Another tip from my (slowly, taking forever, when will it come out) BOOK
I’ve been blessed to not have any addictions to drugs or alcohol. I stay away from these because I know my addictive personality. I would have would ruined my life in a heartbeat. I know I have an addictive personality because of a strong vice for video games.
Proudly proclaiming that I Turn Hobbies into 1099s. I was able to make an excuse of video games, because I excelled enough at a few of them to actually make money. One game in particular I made enough money to put a down payment on my house.
Eventually having a fair amount of attention-demanding work took over and the video games took a back seat to the addiction of accomplishment in my freelance life.
At this point, I was able to separate my ‘gaming’ from my work computer. “Only gaming on the Xbox.” I said! That way I wouldn’t have the little icon on my desktop just taunting me to come play.
This worked for several years. Some friends of mine, whom are normal 9-5’r workers, were playing this game. Looked really fun… so I installed a video game onto my computer. The evil I speak of is League of Legends.
LOL was the most toxic hate fueled game I’ve ever played. Probably not the most addictive game that I’ve ever played because I’ve played some doozies. This game was fun and challenging and most importantly I was not good at it. I’m sure being a total suck at it was a big reason I was so addicted to it. I wanted to be one of the best. Just like anybody that plays a video game.
Within minutes you could be inside a game that would last anywhere from 20 to 40minutes. More often than not I would be on the losing side of the game, making me angry, I would fire up another game. Sometimes I would win which would make me euphoric and I’d fire up another game.
The worst part about LOL is not the addiction or even the toxic hatred from other players, we can find that in our modern-day politics and news cycles. It was that it didn’t build to anything. The ultra-addictive games are the ones where you would level your character, and continue the progress. Going on quests. Finding loot. And achieving goals.
I probably realized I had a problem months ago. It took me a little longer to take action on it and I uninstalled the game. I was tired of working on something they had no end. No real world value. And nothing to build up on.
Easily three games each night totaling two and a half hours of wasted time. And nothing to show for it. I cringe to think how many days in a row I wasted.
I uninstalled and decided moving forward I could level up myself.
I could focus on growing my business. I could focus on being more of an asset to my own company. I can make myself more valuable for my customers. After making yourself more valuable to your customers you can charge more you get known to be that guy who delivers amazing results and quality.
The following two weeks after uninstalling, were the most productive and rewarding weeks I have had in nearly a year!
What addictions do you have? What addictions are getting in the way of you being valuable to your customer. What addictions do you have that are stopping you from growing to something greater?
