Every so often I set a side a pre determined number of days where I go completely sober, usually about a month or two. Sober October is a pretty popular challenge, but I like to do it any time I go a little too hard in the paint. This month, I’ve sworn off fried foods, grains, starches, sugar, and alcohol. If you think this is ridiculous, I’ll let you know I’ve done much more ridiculous things, and that going a block of time without the effects that these food and drug products produce can be very eye opening. Incase you don’t want to put in the time, I’ve captured these nuggets into convenient little truth bombs for your reading pleasure.
- We’re all addicts
What you think of as your daily routine is just a list of shit you’re addicted to. Everyday you wake up, go on some kind of auto pilot for the things you do until you put yourself to bed and repeat the process the next day. The beautiful part about being a human is that we get to choose what things go on that to do list. We have the free will and the luxury of pursuing things outside of food, shelter, and reproduction. The sad part about humanity though is most people just want to get comfortably numb and masturbate.
You can call it whatever you want, but there’s not much difference between the payoff of actual masturbation and binge watching the new season of your favorite series, or playing video games until the early morning. Face it, if you sit down to eat with a glass of wine every night, you’re and alcoholic, if you beat off before bed every night, you’re addicted to masturbation, if you’re glued to your phone, you’re addicted to social media. It might not be destroying your life, but it’s not exactly making it better.
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The point of this preaching is merely to point out that we are creatures of habit, and those habits are the silent addictions we all foster, without thinking about them. If you have shitty habits, you’re signing up to be a shitty person. I’m sure most of you out there are saying something akin to “not me, I can quit whenever I want, it’s just X or Y, it’s not a big deal”. Well then do it, and if you can’t do it for thirty days without having to fight the urge, maybe re-evaluate your justifications, because…
2. We justify our actions with excuses
Everything we do boils down to decisions and excuses. There is seldomly a time where a personal failure is purely the product of external circumstances. The gut reaction is always to retract from this statement with excuses and weak justifications, faster than you can close all those open tabs you had open before your significant other walked in the room.
While lying to others might work half the time, telling yourself a convenient lie is full proof. If your life isn’t where you want it to be, chances are you’ve made a habit of lying to yourself. Being honest with yourself is difficult, and it’s not something we’ve been raised to do, shit double so if you’re a millennial that grew up in the “everybody gets a trophy” day’s like I did.
If you don’t believe me, try questioning yourself every time you fail at something. Instead of blaming others, “throwing shade”, trolling someone, or finding a scape goat, look deep down and think about what you could have done differently to change the outcome. This goes double if your name is Barbra and you want to speak with the manager. You have to make a conscious effort to improve this because…
3. Failure is subconscious
As soon as your brain (the id, not the ego) decides that that something is too difficult, you have failed. You have to literally beat this instinct out of your brain through denial and difficulty, it’s why exercise is so damn good for you. You’re brain has evolved to seek easy pleasures to ensure survival long enough to make a baby, it’s like your subconscious is your unruly drunk friend that just wants to fuck, fight, or pass out. No matter what happens you’re stuck with your friend, and you’re going to have to put his ass to bed before you can free yourself.
The problem, as I’ve mentioned, is if you’re used to justifying your shitty actions, or making excuses for yourself, you’re going to take that soft excuse over the hard work every time. Also, your friend is probably going to throw up on someone, and that’s never fun.
Owning the fact that your brain has had a little too much comfort, and enacting change is how you make progress. Set your goals, kill your doubts, be convinced you’ll find success, and don’t stop until you do. Stop wasting your time with shit that ultimately doesn’t matter, cause at the end of the day, no matter how badass that donut was, that wasn’t real happiness. Having a beer may feel good for a moment, but how long does that really last in the grand scheme of things? Besides, these time leeches are just using you for the two things you’re good for….
4. Time and money, is all they want
Look around at the world, you’ll find a long and varied list of things trying to exploit you for time, money, or both. They aren’t all bad, hell my four year old is a straight up emotional terrorist in trying to keep my attention, and have me spend money, but our relationship is worth the minefield he lays out for me. Writing this article took time away from something else I could have been doing, but the writing helps me think, it clears my head, and lets me create something, it’s important to me.
Technology has become so involved that it to seeks your time and money, it’s why advertising is so damn intrusive these days. Hell, you can’t watch a streaming video on youtube without an ad playing before the video and during the video, banner ads at the bottom throughout, and most likely the subject of the video making an advertising pitch. I may be a hypocrite for saying this… but jumping Jesus, even porn has advertisements these days.
The point is, your goals and aspirations take time and effort, both of which are finite things that you can offer. Destractions are common in a society of destractions, if you don’t believe me, look up from your smartphone and see how many other people will actually make eye contact with you. Hell, even if you’re taking a dump in public, chances are there is someone in the stall next to you nervously timing out their poop sounds while reading or watching something.
*** side note, it’s never ok to watch a video with the sound on while pooping in public, I shouldn’t have to say this.
So to circle everything back around…
You own your time, your decisions, and your excuses. How does taking 30 day’s off of drinking and eating rich foods help me understand this? Cause everyone says they aren’t addicted to these time leeches, and basic pleasures, but they’re the only things standing in the way of attaining a better life, saying no to things makes this very apparent. It’s hard to turn down free donuts, it’s hard to drink water at the bar, it’s not fun to see a big pan of fajitas and have to tell the waiter that you don’t want any tortillas or chips, but it’s not impossible, it’s a hell of a lot easier than creating and writing an article, or learning a new skill.
Take some time away from the screen and think of some goals for yourself, kill your doubt, set the time, and do it until you make your goal. Don’t settle for failure, keep working at it like it matters, cause you only live once (I’m taking it back from the damn you YOLO kids!). Some distractions are ok, just make sure they are distractions that out weigh your goals, facebook is never worth your dreams.
Now get to work bitch!
Caffeinated Face Punch 
