Quitting These 5 Common Habits Has Led to an Unbelievably Better Life
Reclaim your time, motivation, mental energy, and health
In today’s consumerist era, the self-help industry is obsessed with adding things — “ingenious” mindsets, “value-packed” courses, fancy gadgets, or promising apps.
But addition only clogs up your mental space and, for every problem solved, brings in new ones.
“Perfection is achieved not when there’s nothing more to add, but when there’s nothing left to take away.”
— Antoine De Saint
Improving your life is more about subtraction — bad habits, worthless things, negative people, etc.
I want to share 5 such subtractions — ones that have triggered gargantuan positive changes in my life.
This Illusory Dopamine-Trigger
The neurotransmitter dopamine governs our drive to achieve—ideally when you do something meaningful, you’re “rewarded” with a release of dopamine.
But video games are cheat-codes — they get rivers of dopamine flowing for no work.
With the burning passion of dopamine replaced by the complacent laziness of oxytocin, how would you?
In the year since I’ve stopped gaming, I’ve achieved tons in real-life — 200+ articles here, 60+ books read, massive workout progress, a swelling net worth, and a few mind-blowing romantic experiences.
Since it’s nigh impossible to stop gaming right away, take a stepwise approach:
- Barricade Your Gaming Time. Set daily limits and make those tighter as time progresses — 3h, 2h, 1h, 30 minutes, and so on.
- Drop the Number of Games You Play. One at a time cut back and uninstall the games you play.
- Limit Gaming to The Weekends. The catch is — no limits. As long as you stay “game-sober” through the week, feel free to binge on the weekends.
- Impose Limits on This. Gradually curb your weekend gaming time as well — 3h, 2h, and so on. Soon, you’ll be able to quit gaming — for good.
Late-Night Dilly Dallying
A college anecdote comes to mind. As I’m walking down my corridor at 6 AM, I run into a friend that asks, “Damn! When did you start waking up this early?”
“Nah, bro! I’m about to go to bed”, I reply with a proud smile — and bloodshot eyes. Funnily, nothing I did during those nights warranted pride. It should have been shame instead — games, anime, YouTube on auto-play, or porn.
Groggily waking up at 1 PM, with half the day already gone, I’d burn away the rest. With staying up late so normalized, I saw nothing wrong with my routine (or the lack of it).
But sleeping and waking up early is a superpower — higher quality sleep, lesser negative thoughts, stress reduction, and lower chances of procrastination. Not to mention the insane head start you get on the rest of the world.
Dozing off at 10:30 PM, I’m up by 6:30 AM without an alarm. Deeply recharged, I breeze through my morning routine — and that sets a winning tone for the rest of the day.
Trying to wake up at 5 AM when you’ve been sleeping then won’t work. Instead, establish a routine and pull it back one hour at a time.
The Idiot Box Lying in Almost Every Home
Your television is one of the most insidious things lying around.
Streaming services like Netflix wreck your time and motivation through mindless binge-watching. “News” channels wreck your mental health by zooming in (and exaggerating) only the most negative of news.
Cable channels? Thanks to the ads, they discourage binge-viewing, but with little control over what to watch, they’re still a colossal waste of time.
To quote a study published in the Journal Of Economic Psychology,
“We find that heavy TV viewers, and in particular those with a significant opportunity cost of time, report lower life satisfaction. Long TV hours are also linked to higher material aspirations and anxiety.”
The only video content I consume is through YouTube — that too, I recently weeded out all my subscriptions, leaving only 27.
Adhering to Societal Norms
While Drake’s rapping God’s Plan, let’s see what society’s plan for you is.
Go to school. Get good grades. Land a reputed college. Get good grades again. Bag a high-paying job offer. Slave away. Buy a car. Inflate your lifestyle. Buy a house. Rack up loans. Get married. Have kids. Put them in the same societal wheel. Retire at 60. Then, realize nothing you did so far actually made you happy. Wallow in regret. And die.
It doesn’t take a genius to see how flawed this is.
But millions burn the wicks of their entire lives adhering to this — because of familial obligations, societal pressure, and the urge to conform.
“We have two lives, and the second begins when we realize we only have one.”
— Confucious
After years of reading, introspection, and insightful experiences, I’ve broken past societal norms — the erstwhile whisperings of “What will others think?”, “and “Is this societally acceptable?” are gone.
To overcome social norms, first understand you’re unique—there never has, is, or will be another you.
Internalize the fact that the goal is to stand out, not fit in.
This Cesspool of FOMO Inducing Fakeness
Social media’s a FOMO hellhole — everyone’s shoving exaggerated versions of their best lives in each other’s faces. The result?
All-time high mental health lows — one in 7 Americans are depressed and around 300 million are suffering from clinical anxiety.
“Facebook is to mental health, what fossil fuel is to climate health.”
— Abhijit Naskar
Deleting my Instagram is the best thing I’ve ever done for my mental health. I kept LinkedIn and Twitter to market my work. If they prove unnecessary, I’ll get rid of them as well.
You can’t do it right away though — even if you try, you’ll go right back in before long. The process has to be gradual:
- Trash the Ones You Can. Telegram, Snapchat, Facebook, and Reddit were the first to go.
- Limit Screen-Time for The Rest. For Instagram, LinkedIn, and Twitter, I put on daily limits. You can use a free blocker app for this.
- Cut Your Followed Accounts and Pages. Except for your actual friends and chief interests, unfollow everyone and everything.
- Limit Usage to The Weekends. This way, you won’t feel that you’re “missing out”.
- Go for A Test Drive. Deactivate your accounts and if you don’t feel a nagging need to dive back in, you’re free! Else, limit your usage further and try again.
Final Words
You don’t have to give up any of the aforementioned things completely.
As with all things, it needn’t be black or white. Find your gray zone — be aware of the negative effects and use them in moderation.
Err on the side of caution and the moment any of them start taking a toll on you or your life, cut them out.
Is it easy to get rid of them? No. But rewarding? Heck yes.
“Hard choices, easy life; Easy choices, hard life.”
— Jerzy Gregorek
Want to beat procrastination, reclaim your life, and level up your masculinity? Grab your FREE copy of the 5-Day Male-Level-Up Toolkit.
