I am blogging everyday (or nearly everyday) on The Daily Stoic.
For me pleasure becomes punishment when I indulge in alcohol too much or play video games too late on a work night. Some times both happen and it makes for a real mess of the next day and potentially the day after that. The stoic passage today talks about cheat days, which I am totally against. I think it’s a bit silly to be good six days out of the week and then blow it all in one day. I believe, I should work towards sustaining throughout the week and try not to over-indulge. When I want a drink I have one. When I want some candy or other awful food I have it.
I have gone so long without soda that when I do have some it tastes very syrupy and icky to me. Same thing for chocolate donuts. I love chocolate donuts. It’s just that when I have one I feel awful for the rest of the day so I don’t. A hangover is similar. I promise to quite drinking that much. I know deep down I won’t, though, and I’ve come to accept that alcohol will always be something I enjoy, so I try to find the best relationship with it. It’s gotten a lot better over the past year. I’ve started to learn how to deal with stress outside of reaching for a drink. Before it was the drink. I knew it was bad, but I didn’t know how else to deal. Drinking and video games were my release. Doing these daily stoics and reading books like, Ego is the Enemy by Ryan Holiday have started to help me find release in other areas.
I think taking a week off from work is beneficial for health reasons. I used to do it once a year. Now I focus on doing it twice a year. Once in the spring and once in the fall. If possible, going somewhere without cell service is best. We used to go to Myrtle beach as a family. I realized after a few trips that the biggest thing was that my phone didn’t have cell service and so I’d leave it in my room dead. It was quite freeing to not have that thing attached to me. Same thing happened to me when I was in Yellowstone last year. My cell service was crap and it was fantastic.
I don’t know that I addressed this stoic sufficiently. It’s about not letting the things we really want to do overtake our lives. Drinking and video games are my two biggest things. If I could, I’d come home from work grab a drink and play some video games. I’ve actually done that though and it started to become a punishment. What was often one more game or one more hour turned into several more hours and several more drinks. I’d then go into work and feel miserable. It’s hard to stop without the right motivation and I think I’ve recently found it. Not giving into my ego.