How to Kill an Addiction

Cartoon from http://lastlemon.com/harolds-planet

I'm usually a sensible person.  I'm in and out of facebook- making sure I'm not scrolling the newsfeed for more than 30 minutes on the few times I log in (and that's goes for other online social media- youtube, twitter, etc), I never play online games (or any video game for that matter), I've said my goodbye to the dvd player and videostreaming a long time ago but for some weird reason the tv just got me hooked (Please see The TV Took Me Hostage to know the full story).  I couldn't quite put my finger on it.  So, I did more soul searching to understand why I am doing what I'm doing (since I'm a self-development junkie, I just really need to know).

So, I looked back at my previous patterns.  I saw that if there's something I couldn't handle- I sleep.  If I came across a roadblock- I run away.  If  a bigger-than-life opportunity comes my way, I cringe.  

After facing myself squarely, I realized that I allowed the TV to take hold of me because I couldn't quite pull myself together.  I was not powerful enough to turn the remote off because I am afraid of facing the opportunities in front of me.  I lacked the will and strength to change so I revert back to an old habit.  Also, I wanted to reach the goal but I don't like to put in the work involved to get there.  Like infamous Juan Tamad (Lazy Juan), I opted to sleep under the guava tree hoping that the fruit will miraculously fall straight to my mouth.  I took the easy route- stall and escape!

The TV allowed me to go just that,  lull my mind and go brain-dead for a few hours.  It allowed me to simply dream of the fruit and prevented me from climbing the tree so I can get the guava right away.  It brought everything to a halt just like sleeping.

In actuality, the culprit's not the TV afterall, it's my fear and laziness. 

Yay, now I know the root cause!  Since realization is the first step to change, now, I only need to gather the courage to do the right thing -again and again until I form the habit of just moving forward towards the goal, not minding the hurdles.

Cartoon from http://lastlemon.com/mahoney-joe