sjoti

Day 65: Today was a bit of a rollercoaster. Good feelings mostly ruled the day while some bad feelings came and went away. I've talked to my coach with whom I've set up a plan for next year, which feels good to me. A safety net is set because I'm being honest with myself and realise that falling into old habits is something I can prevent, not something that I have to be scared of. Being scared of it will only cause me to put it away which will have as a consequence that when it's there I won't be prepared. Now I already am. Some moments I just can't really relax and feel guilty even though I have no reason to feel guilty. Some other moments I don't really do as I planned to do which also causes me to feel guilty. I guess I'll have to be actively monitoring my thoughts a bit more and see if I can prevent it or deal with it effectively. I'm a work in progress. Progress is being made, day by day. Figuring things out and failing is part of that progress, and that's the way I should be approaching more parts of my life. Thanks for reading!

You are improving yourself every single day, realising more and more of the life that you are looking for. Add to that active learning from mistakes and trying to logically think about your actions so you can get the most out of them makes you a legend in my book.

I'm going to train with the help of a physical therapist Thank you for giving me some great anwers!

Day 64: M ostly positive news today, combined with a potentially big negative. Let's start with the positive. I visited my new school today and had some friends coming over. I was quite excited for going to school, it was a little less exciting than I expected. Even though it was a little less exciting I still gained some information on what I can do to prepare myself in the best way possible. I had a great time with my friends, which resulted in a super pleasant evening, weren't it for that one negative. On to the negative: I somehow injured my knee. It's been a reoccurring thing for the last decade which will limit my sporting abilities in the short term. I was planning to go for another ride tomorrow but that will not be possible. I just have to wait and see how bad it is. At worst, I won't be able to walk properly for about a week which also means that my outdoor activities will pretty much be impossible. I already took action and I'll be working towards training my knee to prevent these issues starting next week.

Glad to hear it! If I inspired someone somehow please let me now!

Day 63: The day is not completely over yet , however, I'm pretty sure not much will change from the point that I'm writing this. I'm noticing a change. I'm taking a different approach to life. Like yesterday I first took care of the stuff I had to do in the morning, as I had planned on my board. It just feels like it's a much more healthy approach. I figure stuff out ahead of time, I take care of the small things right away. I initiate conversations with people, I take the lead when it comes to making appointments. Impulsive ideas are healthy ideas. I went for a 10km run today, I cooked a huge amount of pasta salad that I'm going to eat for lunch or whenever I feel hungry. Cooking that took me about 45 minutes, minutes I would otherwise never spend on cooking. By spending that time today I'll be able to save a lot of time the next week, time that I can spend in productive ways. Like yesterday, sometimes things don't go as expected, and like yesterday that is okay. Wasn't able to get my bike clean because I missed some tools. I decided to go right ahead and go to a bike shop; sadly it was closed. Doesn't matter. I took a direct approach to solving a problem. That's what counts, and this small thing can wait till tomorrow (I checked and the shop will be open). When I look around me everything is clean and tidy, I feel like I'm thinking a lot more clear and whenever I decide to relax I don't have a single worry as I have taken care of everything. Tomorrow I'll be visiting my new school for the first time, and I'm excited. I'm excited for what this year is going to bring and god damn, it feels good.

Close to where I live is a pretty damn good trail, it's a quite technical trail with mostly flat areas and short climbs and descends. This is my baby, around a half-year-old 29" hardtail: I removed the back wheel and the chain and now the chain is in a nice bath to become clean again. I took a little extra effort with cleaning since sand got everywhere due to the mud.

Hey guys! I'm Sjoti, a 21-year-old student from the Netherlands. I've realized that if I don't want to be a student forever with a debt that keeps on building that I need to change a lot in my life. This change has been happening for about a year and the realization that gaming was an extremely toxic part of my life I made the decision to quit gaming along with smoking on the 20th of June. Today I am 62 days in. I only started reading on this forum quite recently and I hope that by sharing my story, my experiences, and my methods that someone might get motivated to make the same decision I did or make following through easier. I have my own method of planning and it's quite likely that I'm going to use my results from that method as a base for my daily journals. Next to that I'll try to share some of the most important moments that I want to share that occurred in the first 2 months when I get reminded of them within other daily journals. I have my own method of planning and it's quite likely that I'm going to use my results from that method as a base for my daily journals. Click here to see how my planning works Currently at Day 90 Edit on 19-09-2016: 90 days are done. I've realized that I've got a long way to go and that that's totally fine; I also know that on that long road ahead I've got more control on where I end up. Day 90: I ended the detox at a festival. Amazing atmosphere, great people and lots and lots of fun. It wasn't planned or anything, but it seems to fit well with how I feel. Now I'm having a bit of a hangover, which is totally fine. Anyways, to get back to the 90 days. There's a lot I've done, I took chances I've never taken before. I've been living a structured life, tried out new things, found out about new passions, started learning new skills. I can list some of these things, however, I'm just going to keep it short because it all comes down to a simple realization which made me improve by a whole lot. I learned that I can control my habits and behavior by taking action. This sounds so incredibly simple, so incredibly logical and rational and yet this is the first time I've ever been conscious of it. I can take care of any addiction. I can improve good habits and destroy bad habits. There's no chance I'm going back to gaming anytime soon. I'm enjoying my current state of being way too much Thank you all for letting me share the stories with you guys, and thank you all for sharing stories with me. I'll be most active on discord as always, and I'll be keeping self-improvement up for longer than these 90 days. 90 Days are enough to make a change, but it's only the basis for something bigger. That's what I'm aiming for. Bonus: Me the day I started posting these journals, this was day 62: If you have any questions feel free to ask!

Hey guys, Like many of you, I have dealt with gaming addiction and procrastination. I am now over 2 months in my detox and I have been working on myself actively for about a year. One of the things that took me long to figure out is a method of planning that fit me. I'm hoping that I can share some of the experiences I've had with you guys so you can figure out how to do it yourselves, especially now that most of you guys have a lot of time on your hands and you need to know how to spend it. Why I use this planning: A planning is crucial for me because I need structure to keep myself under control. Next to that I can let others know what they can expect from me. I can let people know what my schedule is most likely going to look like However, it does need to be dynamic. Sometimes the weather influences outdoor activities I planned, sometimes studying takes longer than expected and screws up a part of the planning while on some other days cleaning the house takes much shorter and I know have free time available that I can spend in a way that leaves me with more free time later. Also, sometimes life can just happen. A planning can only be effective if it can change when an exception is needed. If it doesn't change your whole planning will fall apart. I dealt with this by making myself a physical planning that takes a super hands-on and visual approach. I tried writing it down in an agenda but I am not able to move stuff around there so that failed for me. Next to that I found that an agenda was easy to ignore. I had no idea how far I was by taking a direct look at it. So I made my own system. I looked at some ideas of how people follow their progress and figured it out on my own. I took a big whiteboard and a TON of post-its. This is the result of my planning that I've been using for the past 4 months. The planning and how it works: Usually, it is a bit more full, I just filled it for the day to make sure it's a bit more clear and not too overwhelming. Let's start at the top: The different colors on top with the text below it just show me what every color means. Then from left to right are the days of the week and from left top to bottom are the hours of a day (I use blocks of 2 hours, I can change that around a bit by using folded or cut post-its). The yellow cards are different than the others, but I'll get to that in a bit. If I finish doing something on a card I take it off. When I look at the board and I notice that it's quite empty I know I am doing well. If I don't finish something then that means a yellow note or an empty spot needs to go, so I am reminded that not doing something takes in free time. The yellow notes are more or less my free time; what I write on it is more or less a suggestion to myself. Works really well If I'm a little bit out of ideas. At the end of the week, I rebuild my board. If I fucked up and have a ton of post-its left then I know what I have to do; I have to move them to next week. If I then look at the board I notice that there is barely any left on the board I know it's going to be a tough week.