Addictions are nothing new, they have been around as long as people have. I’m not sure if Eve ever really had an addiction to apples, it might’ve just been a phase. As for me, my number one addiction is breathing. Please trust me; it’s not my only addiction. Old science fiction movies, social media, computer games, burritos and trying to re-engineer everything I see, are just a few.
Having something that we like and doing it over and over again is not necessarily a bad thing. I want to point you back to the idea that I am addicted to breathing. At the same time, some addictions get in the way of living a good life. We all understand the addictions of smoking, drugs, alcohol, and some other addictions which devastate not only the person but all those around them. Yet there are so many other addictions which steal from you when you’re just not looking.
These addictions will sometimes take your money, and yet that is small considering what they really steal, your time. If you find yourself playing computer games when you should be doing something a little more productive, that is a red flag. If you can’t wait for the game to rejuvenate the power to keep on playing, that could be an addiction. It may not be illegal like drugs are, or as devastating as alcoholism, yet it is an addiction, and it steals from you your ability to reach more productive goals.
I’m not saying the electronic game itself is evil. What I am saying is if you would rather play the game than do other things you need to do the game is getting in your way. At this point, you have a decision to make. Are you going to continue on with the distraction stealing the time you need to do more critical tasks, or are you going to rein it in and only play it during 20 minutes of dead time during the day? If you cannot bring it into 10 or 20 minutes a day, then you are truly addicted. At that point, the best thing to do is to remove it from your phone or computer until you can better control it.
This does not have to be a game; it can be anything that takes your time away from more important work or tasks you would really like to be doing or really need to be doing. It can be anything. And only you know what that anything could be. The neat thing is you can control it if you want to. And you can decide what is most important in your life for you and do that.
The great thing is that we all have the freedom to choose. We also have the strength to overcome the problems and concerns in life with which we have to deal. I cannot tell you what is best for you, and neither can most other people. This is something that you have to look within yourself to decide and then act accordingly.
Thank you for being with me today. I hope to be with you again tomorrow.
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