NEW VIDEO: I Quit MMOs and THIS Happened
alphadax
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Posts posted by alphadax
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Day #38
Daily Reflection
Today was good. I managed to get off my ass and sell my old books like I wanted. I also figured out a gift for fathers day and went skating at a new skate park for the first time. The skate park was crowded, but I was happy to be outside getting some sunshine while it lasts. I have this feeling now whenever the weather is good like I need to be outside as much as possible. Even though I am moving soon, I think it is good for me to get out and find activities that I like to do where I can meet other people. I want to form a habit of getting out of my comfort zone, going to new places and talking to new people.
I went down a ramp at the skate park. Like a baby ramp. But it was still scary. When I practice near home I only have a small piece of sidewalk so I am always riding very slowly. It was pretty exhilarating to go down the ramp for the first time. I want to get better at kick turns and ramps so that I can go up a ramp and then kick turn down the ramp. I also want to be able to do reverts.
Daily Sleep (Goal: 7.5-8.5 hours)
Good
Daily Exercise (Goal: 30 min)
Skateboard
Fundamental Techniques
1. Don't criticize, condemn or complain (to / about others.)
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Did I criticize, condemn, or complain today? (If yes, explain:)
- I don't think so, but I could be wrong
2. Give honest and sincere appreciation.
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2-1. Daily Admiration / Appreciation (Goal: 1 thing)
- I saw many people today who were much better at skateboarding than me. I hope one day I can do some of the things they can.
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2-2. Daily Gratitude (Goal: 1 thing)
- I am grateful for the nice weather.
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Did I criticize, condemn, or complain today? (If yes, explain:)
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Day #37
Daily Reflection
Today was ok. I spent virtually no time on the computer today. I'm afraid of what my computer is doing to my eyes. I feel like it could still be the cause of my eye fatigue. Which is not good, because at my job I'm going to be on computer for 8 hours a day. I will be looking for ways to limit my exposure.
I got really bored today. I'm really tired of being inside by myself with nothing to do. I feel like I could be doing more to get ready for my move, but I'm not really sure what to do. I tried to channel that boredom into exercise, which I think is a good habit to have. I felt pretty good on my skateboard today. When I get the chance I also want to play some tennis. I used to play every week as a kid but it's something I rarely ever do now.
Tomorrow I want to try to sell my old textbooks. I also want to think about gifts for father's day and my brother's birthday.
Daily Sleep (Goal: 7.5-8.5 hours)
Good, but I slept in which I don't want to make a habit of. Tomorrow I will wake up with my alarm and take a shower.
Daily Exercise (Goal: 30 min)
Walk, skateboard
Fundamental Techniques
1. Don't criticize, condemn or complain (to / about others.)
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Did I criticize, condemn, or complain today? (If yes, explain:)
- To my friend as a joke. I think it was ok
2. Give honest and sincere appreciation.
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2-1. Daily Admiration / Appreciation (Goal: 1 thing)
- I appreciate my phone calls today with friends and family. That cheered me up a little bit.
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2-2. Daily Gratitude (Goal: 1 thing)
- I am grateful for the nice weather.
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Did I criticize, condemn, or complain today? (If yes, explain:)
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1 hour ago, chiliflavor said:
I'm usually having weird dreams—mostly running from something like terrorists, ghosts, or from unknown people/organization. After some googling, I found out that it meant something like I need to escape from a situation, relationship, family, or in any other possible aspect. This is the reason why I don't want to watch horror films, that is, I tend to dream about it and end up being chased by, say, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. What's nice about this weird dreaming pattern is that I know it's only a dream and I can control my actions/decisions. 😂 One of the most epic dreams I had was I can control my "flying abilities"—not fully since I've just "acquired" the skill. 😂 On the other hand, my worst dream was running around a maze—in a form of a house—to find an escape route that wasn't "spectated" or "guarded" by the ones who's chasing me. Very weird, right?
That's scary. I hate having dreams. I don't typically have dreams / remember them, so when I do it's a rare occurrence. Usually they are weird or scary, like bees trying to get inside my ears or something. But when you get good dreams, they are a nice surprise. I still remember the one and only sex dream I had... It was epic.
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Day #36
Daily Reflection
Today was less lonely. I visited with an old friend for several hours just to chat. It was nice. I feel like I am learning to listen better and focus on conversations, but I still have a long ways to go. Goals for tomorrow: start thinking about gifts for father's day and relative's birthday, sell old textbooks. Maybe try algorithms some more. Read another chapter in my book. End of week (Sunday) review weekly progress on Fundamental Techniques.
QuoteWhen dealing with people, let us remember that we are not dealing with creatures of logic. We are dealing with creatures of emotion, creatures bristling with prejudices and motivated by pride and vanity.
"I will speak ill of no man... and speak all the good I know of everybody." - Benjamin Franklin
Any fool can criticize, condemn and complain--and most fools do. But it takes character and self-control to be understanding and forgiving.
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Instead of condemning people, let's try to understand them. Let's try to figure out why they do what they do. That's a lot more profitable and intriguing than criticism; and it breeds sympathy, tolerance and kindness. "To know all is to forgive all."
As Dr. Johnson said: "God himself, sir, does not propose to judge man until the end of his days."
Why should you and I?
pg. 13,16 How to Win Friends and Influence People, Dale Carnegie
Daily Sleep (Goal: 7.5-8.5 hours)
Good, need to make sure I am ready for bed at 11 though
Daily Exercise (Goal: 30 min)
Walk. Looking to see if there are any tennis courts open, maybe even try to play table tennis
Fundamental Techniques
1. Don't criticize, condemn or complain (to / about others.)
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Did I criticize, condemn, or complain today? (If yes, explain:)
- I don't think so, but I could be wrong.
2. Give honest and sincere appreciation.
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2-1. Daily Admiration / Appreciation (Goal: 1 thing)
- Someone I met today remembered me from preschool. That kind of memory is amazing.
- This same person also has a very kind, soft-spoken voice, and a very creative and intelligent mind. I am sure that this person's skills will take them far in life, even if things are difficult right now. I wish them the best.
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2-2. Daily Gratitude (Goal: 1 thing)
- I am thankful that it did not rain during my meeting with friends today.
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Did I criticize, condemn, or complain today? (If yes, explain:)
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Day #35
Daily Reflection
Had my vision check-up today. Wasn't really what I hoped it would be, but it gave me some ideas for the future. Took most of the day to relax after that. Managed to get myself out for a walk at least. I also had one of my better piano sessions in a while. It was really fun to play. Reminds me of how I used to play.
I felt pretty lonely today.
Daily Sleep (Goal: 7.5-8.5 hours)
Good
Daily Exercise (Goal: 30 min)
Walking
Fundamental Techniques
1. Don't criticize, condemn or complain (to / about others.)
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Did I criticize, condemn, or complain today? (If yes, explain:)
- I don't think so, but I can do better. I need to remember people's names, and think of others before myself
2. Give honest and sincere appreciation.
- 2-1. Daily Admiration / Appreciation (Goal: 1 thing)
- I appreciate the people at the office who helped me quickly
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2-2. Daily Gratitude (Goal: 1 thing)
- I am gratefut to have this time to relax
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Did I criticize, condemn, or complain today? (If yes, explain:)
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Quote
What I need is to stop being afraid of people, stop hiding in gaming get out there and fix my sorry ass. So now it is nearly a month since i figured this out and i've been working out it a lot.
Congrats on taking the first step.
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Day #34
Monthly Reflection
Today is June 8th, and my first journal was posted May 7th. I want to reflect on how far I have come since then.
One of my goals was to get 7+ hours of sleep every day, and move my wake-up time back to 7:00am. I haven't been perfect every day, but I've kept at it, and now it's pretty easy for me to get to bed on time and wake up on time. I am starting to see how important it is to build simple habits like these.
Daily exercise: again, not perfect. This one I feel has been harder for me than the sleep one. With sleep, even though it is a long-term change, I can directly see the benefits of getting enough sleep one night versus not getting enough sleep. For exercise, I feel like it's harder because I don't really have any solid goal. I know exercise is good for me, so that's why I want to do it, because I want to be healthy and feel good. But I can feel good other ways too, like by sitting around on the couch all day being lazy, or having a good meal. I don't think I will be successful long-term with this goal unless I make it more fun or more measurable. "Exercise" is too abstract -- it's hard to measure and can feel like a chore. I think what I really want is a social activity--like tennis, or ping pong, or basketball, or something like that. I've never really been good at sports though. I get tired and quit pretty easily. But I think if I can find a group of people to do it with, it becomes fun and I want to keep doing it.
Gratitude: I started this journal with the intent of keeping a daily gratitude journal. I found it difficult to be sincere each day, so I tried every other day for a while. I want to try something different now. A new way of life, devoted to mastering the fundamental techniques and principles of human relations (according to Dale Carnegie.) "Be hearty in your approbation and lavish in your praise." Those who find good in others will have others find good in them. Every day, I will try to find at least one thing to sincerely admire and praise. I will still include gratitude, but this also gives me a chance to appreciate the people I come into contact with on a daily basis, and strengthen my understanding of other people. I want to focus on admirable qualities and harness them to learn as much as possible and improve myself. In the spirit of this goal, I have expanded the bottom section of my daily reflection to be based on the Fundamental Techniques from Dale Carnegie's book. I will try to focus the first two points for at least 1 week. When I feel I have mastered them sufficiently, I will move on to the 3rd point, which is a bit more complicated.
Accomplishments: I believe I have accomplished much in a short period of time, and I hope I can continue for the next month to reach even greater heights. I started this journal to help me quit gaming, but really I have been using it to become the person I want to be and start living the life I want to live. Thank you to everyone who has been reading my journal and supporting me through this time. It is inspiring to see the progress of so many others. Although we are no longer improving our gaming, I feel we are all using that time improving real life skills. I realize now how easy it is to become complacent and to allow our lives to run on autopilot. But I think life is too short for that. If you'll allow me to make a cringe-worthy analogy for a minute: it's no fun being a level 1 human forever. Sure it might be fun and cute at first when we're babies. At that time we were "perfect idiots," so to speak, with no concept of our potential. But as we grow older, we learn new things: we begin to walk, and speak, and learn our sense of selves. All of these things seem to happen at lightning speed, without much apparent conscious effort on our parts. But somewhere along the line, we have to start putting in the work. Our body starts to render more and more control to our conscious minds. We become in complete control of ourselves. The responsibility lies within ourselves to reach our full potential. So I feel it's unacceptable to sit at the spawn point, never leaving home. We must constantly seek to improve our abilities and learn new things. I think every life is valuable because of it's potential. We can all become something much greater than our current selves.
I did not realize until recently how selfishly I have lived my life up until this point. I never really cared about other people (normal people, people I just met, strangers that is.) I always thought maybe there was something wrong with me. Maybe I really am just that selfish. But if I can use my selfishness for good, and seek to improve myself through helping others, then maybe that's a step in the right direction. It doesn't sound as noble that way, but who cares. I'm not talking about some insincere crap though. I genuinely want to be interested in other people. I'm not really sure, but it seems fun, so I'm going to give it a try.
Daily Reflection
Finally decided to pull the trigger and get my hair cut today. I had been growing it for about 8 months. The last two weeks I told myself, "if I still want a haircut by next Monday, I'll do it." I tried all sorts of things to get used to my longer hair, but I truly think it was just not meant to be. It's hard to maintain, takes too long to dry, sheds and gets everywhere, looks unprofessional, etc etc... So I got a cut that keeps some of the length on top, but makes the back and sides short. I think it looks great and I'm really happy with it so far.
I ran a few errands after that and was feeling pretty worn out, so i pretty much took the rest of the day off. Yesterday I spent all day cleaning in preparation for people coming over, so I felt like I deserved a break. Tomorrow I have an eye checkup. I think if I'm up to it I will try to go to a skate park to make up for my lack of exercise today. In the morning / after lunch I'd like to do some music and reading since I've been neglecting those.
Also need to remember new morning routine: Morning: brush teeth (after shower), Night: floss, brush, mouth wash
Daily Sleep (Goal: 7.5-8.5 hours)
Good
Daily Exercise (Goal: 30 min)
Nothing in particular--skate tomorrow
Fundamental Techniques
1. Don't criticize, condemn or complain (about others.)
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Did I criticize, condemn, or complain today? (If yes, explain:)
- I don't think so.
2. Give honest and sincere appreciation.
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2-1. Daily Admiration / Appreciation (Goal: 1 thing)
- I complimented my barber, Mike, on the great haircut he gave me.
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2-2. Daily Gratitude (Goal: 1 thing)
- Great food and sunshine (80 feels pretty nice.)
3. Arouse in the other person an eager want.
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Be concerned with others before yourself
- Consider the other person’s wants and desires before your own
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Foster genuine interest and curiosity in other people (by seeking out their admirable and interesting qualities)
- Find aspects of other’s that you can learn from, and that are worthy of praise—and praise them!
- Focus on remembering and internalizing everything about others—remember their names, their strengths, and their wants
- Tie what you want to what they want, and don't forget to smile
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Did I criticize, condemn, or complain today? (If yes, explain:)
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Day #33
Daily reflection
Good day today. Got to hang out with friends and made a lot of progress cleaning the house.
Sleep (Goal: 7.5-8.5 hours)
Good
Daily exercise (Goal: 30 min)
Cleaning
Today I am grateful for anime, this couch, friends, pizza, and glasses
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Day #32
Daily reflection
Sold a bunch of stuff today, making some progress on my checklist. Hanging out with friends tomorrow. Need to clean up some stuff before they get here.
Sleep (Goal: 7.5-8.5 hours)
Good
Daily exercise (Goal: 30 min)
Skateboarding
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Day #31
Daily reflection
Making some progress on move out checklist. Tired for now so will try to get a longer report in later this week.
Sleep (Goal: 7.5-8.5 hours)
Good
Daily exercise (Goal: 30 min)
Ehhhh kind of. I feel like tomorrow I should go skateboarding
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Day #30
Daily reflection
Ehh. 30 days without gaming but I'm still stuck in the house most of the time and I just watch YouTube and anime all day. At least I got some programming done.
Didn't really stick to my original plan for today. Tomorrow I will try to get some laundry done. I think I will work more on programming.
Quarantine is driving me insane
Sleep (Goal: 7.5-8.5 hours)
Good
Daily exercise (Goal: 30 min)
Ehhhh
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1 hour ago, WhatAboutToday? said:
Anyway, I managed to set up every blocker I need in my phone and computer and limited my daily Instagram time usage to 20 minutes (this time may be adapted in the next days but it's good for now). I discovered that Android has a funcionality that allows you to limit the daily time usage of every app installed in your phone, besides tracking the time you spend in every app on a daily basis. Looking at my history with Instagram and Whatsapp, I discovered that some days I would spend 4 hours in both of them! That was surprising for me because this 4 hours are spread throughout the day and I don't even notice that I waste so much time in mindless scrolling. After I spent my daily 20 minutes I noticed how every now and then I pickup my phone and automatically open the app for nothing, just to see that it was blocked for the rest of the day.
Interesting. Would you mind sharing how you set up your app blockers? I am also trying to limit phone usage.
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Congrats on taking these steps to remedy yourself. It is inspiring to see others like you who are further along on their journey; as for myself I am nearing 30 days.
Since you have relapsed, I would work hard to try to identify the causes of your relapse and work doubly as hard to find solutions so that it does not happen again.
Good luck, I believe you can do it and I wish you the best.
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Day #29
Daily reflection
Finally a somewhat productive day! I had an appointment to get my teeth cleaned in the morning so I think that helped get the ball rolling. I tried applying some of the principles in the book I've been reading with the people I talked to today. It definitely takes a lot more concentration and effort than I'm used to. I'm used to just barely skirting by in my relationships and not really paying close attention to people. And I used to think I was a good listener! I feel like now I have a better idea of what being a good listener really means. Anyway, I had a great experience applying these techniques, and I will make sure to continue practicing them and perhaps start recording them in my journal.
Tomorrow I hope to really kick-start some things with my moving-out checklist. I'm going to defer my programming to later in the day because I think this is more important.
Sleep (Goal: 7.5-8.5 hours, 10:30 pm-6:30 am)
Went back to 7am... I don't think my body can take waking up any earlier!
Daily exercise (Goal: 30 min)
Kind of messed up today. I'll try to get some intentional exercise in tomorrow.
Today I am grateful for: my dentist, dale carnegie, my health and safety, my parents health and safety, my job
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Day #28
Daily reflection
Still feeling lazy. Don't know what's going on. My eyes always feel tired. Saw two deer today during my walk. Did a lot of reading as well.
Tomorrow I have a dental check-up. I plan to stay off the computer tomorrow until I can come up with a reasonable plan for the MOC which I still have not done.
Sleep (Goal: 7.5-8.5 hours, 10:30 pm-6:30 am)
Good. Still feels weird. I'm going to try it until at least Monday to see if I can adjust. If not I will go back to 7am.
Daily exercise (Goal: 30 min)
Walk, Run, Skateboarding
Today I am grateful for: the couple I met during my walk, the deer I saw during my walk, having food to eat, having water to drink, and my eyes--for helping me see the world around me, even if they are not perfect
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Hello Reza, and welcome to the forum!
Good luck with your family situation. Although you may have broken your goal last night, you did acknowledge your own mistakes, which I think is an admirable step in the right direction.
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Day #27
Daily reflection
Interesting day today. Lots of housekeeping such as laundry, social media upkeep and logistics. Also a lot of general laziness and lounging.
Waking up earlier surprisingly had a huge effect on my stomach, definitely did not feel like eating breakfast. But I did shower and start the day with some programming. Got my reading done as well and a quick walk at the park. As far as the MOC is concerned, i still don't really know what to do. I think I'm going to take a look at the items I don't know what to do with, such as the TV and the bike, and make a decision on what to do with those. Also I want to start packing up some clothes.
Sleep (Goal: 7.5-8.5 hours, 10:30 pm-6:30 am)
Good, pushing back to 6:30am
Daily exercise (Goal: 30 min)
Walk
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5 hours ago, Fagus said:
I've read a summary of Carnegie's book some time ago and foung it really insightful. People like it when you show interest in them and listen to them. But sometimes it is hard to hold yourself back and to show interest.
About eye strain: On my Windows devices I use "night mode".
I found this really helpful. But it does make me a bit sleepy.
I hope you get well soon and that your fever disappears.
Yes, I've only tried his techniques a few times now but I was surprised at how difficult it was to hold back and not talk about myself. It made me realize how much we tend to focus in on ourselves, even when we don't realize.
On my computer I am using the "flux" app which does a similar thing. I've found it quite useful.
Day #26
Daily reflection
Today was a good day. It's past my computer hours so I'll try to make this quick. I finished my online programming class today which I am proud of. I feel like my programming skills have improved somewhat. I now have a basic understanding of running time, algorithms, data structures, and good practices. I have improved my debugging skills significantly. I plan to continue on with Part 2 of the course, but at a slower pace. The most important concepts are in the first week of the course, so I will at least view those. I'm planning to spend at most 1.5 hours a day on it so I can focus on getting ready to move, among other things.
Tomorrow the plan is to wake up, shower, eat breakfast, do some programming, then read / exercise (skate?), pay the bills (double check rent), update LinkedIn and resume, look into event ideas, and form a plan for the MOC through the end of June.
Let's get to it!
Sleep (Goal: 8 hours, 11:00 pm-7:00 am)
Good, pushing back to 6:30am
Daily exercise (Goal: 30 min)
Walk
Today I am grateful for (Goal: 5 things)
- The guy who waved back at me at the park
- The sunshine
- Grass
- Dale Carnegie and his book
- My friends
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1 hour ago, BooksandTrees said:
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FUCK OFF
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Ha, I appreciate your candor and determination!
I haven't followed all of your story, but perhaps you can try to find ways of being creative while at work?
As for your friends, I would see if you can try to learn what your friends' wants and interests are. They must have other interests outside of work. If you start off the conversation by asking questions about them (unrelated to work), it may lead the conversation in a different direction that is more favorable to you.
I remember at one of my jobs, I would get home utterly exhausted, despite having done very little actual work. I never really solved this issue, but all I can say is try to make sure you are exercising, sleeping, and eating healthy. A healthy body supports a healthy mind.
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Day #25
Daily reflection:
Don't think I'm actually sick, but I'm keeping an eye out for symptoms. Might have just been tired.
A bit of a lazy day today, but I think that's OK. The main thing I did was read. I started a new book called "How to Win Friends and Influence People" by Dale Carnegie. His arguments are simple and easy to follow. I think it will prove a valuable resource towards improving my interpersonal skills. My goal is to read 2 chapters per day so that i finish reading by June 22nd.
I also caught up on some anime. That's about all for today.
Sleep (Goal: 8 hours, 11:00 pm-7:00 am)
Good
Daily exercise (Goal: 30 min)
Walk
Today I am grateful for friends and family, sleep, food, couches, health and safety.
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Day #24
Daily reflection:
Was feeling tired last night so I had to come back and write this in the morning. I spent a good part of the morning (yesterday) trying to reduce eye strain with my PC. I feel like my eyes are always tired and I don't have the best vision, so I wanted to see how I could make it easier to spend time at the computer. I think I had some success there, my eyes are feeling much better today. What I did was I went to my display settings and increased the scaling from 100% to 125%. This makes everything look bigger, including the text, which makes it easier to read. I also decreased my monitor brightness, because I found it was much brighter than my surroundings.
Then I wrote a letter to someone and worked on scheduling some misc. checkups and appointments. My roommate came over to get some of his things in the afternoon and we talked for a bit. In the evening I had planned to do some skateboarding, but the weather was looking kind of dodgy, so I tried to work on my programming. I wasn't feeling very motivated so I ended up just relaxing and watching anime for the majority of the evening. Later I realized I was actually feeling more tired than normal, so i went to bed early. I think I might have a fever. Hopefully I don't have the virus, but just to be safe I rescheduled the appointments I had for today.
Sleep (Goal: 8 hours, 11:00 pm-7:00 am)
Good
Daily exercise (Goal: 30 min)
Dumbbells
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Day #23
Daily reflection:
Laying out my plans for today in yesterday's journal helped a lot with my motivation. Showering helped me feel so much better, and I was able to fix my hair a bit. I got laundry done and did a couple errands along with groceries. I also looked up some recipes to try out because my cooking has gotten rather stale lately. I tried this pulled pork instant pot recipe and it turned out really well. I'm always looking for easy recipes that taste good, and this is definitely one of them. I've honestly only used my pressure cooker for rice and stews, so I didn't even know there was a saute setting.
I'm also trying to make sure I always have a good stock and variety of fruits and vegetables. If I let it go too long before restocking groceries I can definitely tell me mood declines. Having a healthy balanced diet definitely improves my mood.
I didn't write about this yesterday, but I found a really good guide for programming keyboard shortcuts. This seems extremely useful and I can't wait to implement some of these in my work.
Tomorrow I want to schedule a car checkup at the dealer, continue cleaning and going through my clothes, and start packing up my out-of-season clothing. I also want to continue working on the programming assignment for this week, ideally getting it done by Monday. And I want to start reading Atomic Habits. And probably do some more skateboarding. 🙂
Sleep (Goal: 8 hours, 11:00 pm-7:00 am)
Good
Daily exercise (Goal: 30 min)
Walk at the park
Today i am grateful for pulled pork, showers, and family.
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I'm living with roommates in the cheapest apartment I can find until I can really afford my own place... It's really amazing how much cheaper it is to live with other people.
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My daily journal
in Daily Journals
Posted
Day #39
Daily Reflection
Not much to report, watched a lot of anime today. Tried to set up a few plans for this weekend. Next week will be really busy.
Daily Sleep (Goal: 7.5-8.5 hours)
Good
Daily Exercise (Goal: 30 min)
Walk
Fundamental Techniques
1. Don't criticize, condemn or complain (to / about others.)
2. Give honest and sincere appreciation.