Day 29 - Replace Your Bad Habits with Good Ones §

I used to play video games. A lot. Fortunately, that was long ago.

Rock bottom for me was when it impacted my relationships and school grades. I was anti-social, lazy, and addicted. That was my norm. And It was terrible.

How did I break this bad habit?

I Realized how I Wasted My Life §

I don’t remember what made me realize, how much time was wasted.

Perhaps, it was just that one snarky comment my father that got me from hiding behind my gaming addiction to facing reality and actually living my life.

I Replaced Gaming with Binging Educational Coding Videos §

And it worked, seamlessly. But In Hindsight, I was lucky.

I was thoroughly enjoying Role Playing Games, Immersive Experiences and modding them extensively. I wasn’t playing competitive, and not with friends.

Coding Brought Me the Same Emotional Reward as Gaming §

Accidentally, I was filling the hole created by stopping this addiction.

Instead of Skyrim, Witcher and co. I was throwing hours on Coding Videos, Programming Courses and Software Architecture Videos.

Everything changed as soon as I finally grasped how.

From this I learned that any habit can be replaced. Just find something that fills the same emotional need. And slowly converge towards it.

First published on Typeshare