The Month of No Video Games.
I took off video games for a month! I'd considered something like this for a few years now, but never had the guts to fully commit. I made a very half hearted attempt back in 2020 that lasted maybe two weeks before I just gave up because I had made all kinds of exceptions that made it worthless. This time I went cold turkey, no exceptions, for the entire month of July. The results were...very useful. I hesitate to say eye opening, because I was already pretty certain I had a slight addiction. That said, I definitely found out I did. I didn't change the world or anything, but I definitely made some proper progress in some areas that were previously neglected.
I've mulled over a few different ways to go over what I feel like I learned, but nothing really rose to the surface. It boils down to this: I was addicted to games, and I didn't realize how bad it really was until I was no longer able to act on that with regularity. If I wasn't playing games, there's a good chance I was thinking about when I would be able to next. When I suddenly couldn't, my free time seemed vast and very freeing. If something you enjoy starts to become a compulsion, you might want to consider why that might be and be curious about changing things up. The first two weeks were tough, but I was also riding the high that came with committing to such a difficult choice, so that made it a lot easier. As I reached the end, I was somewhat over it. I'm still unsure if that's because I needed to take more time away, or if the compulsion had left, leaving me with a genuine desire to enjoy a hobby. Now that I'm most of the way through August, I've noticed a number of times where I'm having all too familiar feelings about games that I was in June, so I might need to change things up yet again. I always tell myself I want things to stay the same, but I thrive on change; life is funny like that.
Notable Gains from a Month of No Games -
- I started tearing apart our downstairs bathroom!
- DIY is hard for me, as my perfectionism starts kicking up dust and avoid problems I'm afraid to make worse. However, I learned how to remove a toilet, vanity, and tear down drywall. I also learned that the previous owners put drywall over plaster and now I have to decide what to tear out. :doge:
- I started working on new songs for my ambient project, time stops at sunset.
- This one feels hard for me at this exact moment, as I've been having a hard time finding inspiration and getting back into it for a few weeks now. Music is a tough beast for me, as anxiety and perfectionism really get going when I sit down to try and write. That and I really don't know what I'm doing with production. On the bright side, I've made really good progress, have a decent vision for the EP, and I've already learned a lot about production along the way. I'm excited to keep progressing and sharing about it here.
- I read some more.
- Nothing super of note here, but I've been reading Lord of the Rings, which is really, really enjoyable. Coming from a place of knowing the movies insanely well makes the books open up the world of Middle Earth in a way that's new, fresh, and yet, still, familiar in the best way.
- I scheduled my tattoo, which I got done about a week ago!
- Seagull Orchestra by Aerial Promenade is an instrumental piece that's always stuck with me, so when the idea came to me a few months ago it felt like right. I wanted a tattoo that would be obvious, but still simple enough to not kill me. Tattoos really hurt, dude. But I love how it turned out, so, worth. See the tat here.
TL;DR: I took off of video games for a month, thrived, realized I need to be challenged more, and did some other cool stuff with my extra free time. I recommended finding something like this for yourself if you're feeling like you need to mix things up a bit.
Thanks for reading.
