 hours ago, Tomas said:That is a really cool experiment. I have done a 10 day meditation retreat a few times. No phone, no books, no games... nothing. Not even talking for 10 days for it is a silent retreat. All you do is meditate. It is definitely true that after those 10 days, you get to experience and enjoy the little things a lot more. The hard part is to stay focused after the retreat because you easily get sucked in to all the entertainment and distractions this world has to offer.
So to make life as "boring as possible" in day to day life is a really good idea. Thanks for sharing, I'll consider doing the same thing.
That sounds like an amazing experience! I wish I had the means to do that at the moment (Mainly time). Maybe I could try a weekend of doing nothing but meditation and reflection.
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Day 001 of my journey,
Note: I haven't gamed for quite sometime; I did not count but I believe it's been about 14 days. My (Journey) counter counts my journey as a whole and not any specific aspect. It will not reset for the simple reason that it is not there to keep track of any streak rather it is mostly there to serve as a number for this journal.
My Day:
Today marks the first day that I have cut YouTube out of my life. And I have immediately realized how much of my life YouTube was consuming. I realize now that quitting gaming has yet to achieve my desired result because I allowed myself to replace one addictive habit with another. I live my life with zero motivation because I allow myself to be consumed by a dopamine high, that I find myself willing to get in any way possible; which leads into my next paragraph...
Experiment:
I have decided that I wish to execute an experiment, one with myself as the guinea pig. I will attempt to make my life as boring as possible, or at least what I would consider boring now. This might sound strange. Let me explain what I mean, I am going to be: slowing down my life, removing distractions and avoiding instant gratification as much as I can. We live in a modern world of smart phones, social media, video games, near infinite amounts of entertainment, companies that exploit our psychology, etc. I want to see what happens when I go back to the basics. I want to be able to enjoy the simplest part of life, perhaps this experiment is a way to get there. The first steps are already underway: getting rid of gaming and YouTube. But there is so much more. My phone. I admittedly am a bit attached to it. I want to change my phone habits, so instead of always having it with me, replying to texts as they come and in general just having an instant gratification machine by my side; I want to replace that habit by the habit of putting it away during the day (With the exception of when I need it for important things) and only checking my phone once per day for a maximum of 15 minutes. That's it. No more. I've already made strides towards this goal, by having placed my phone out of sight the last few days but I've still managed to use it way more than I feel is healthy and way, way more than what my goal is. For now, these 3 goals are what I am going to be working on. But in the future I will need to make many more decisions / commitments (For the sake of going all out on this experiment) how much will I allow myself on the internet or rather I should define what I will allow myself to do on the internet.
In terms of what I hope to accomplish. I want to be able to find joy in the simple things of life and I also want to be able to not only stay motivated with my studies but I actually want to enjoy it.
Thanks you for reading. I wish you a great 24 hour period of time!
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10 hours ago, Amphibian220 said:
Welcome to game Quitters. May this entry become a turning point in your life.
I love South Africa, you have given this world some extraordinary men of achievement.
Thank you.
40 minutes ago, Jordan2020 said:Keep going on your path wherever it takes you and continue to aim for just small improvements everyday. Even if you don't follow your daily plan to a T do not give up on yourself. Just know that you are getting those small improvements and that over time it will become automatic for you. Thats what life is. Life is a process that never ends. You are constantly going to want to get better. You will never be fully satisfied. Sadly that is what many people think of. They think of the end goal. But we high achievers in life already know we will never hit perfect and that we will be working to be the best we can day after day. Anyways welcome to the community and if you ever need anything just ask and we will be there. Remember we all have your back in good times and the hard times.
Small improvements should be the gold standard for sure. Thank you for your wise words.
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Hey Human,
I'm going to be honest to myself here, something that can at times be incredibly difficult to do. My life is a mess right now: I am emotionally a wreak, I have no passion for anything, I am behind on my school work and I for all the progress I have made I find myself making just as much in the opposite direction.
I am on the path to changing that. Already I have quit gaming for at least 2 weeks, I have been slowly working at following a schedule as well as catching up on my school work. It hasn't been perfect so far, a lot of my time has gone towards watching pointless YouTube videos. But at least I'm trying and everyday I have small victories.
In the future I intend to write a lot more but right now I just wanted to get this started.
Thank you for reading.
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Can you game 1 - 2 hours a week without increasing amount of cravings to game?
in Ask the Community
Posted
Positivity feeds Positivity, Negativity feeds Negativity, Poverty leads to more Poverty, Money can make more money, A small amount of gravity can lead to even stronger gravity over time, One healthy habit often leads to more healthy habits, violence often leads to more violence.
While not always true, I generally find it to be true that most things lead to a multiplicative effect, especially if we allow them. In the past when I got really into fitness, I found eating healthier always came naturally. On the other hand, I've consistently found that the more I game the more I crave gaming. Similar situation with awhile back when I got addicted to chocolate, the more I ate, the more I craved it.
And in this situation I feel like if you're already having cravings, gaming is you essentially feeding this cycle. If you didn't have cravings in the first place, then I don't think gaming will necessarily negatively impact your life.
Will the cravings stop if you quit? Maybe, although I do believe it is possible. You're probably the only one who can answer that, since the only way to truly know is to quit and wait for the cravings to go away at which point you have gotten the answer.