Meet Your Number One Enemy

When you wake up, you pull up the phone.

When you're bored, you pull up the phone.

When you're in a traffic gem, you pull up the phone.

When commuting, you pull up the phone.

Everything starts from either boredom or fantasy.

It's not unheard that the phone takes the majority of our time. For the most people, that is a bad behaviour, but we are here to discuss how our screen-time should indicate how better we become.

A phone can either be a highly productive tool or a destructive source of distraction, akin to a blacksmith shop. Think of it as you have the best resource on the planet, and still use it against yourself.

To continue with the analogy of a blacksmith shop, think about the materials used for craft something special and long-lasting. You can use wood, which is free, abundant and burns quickly. But everyone has access to it, so it doesn't have much value, plus it won't last that long. That's mindless scrolling or engaging with addictive apps.

On the other hand, you can build up skills over time and use gold, which is very precious and requires patience to craft. Plus, it's basically an ever-lasting item. This is the way you want to use the phone, to learn, discover and create.

Another advantage of using the phone these days compared to a blacksmith shop is the cost, which is mostly free. Using YouTube is free, using ChatGPT is free, using any social media platform is free. Population never had access to such an immense library and chance for education, and the reason why very few take advantage of it, is because it's something new.

My mom proved it the best when she baked at home Dubai chocolate. Where did she get the recipe? Of course from YouTube. That's how you don't get trapped into its algorithm: don't just consume, but also materialize or replicate what you consume.

Last time we talked about our primitive slave mind commands us to listen and execute orders rather than exploring and creating solutions for existing problems. Problems that have to be solved must be problems that other people are facing. This is why most of the content you consume solves nothing but your boredom.

Every hour matters, and you don't even know how many hours you have left.

Addictive dopamine activity

I'd say dopamine is the most important brain chemical that very few people produce through a healthy action. This is why people become addicted to vices like:

• drugs
• sugar
• porn
• smoking
• alcohol
• social media
• gambling

The more vices you have, the harder it is to reset your dopamine levels so you can start from scratch. I've been addicted for several years to all of the above, at the same time, excepting drugs and gambling.

In the past, I was lucky enough to stay around many people taking drugs, and instead of being tempted, I felt like to show compassion and understanding. Some of them recovered, but unfortunately most haven't.

The good news is anyone can start his life over, at the age, no matter how deep the soul is sinked into darkness. The bad news? It's gonna be a tough and long way. Don't lose hope, think of it positively, when you'll see the struggle you went through to reach greatness and freedom, you'll never want to go back.

When my health dramatically improved when I gave up on smoking, sugar and ultra-processed food, I was sure I will keep the new path.

When I felt more pleasure doing sex when I gave up on porn, it was easy to keep myself at distance from it.

When I started to hear my thoughts and have a clear mind again after I gave up on alcohol, it was a checkmate for it.

Giving up cannot be avoided. You either give up on freedom or vices.

It's alright if you feel inferior, as long that feeling is used with good intentions. When I first tried to quit smoking, every time I failed to shut my temptation down, I felt stupid, powerless. And that was ok, they were my first tries, and my goal was not to show me how I cannot quit, but how I can.

Could you go back in time and think of who were the authorities who punished you for failing or making mistakes? Teachers and family, this is how we grew up. We either did the homeworks and learned that one way or we were considered stupid. Not talking about how shameful it was.

Do you know what happens when you fail 50 times to succeed once? You learn 50 lessons that are going to make your future easier, plus the bonus of success. When failing, we don't need punishment, but encouragement.

We are indeed built to get better, but with a bad stimulation, we'll close ourselves off and let our primitive slave mind decide our life.

You have one person in this life who knows you best. Don't hesitate to ask what you need to change.

Luck is made by you. You are in control of your life, and the more you try, the more chances you have to succeed. Look at the math:

• 0 tries? 0 chances
• a few tries? a few chances
• many tries? many chances
• daily tries? daily chances

Just think how simple it is: just do the thing regardless how many times it fails. Most people lack patience nowadays, and that's all right, you don't need it if you take the following approach.

Focus on doing, not finishing. When you fail, adjust something. That way, fails count as wins.

This mindset works for a couple of reasons. First, you anchor yourself into present, not in the future, giving absolute control of what you are doing, not what you could be doing. Secondly, you get quick wins that get you stick to the process until it's done.

Think about a gym workout. If I'm focused on finishing it, I wouldn't be able to concentrate and give everything I got to every repetition. I'd just swing around some weights and that would be it. Instead, I'm always focused on doing the correct movement every time.

So, we have 2 things so far.

Learn something new by making mistakes. People who tolerate the frustration of failing are the ones who will succeed in everything they aim for.

Focus on the progress, while considering a failure as a step further when you adjust it. That way, it becomes easier and delightful to see step after step towards your goal.

A bad habit can help you get rid of another bad habit

I tried many times over many years to quit smoking.

I tried means I failed. Every single time.

But I've got better enough to understand what doesn't work for me. This is how I came up with another idea: every time I crave smoking, I open Instagram and just keep scrolling.

And it worked.. so good that I forgot about cigarettes but got absorbed into social media's dopamine trap. After one and a half year of hardcore Instagram usage, I decided to quit it as well.

I knew I had to do something similar, and this is how I bought my Kindle and started to read every time I craved scrolling on social media.

The difference was that reading was my first good habit that dragged me out of a bad one.

Read as much as you can. Try things from anyone else. Adjust. We are indeed different, but we need inspiration.

Until the next letter, I wish you success in everything you're up to!

— Gab