Overcome Your Addictions By Planning Out Your Life

I'm gonna do you a favor. I'm going to show you how to map out your life.

Thinking about the long-term effects of your habits will allow you to choose the life that'll provide you with the most amount of happiness. 

Whether it’s porn, bad food, excessive social media, or anything at all, the effects of your habits will eventually compound. If these habits affect you negatively, the consequences could be dire, especially later on in your life. If you want happiness later in life, considering the long-term effects is absolutely crucial.

You're going to write something down, not for me, but for you. Yes, you're gonna plan out your life!

Before the bitching begins, let's get this outta the way:

• "I'll be fine."

• "It’s not that bad."

• "Things change, so why bother noting it down?"

Are we done? Okay.

The reason you're going to create this plan is because you might be your own worst enemy. Things that don’t seem too bad at the moment can (and will) pile up. Not being cognizant of that can have you digging your own grave. Or, at the very least, your life will suck.

With this plan, you can control the trajectory of your life.

The general idea of this plan came from the book “The Freedom Model for Addictions,” and I can vouch for it. I used to be a heavy porn user, and I was able to overcome that usage by thinking long-term about what kind of happiness I really want.

HERE WE GO:

• Think of a bad habit you have, and write out three scenarios:

• Life after 10 years of continued usage.

• Life after 10 years of reduced usage.

• Life after 10 years of no usage.

• Choose the one that will make you happiest.

Let's do this together! We'll use porn as an example.

Life after 10 years of continued usage:
You obsess over pixels as you jerk your willy/flick your bean every day. You waste hours of your precious time looking up attractive strangers online. Eventually, real people just don't cut it for you. You nitpick everyone because they're not as appealing as your filtered, made-up, surgically-enhanced virtual harem. How could they be? Truth be told, these absurdly "perfect" strangers didn't used to be your type, but your brain grew tired of regular people a long time ago, so it is what it is. If you "lower" your standards enough to have sex with a regular person, your penis (vagina???) stops being reliable. You need porn to get an erection. Even then, it's not great. Your nerve endings have dulled due to overuse. At this point, you've numbed yourself to real intimacy, both mentally and physically. But at least you got that nut in, right?

Life after 10 years of reduced usage:
You spend less time obsessing over these pixels of strangers. You don't waste hours of your day anymore, but just an hour here and there. You've gotten pretty decent at separating the real world from the virtual world, so you can still appreciate intimacy with partners. But you know you could find something better online, if you wanted. You know there are probably images and videos out there that can satisfy your brain more than any person could. You anticipate your next usage. You wouldn't mind another hit. You don't spend that many hours using porn, but your brain spends a lot of time desiring it. You sometimes think about it when you're with someone. Maybe you still prefer real people, but you do love that fact that you can always rely on porn for comfort. That's not so bad, right? At least you're not like those people who use it all the time. Right?

Life after 10 years of no usage:
Your brain is clear of pixelized temptations. You don't waste your time watching strangers be intimate, nor desiring it. You can channel any lust you get into productivity, time with your partner, or anything else. You're able to experience true intimacy because you're not distracted by a lust for something that isn't real. Feels good, man.

Wow, after writing those out, you'll definitely know which one of those options would make you the happiest. But you have to be honest with yourself about what each of these paths would look like. Deep down, you know how each would truly go.

You should celebrate! You just gave yourself the easiest choice you could possibly make: to be happy. Now, follow your path.