Resuming Video Games

Well, I wrote earlier this month about quitting video games. I made it sound like it was something I was quitting pretty easily and that my life would improve as a result. A few weeks later and we’re back at it. I’ve mostly been playing Gamecube and Wii games (Pokemon Colosseum, a little animal crossing, etc). My little experiment in quitting ended in failure for the most part. I only made it about two weeks before resuming again.

To be fair, I don’t really consider this a wholly bad thing. I’m not playing endlessly for hours a day at the expense of my responsibilities in life. I don’t live in my parent’s basement NEETing out. These justifications and more help keep me neutral about the whole experiment. I was hoping my life would improve somehow but that just didn’t happen. I was always doomed to return back to baseline without any proper safeguards or lifestyle changes. The inner gamer in me came out and begged me to resume my previous activities. I gleefully complied and now here we are.

This isn’t something I write out of anger or anything like that. It’s more so just stating the facts and being honest with myself. Games aren’t the reason I feel trapped or that my life isn’t going anywhere. Although for actual video game addicts this could be the case. I mostly just wanted to try quitting something extensively used in my life like video games in the hopes of creating change in my life. Though the reality is that change requires more than just quitting something.

I think I mostly need to stop reacting so swiftly to impulses. I normally just go according to these moods and waves rather than stopping and assessing what these impulses actually mean. I get swept up in it without considering the negative impact it has on me. Same with browsing my phone immediately after waking up. It’s a bad habit and it needs to be given up. Part of this feeds into my lack of self awareness. It’s being dishonest with myself and not seeing where I need to improve at.