Perspective
A long while ago, a great warrior faced a situation which made it necessary for him to make a decision which insured his success on the battlefield.
He was about to send his armies against a powerful foe, whose men outnumbered his own.
He loaded his soldiers into boats, sailed to the enemy's country, unloaded soldiers and equipment, then gave the order to burn the ships that had carried them.
Addressing his men before the first battle, he said,
"You see the boats going up in smoke. That means that we cannot leave these shores alive unless we win! We now have no choice: we win— or we perish!
They won.
Every person who wins in any undertaking must be willing to burn his ships and cut all sources of retreat.
Napoleon Hill
Story
In middle school, I poured thousands of hours into video games.
Eventually, I came to a harsh truth:
It wasn't even zero sum.
It was negative sum.
Every aspect of my life degraded,
my mental state from raging and trash talk,
my physical body from junk food and ruined posture,
my social life was literally pixels on a screen.
there wasn't any real world leverage to be gained.
I remained the same person… only worse.
I would quit for a while but I always kept coming back.
The lurking of my untouched accounts,
the possible games and my stats;
And with that, the negatives all came back.
I reread that story. I burned my boats.
I deleted everything, every account, every save file.
Thousands of hours, gone in seconds.
No escape. No reset. No return.
The only way for me is forward.
So far, this decision has been very rewarding.
With my time and clarity reclaimed,
I am in the pursuit of actual leverage.
Become
Burn the boats.
The longer you're on the wrong train, the more expensive it is to get back home.
Remember, its who you become on the journey.