Hello!

Today was a fun day. I visited a nearby island together with my friends and it was a lot of fun. The summer is beginning as usual: 5 degrees Celsius and a few hailstorms. After visiting the island I've been training Bjj and cleaning. The best moment of today was being with my friends and landing a new type of straight ankle lock.

Today I'm grateful for:

• Finding some cool and not so touristy places to travel to
• Meeting my age group from school tomorrow
• Receiving a place to study in Uni
• Rock and roll
• Great performances today

5 celcius is summer!?!?!? Love hailstorms though!

Closure is a beautiful thing.

Day 735 -- two years into the journey.  My life is taking new turns. This new beginning inevitably means the closure of the previous one. My military service is starting tomorrow and I'll be spending the next year there. Afterwards I'm heading to Helsinki's Aalto-university. Now it is the time to give my journal a well deserved rest.

During these two years of journaling I've grown towards being an adult. Scrolling through my old adolescent posts it's good to notice that life has worked out fine. Gaming feels distant in the past. I'm pretty sure that the old habits of gaming are still stored in my brain. I will need to be vigilant and make sure I won't use gaming or necessarily any other kind of numbing to deal with my problems. Anyhow no more thinking only about games when with friends, no more need to get home quick to play, no more skipping sleep to join the queue one more time.

This community has been a great help in improving one's life. Not just in regards to gaming, but life overall. An Awesome community that encourages people to become what they aspire to be. I can't but thank all of you for being part of this journey (namely @Cam Adair, @seriousjay, @Gorxen, @wookieshark88, @Rodrigo, @Neat, @asquerade, @kortheo, @Tom, @cordharel, @Phoenix, @Florian, @AlexTheGrape, @Ed, @Octsober, @Laney, @Django, @WorkInProgress, @Marquess, @hycniejsy, @Hitaru, @Dannigan, @Merdoc_Rowboat, @Mark, @Paul A., @Piotr, @notyung,, @dullage, @lilX, @usernameforworldpeace!, @Reno F, @Neat, @Robin, @Simon E, @Mettermrck, @happykhan, @Tatu92, @dandielionous, @Remigjus, @Simms, @Shine Magical, @Tom2 and @Stercus accidit)!

I might pop up checking what's up here in the community. Who knows what life brings with it. But for now: Thank you everybody! Godspeed to all of you improving your lives and kicking gaming's ass. If you think there is any way I can help you just hit me up. The private messages reach me so if you want to ask anything I'd be glad to share what I've learned.

Thank you! Anton signing out.

I wonder if at some point I will find closure for my own journey...but I'm still early on. Congratulations and best of luck, SpiNips.

SpiNips - I'm honored to have helped you along this journey. May your future be wonderious! 

Edited July 3, 20178 yr by Octsober

Hey. I hope you continue to have a great life. It was a pleasure.

 

Anton, I'm lucky to have got to know you and proud of having worked together with you on something so significant. All the best!

Godspeed brother! So grateful that you've shared your journey with us and set such an incredible example of commitment. Wishing the best your way and can't wait to hang out in Finland sometime.

Good job on grasping your life man! Keep rocking!

BE FREE OUR CHILD ;W;

Hello!

Checking in with the community. I've spent the last months in the military making new friends and learning new skills. It's been demanding both mentally and physically, but overall I'm doing fine and enjoying my time there. Since the daily schedule is rather fixed I have had to adapt to one with less freedom. Leaving my old life, hobbies and friends behind feels wistful at times, but that's life I guess. Still doing good: having a good time and enjoying life. Cheers, strength with quitting games and improving your lives!

The best moment of today was meeting friends I haven't seen in a long time.

Today I'm grateful for:

• Jeff Buckley's version of Hallelujah
• Rest and food
• Friends
• Empathy and the ability to listen
• Late summer forest

Hey good to see you again SpiNips! Glad you're still thriving! ?

Enjoyed your update. Thanks for stopping by and sharing it! 

Hello!

Checking in with the community. I've spent the last months in the military making new friends and learning new skills. It's been demanding both mentally and physically, but overall I'm doing fine and enjoying my time there. Since the daily schedule is rather fixed I have had to adapt to one with less freedom. Leaving my old life, hobbies and friends behind feels wistful at times, but that's life I guess. Still doing good: having a good time and enjoying life. Cheers, strength with quitting games and improving your lives!

The best moment of today was meeting friends I haven't seen in a long time.

Today I'm grateful for:

• Jeff Buckley's version of Hallelujah
• Rest and food
• Friends
• Empathy and the ability to listen
• Late summer forest

*Jaw Drops*...I mean, you're doing good things SpiNips, welcome back!

Good stuff, man. Thanks for checking in!

Hello!

Another week, another adventure. The last seven days have been filled with plenty of education and sports. I caught a flu towards the end of the week and have been ill today. Maybe it's the arriving autumn, grey clouds and fallen leaves, or the flu that have made me feel blue. Additionally I've pondered some hard questions. There is always room to improve and facing these questions offer a chance to understand myself better. Sometimes the world feels darker than it actually is.

Reading journals has been inspiring as always. GameQuitters going strong as usual.  I feel like working in a group is very helpful. I'll probably find new ways to think about my challenges reading and writing as well. It feels very weird to write an online journal after a while of not writing. 

Well, It's time for some chilling time with friends now. Off to a little lighter themes.

Today I'm grateful for:

• Living in a peaceful region of the world
• Finnish education
• Reflective writing
• Communities and friends
• Having had the honor to meet awesome people

Good to see you again, SpiNips! Autumn can be a beautiful season too in nature.

Yep, SpiNips, knew that feeling. Glad to have you back, fight that flu!

Hello!

This week has passed rather quickly. It has been filled with interesting activities and sports. The best moments of the week have been the times joking around with friends.

As I am spending my week on the barracks there is a slight void when I get back home for a weekend. As I shift back to home, some of the habits and structures that used to be part of my weekends are no longer there. That's something to think about. Maybe I should focus on organizing or joining some kind of social meet every Saturday. I think that would solve the problem quite easily. Today I've been reading, cooking and exercising.

I finished Charles Duhigg's The Power of Habit yesterday. It was a good read explaining science behind habits. Some chapters are a bit more anecdotal than scientific, but overall I enjoyed it. I remember it being insightful when I was first trying to break my gaming-related habits.

In any case some minor problems, a little confusion with everything new, but also good moments and lots of new interesting information and knowledge.

Today I'm grateful for:

• Low-intensity jogging, I used to run at high pace and only do short jogs, but taking it easier makes it much more fun, and you can do it longer!
• Good and plentiful food
• Having interesting books to read
• Freedom
• Learning what to focus on better with experience

I agree about low intensity. I enjoy taking a slower walk outside and just relaxing rather than pushing myself. It's more soothing. I still go all out on the treadmill though. ?

Hello!

The past two weeks have been fun. I've exercised a lot and had a good time with my friends. Today I've read, written and celebrated my friend's birthday. It was great to see people that are important and dear. It was also cool to go through everything that happened in Europe last summer.

I think I'm going through a bit similar thoughts as I read from @Simon E's journal today. Even though gaming is, at this moment, quite far behind I still feel like writing about one's quest in life and reading others' stories somehow helps. Maybe I should look for a company like this in the "real world" as well. Well there is time to think about this and other ideas --for now good night everybody!

Today I'm grateful for:

• Seeing dear friends
• Having a punching bag home, helps to express some feelings
• Last summer's travels
• a Great Turkish barber
• Accumulating wisdom and experience
• Finding new books to read, If you've got recommendations I'd love to hear them

Glad to hear someone recognized themselves in my words, so I'm not just a voice in an empty space  

I read "Deep Work" by Cal Newport and "Peak" by Anders K. Ericsson this summer, and I would recommend both if you're anything like me (hellbent on improving and being as efficient as possible; especially in regards to creative and academic ventures.) 

Also, I'm slightly (tremendously) jealous of you having a punching bag. There's some feelings *cough* that could use being expressed.  

+1 to Deep Work!

Yeah I liked deep work. An other book I read lately which isn't about selfdevelopment but really interesting is "The soul of a new machine". It tells the story of the development of a "micro"-computer and the people working on it. It is really well written too.

It's inspiring to see how far you've come @SpiNips!