Imagine for a moment that you could change your life to be whatever you wanted. Would you be rich? Would you live care-free with no worry or stress about money, work, or your family? Do you imagine yourself driving sports cars, eating lavish foods, taking exotic vacations, and freely traveling the world? Or perhaps something else?

These things may sound like wishful thinking, but the reality is that none of us knows for certain where this crazy thing called life can take us.

Some people have actually made their dreams come true. But if you feel that your dreams are not at all possible, then they will always be an unrealistic thing for you. Nothing will change unless you first change your mindset.

For example; in life we all will have struggle, we all will have problems. But the state of your mind will determine how well you will solve the problem, and how you react to it.

Most people have a broke mindset; so they just lay down and act like they are a victim. “I’m broke. I’m poor. I can’t do that. I just cant afford it.” is what they often say. Their disposition is fixed. They make an excuse, and quickly give up.

But people with a growth mindset act as a survivor; so they get up, shake it off, set goals to solve the problem and then make their dreams happen through hard work and determination.

A growth-oriented person never says, “I can’t afford it.” because they figure out how to raise the money they need, or they already have enough money saved & assets invested to do whatever they want. Making things happen is about setting goals, planning and hard work.

So let’s talk more about these two distinct kind of mindsets.

The broke mindset

People with a poor/broke mindset think that there are only winners and losers. So when you try to teach them finances or investing they don’t want to listen because if you are winning they think of themselves as losing!

So you must cautiously instruct them this way: “This is not my way, its just a better way.” Help them to see that we can ALL be winners.

The majority of people with a broke mindset are stuck in a debt cycle which prevents them from enjoying life more so. All that they know (and are willing to do) is continue to pay the minimum balance on their credit cards which keeps them broke and struggling for decades. They never learn to manage money right. And this in turn causes much more anxiety and stress in their life/marriage than there needs to be.

Signs of a broke mindset

• Wanting something for nothing
• Blaming others for your situation
• Wanting to get rich quick/not being patient
• Complaining about problems instead of fixing them
• Not willing to work/learn/invest anything
• Not willing to sacrifice time/money/energy today for a better tomorrow

This kind of person usually also has a “fixed” mindset, meaning they don’t want to learn, to grow, or to even change their situation. They don’t think that they can’t do any better so they just continue to settle for struggling.

Instead of getting up and fixing their problems they just sit around and complain about them. They say:

• I hate my job | Go find a new job, and don’t give up until you succeed.
• I can’t afford it | Build a side income/business so you can afford it.
• I don’t like living here | Get up and move somewhere else better.
• I don’t have enough money | Stop spending & raise your financial IQ.

All of the above-mentioned solutions on the right would present a situation of unknowns, so most people won’t do it. Most are too comfortable (in their current crappy situation) to put themselves in a perceivable worse outcome if they attempt to do something unknown. But this unknown is what those with a growth mindset would call opportunity.

The growth mindset

Having a growth mindset basically means seeking to better oneself through constant refinement and increased knowledge. You push yourself to reach the goals that make you the best version of yourself in the future.

If you have a growth mindset, there is so much to learn. You are expanding your horizons — by reading books, by exercising and by trying to learn new skills: marketing, coding, investing, automation, blockchain, etc.

There is so much to learn (and do) that could potentially benefit you in the future. But why do it?

Money is not the goal

The goal is not money. The goal is freedom. Those with a growth mindset recognize that real wealth (good health and meaningful relationships) and real assets (like time and your brain) are what enable you to constantly improve yourself (by learning) and then in turn to help others around you to also become successful. You are neither intimidated by successful people or selfish about your own achievements.

None of this has anything to do with money, but as you increase your productivity and knowledge, more money inherently follows.

Having a growth mindset (the belief that you are in control of your own ability, and can learn and improve) is the key to success. Yes, hard work, effort, and persistence are all important, but not as important as having that underlying belief that you are in control of your own destiny.

Quoted from skillsyouneed.com

Having a growth mindset is about improving your entire life.

When one has a growth mindset coupled with financial literacy you recognize that there is absolutely NO GOOD REASON for most people to be broke, poor and struggling. None.

Ignorance is never a good excuse. Nor is laziness. Yet, those two things are almost always the culprit for people who are poor. Poor people tend to act like they know it all already. They think they are just a victim of society, and they expect you (or the government) to pity them and provide for them. Even if this has been true to any degree, its not a good excuse to remain poor.

If your mindset is not about growth, you won’t want to learn anything new. You’ll say “That’s too hard.” or “I can’t do it.” Yes, those with a fixed mindset are stuck in the past, they cling to their previous misfortune, come up with lame excuses why they can’t do better and they impose limits on their own opportunities, by sticking to the way things have always been.

What to watch for:

People who you associate with can also have a huge impact upon the kind of mindset you will have. So be watchful of who you hang around with.

A growth mindset individual: reads daily, sets goals, eats healthy and tries to exercise, saves money, compliments others, is continuously learning, avoids all addictions, builds a side income in their spare time. Learn from this person.

A broke mindset individual: watches TV constantly, never sets goals, eats unhealthy food, accumulates debt, criticizes others, think they know it all, has addictions like smoking/alcohol/porn/sugar, and parties every night/weekend. Avoid this person and cut ties.

Additionally, filter everything that comes at you, (on the news, on TV and the internet) because if you don’t, you too will have a broke mindset, and you’ll end up like everybody else.

If you keep doing what the majority of people do, you’re gonna end up like the majority of people.

Jaspreet Singh, Minority Mindset

Why you should care

People with a broke mindset end up having a life that is a lot harder and more stressful than it needed to be, just because they limited themselves in their own mind instead of reaching for the enumerable opportunities all around us.

This is why there are people who began life struggling, and then they win the The Lottery, became millionaires but eventually end up right back where they started (broke and bankrupt) because of making bad choices and keeping “friends” who weren’t beneficial to them at all.

These people always had a poor mindset from day one, and never learned to have the growth mindset.

Remember, having a growth mindset means that you never stop learning. The greatest opportunities only come to a small minority of people who dare to think different. Changing your mindset is key.

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Disclaimer: This article was written for educational and entertainment purposes only. This is NOT financial advice. Always do your own research and please consult with a licensed attorney before making any serious investment. We are not responsible for any investment decisions that you choose to make.

Plastic is a brilliant invention. It has greatly contributed to our modern industrial revolution. No other material can come close to plastic in terms of mass production and flexibility in design.

Plastic is one of the easiest and cheapest ways to shape and mold parts and products into any form desired. But what is the problem?

The problem is that this miracle invention is everywhere. And there is SO MUCH of it, that it’s ruining the planet.

Plastic garbage is literally now in every ocean on earth. It’s not just the bags and straws, but even smaller particles of plastic debris that mostly go unnoticed. These cause even greater damage to the environment and to our bodies.

A recent scientific study has found that humans eat thousands of bits of tiny plastic particles every year. Even more shocking, they estimate that an average person could be ingesting approximately 5 grams of plastic per week. The equivalent of eating one whole credit card.

But the problem doesn’t just end there. The cost of using cheap plastic materials has tragic consequences for marine and animal life that most people take for granted.

Every single week, at least 100,000 marine animals and over 1 million sea birds are found dead entangled up in plastic waste. Many of those animals who survived were brutally injured from the plastic waste entering in their environment.

Plastic also comes off of the tires that we drive down roads^[b] and rain pushes this plastic into rivers, streams and oceans.

Microplastic particles find their way into the bellies of fish in the ocean, and when we eat those fish, the plastic then finds it’s way into our digestive system as well. And yet, even smaller Nanoplastic particles fall to the earth in rain drops, and scientists have even found them in vegetables as well. 

This is a huge problem and its out of control.

Buying bottled water?

Drinking water is how you clean your body from the inside, and we all should drink plenty of water to stay healthy. It’s best to drink purified/alkaline or john ellis water, but we DON’T recommend to drink water out of plastic bottles unless you also want toxins coming from the plastic to get inside of you.

The main problem with drinking out of plastic water bottles is that those bottles can leak Bisphenol-A (BPA) into the water, which is toxic. You might be thinking, “But my plastic is BPA-free” well, it’s now known that BPA-free products have merely replaced BPA with bisphenol-S (BPS) or bisphenol-F (BPF). And even small concentrations of BPS and BPF may disrupt the function of your cells in a way similar to BPA. Thus, BPA-free bottles may not be an adequate solution.

Yet, in spite of all the increased awareness, even if people stop buying plastic bottles, they continue to put food in plastic-wrap, styrofoam^[a], use plastic bags, drink from plastic cups, and eat with plastic plates, utensils & straws.

Everyone says that smoking and other things cause cancer, but nobody ever says anything about all the damage plastic is doing. Plastic is everywhere yet largely remains ignored.

What you can do

The first and easiest thing you can do is to eliminate plastic from your life as much as possible. Consider a few things.

Stop buying and using plastic as much as you can. This includes plastic cups, straws and bags. Use paper bags instead. Paper will decompose very fast (2-6 weeks) if exposed to the elements, so using paper bags from the grocery store should always be a preference.

Drink water from glass or stainless steel. Glass takes 1 million years to decompose, and metal is not biodegradable. So choose stainless steel or (even better) glass bottles to store your purified water. It’s also much cheaper if you buy purified water in 1 or 3-gallon glass jugs as opposed to a small 8-ounce plastic bottle from the store.

If you live in a first-world country, there are state & government programs paid to haul the plastic waste away. But it doesn’t just disappear, it just gets dumped somewhere else, (like a third-world country) and then it becomes someone else’s problem….

Recycling is not enough

Why is recycling not enough? Because:
1. — plastic bags and other odd shapes can’t be recycled, and
2. — much of that plastic will still end up in a landfill somewhere, or in the ocean.

Cheap packaging materials make huge profits for soft drink and industrial companies and so they will continue to sell their products in such harmful plastic packaging as long as consumers continue to buy them.

It’s bad enough that most sources of drinking water are contaminated with microplastics, but you can significantly reduce your exposure to plastic by avoiding buying it and not using it as much as possible.

To recap:

• AVOID: Plastic bags, Plastic water bottles, Plastic cups & straws
• USE: Paper bags, Reusable glass bottles, Ceramic/metal cups & silverware

Remember, if you are not avoiding plastic you are contributing to the problem. Share your thoughts on plastic in the comments below.

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Footnotes

[a] In 1941, Dow Chemical Company invented a proprietary process to make their trademarked and well-known polystyrene foam product, also called “styrofoam.”

Polystyrene (PS) plastic is a naturally transparent thermoplastic that is available as both a typical solid plastic as well in the (more commonly seen) rigid foam material.

Polystyrene contains the toxic substances Styrene and Benzene, suspected carcinogens and neurotoxins that are hazardous to humans. Hot foods and liquids actually start a partial breakdown of the Styrofoam, causing some toxins to be absorbed into our bloodstream and tissue. However many restaurants still put hot takeout (food-to-go) in a Styrofoam container.

[b] Tires today consist of about 19 percent natural rubber and 24 percent synthetic rubber, which is a plastic polymer. The rest is made up of metal and other compounds.

Although we loosely call them ‘rubber’, engineers really did reinvent the wheel. Vehicle tires are actually made from a complex blend of mostly synthetic materials and chemicals, including various types of plastic. 

The Standard American Diet (the SAD diet) is saturated in toxins.

Sweets are loaded with sugar. Snacks are loaded with salt. Meat is loaded with saturated fat. The fact is, you’re lucky if there are any nutrients left at all—most have been stripped away and replaced with a cocktail of chemicals that you can’t even pronounce. And you don’t have to take my word for it, just look at the ingredients!

Anything with bread and meat (hamburgers, hot dogs, pizza and pastries) seems like the staple of the American diet. But there is an old saying, we are what we eat. And it shows.

According to the CDC, a whopping 40% of Americans are obese, and over 50 million Americans are living with diabetes. Out of every 100,000 men and women, approximately 439 of them will be diagnosed with cancer.

Why are things like this?

There are many factors that can be attributed to all of this of craziness, but largely (no pun intended) it comes down to what we eat.

The food that everyone is eating

In most developed nations, cheap fast food is available in abundance, and we eat it constantly. We often gravitate towards foods that taste good, is cooked fast, and comes cheap.

We don’t eat to survive anymore, we aren’t even interested in the nutrients we need, because no foraging or hunting is necessary. It’s not about survival. We often eat just to satisfy our cravings for sugar, fat and salt. All you have to do is pull up to a drive-thru window.

The situation is no better when you shop for your own food.

When you walk into a grocery store and go up and down the aisles you will see rows and rows of products that are boxed, packaged, and wrapped in plastic. Almost everything is processed. And when you start reading the ingredients, pretty much all of it looks to be unhealthy in some way and this is a real problem.

Cheap food comes at a great cost

Companies that operate in the food industry are constantly seeking to raise their profits. They do this by keeping their prices competitive and using the cheapest ingredients possible. This is the only way that they can make food in bulk and also keep their prices low.

Sadly though, even the “organic” options that they give us often still source cheap ingredients (and GMOs) because many businesses are solely interested in increasing their profits. It seems like money is always the only thing that drives productivity. Profits always take precedence over human health for them and nothing will change unless consumers wake up and only start buying healthier options.

Every single time we eat, we are either fueling disease or feeding health. But we do have a choice. We can eat highly processed foods, or, we can eat whole/natural foods.

Ineffective food regulations

Even though the FDA in America requires food manufacturers to put nutrition labeling on the packaging of their food, it doesn’t strictly enforce the amounts of additives (like sugar salt) that gets put into such products.

Chemicals are added into the mix of ingredients to help processed food have a longer shelf-life, and at fast food restaurants, you can buy a hamburger as cheap as $1 dollar, whereas a salad might cost almost $5 dollars. Many families struggle financially to afford their necessities so naturally they will look for cheaper options.

The more flavor these foods have (usually provided from sugar, fat and salt) the more consumers seem to like them. The more sales these companies make, and the more wealthier a few executives at the very top become. But the majority of consumers suffer with poor health, a shorter life span, and diminished happiness as a result of poor nutrition.

So we cannot solely rely upon food regulations to get every single thing right.

Eating food is essential for human survival, but the food industry is primarily a business at its core, and they are out to make profits. And since selling of food for profit is something that won’t change any time soon, what can be done?

Rising above it

Consumers are often confused by all of the conflicting opinions about nutrition that some think EVERYTHING is bad. But the truth is, everything is not bad.

The healthiest foods that you can eat are the foods that come directly from nature: whole foods like fruits, vegetables, legumes, nuts, oats and grains. These foods don’t cause any adverse effects from eating them over a prolonged period of time. In fact quite the opposite is true; people lose weight, they have improved health, and may even live longer. These foods are packed with phytonutrients and antioxidants which nourish our bodies, and remove free radicals.

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FACTS

• No nutritionist in the world will ever say that eating fruits and vegetables is unhealthy.
• 90 percent of all cancers are due to poor diets that contribute to the growth of free radicals.
• Most diseases are NOT hereditary, it’s our habits that are hereditary. But habits can be changed.

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Changing how we eat also means we can educate ourselves about nutrition and then work hard to stick to a healthy diet. Many foods that taste extremely sweet or savory are that way because huge amounts of refined sugar and salt. Very little nutritional value. Additionally, foods with a lot of oil have too much fat, which is not healthy. Try to remember that.

Try to substitute a candy bar for some fruit. Replace a hamburger for oatmeal. Swap salty/oily snacks for grapes, nuts, or other kinds of berries. Think of your body like an investment for the future. Eventually your body will stop craving foods that offer little to no nutrition, and you’ll feel more energy and vigor from giving your body what it needs so it can run at peak performance.

It might be a bit more expensive to buy natural organic foods, but healthcare is also not cheap. So eat clean today, and save on hospital bills tomorrow. Good health to you!

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Additional Resources

• CDC – Obesity and Overweight Statistics
• Statistics from the National Cancer Institute
• Current Eating Patterns in the United States
• The Standard American Diet is Even Sadder Than We Thought

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Disclaimer: the information provided on this web site is for educational purposes only, and does not substitute for professional medical advice. The author of this blog is not a licensed dietitian or medical professional. Please consult with a licensed medical professional or healthcare provider if you are seeking medical advice, diagnoses, or treatment. We are not responsible for any decisions that you choose to make.

The statement that ‘everyone is an addict’ is not superficial. In today’s society unfortunately it’s true. Everyone is addicted to something.

Most addictions are culturally recognized as addictions, like smoking, recreational drug use or alcoholism. And beyond these, there are also more subtle addictions that most people don’t even consider to be addictions. What could those be?

To name a few: watching television, using the internet, social media, drinking coffee, eating sugar/junk food, online shopping, and using your smartphone. Find this hard to believe? When was the last time you went an entire day without using one or more of the aforementioned things?

Some of these things may not seem like addictions but believe me—if you withheld one or more of them from yourself for an extended period of time (like 1 or 2 weeks) the withdrawal symptoms you’d experience would feel very real.

So the title of this article is obviously an unpopular truth, but even more striking than that, here is another true statement that will rattle your brain:

ALL ADDICTIONS ARE BAD.

I’ll say it again. ALL addictions are bad. Even the ones that don’t seem so bad, like sugar and comfort.

By now you are probably wondering, “Why?”

Because any time you lose control of your own actions—regardless of how insignificant—you do something that you know is contrary to your own free will and personal well-being.

Naturally, everyone should be able to make choices which they know will bring themselves the most benefit. But addictions don’t allow you to do that.

So called “positive addictions” are just good habits. 

evolvingman.com

If you are engaging in, or taking in too much of something because of some internal compulsion to do so, but you’d rather not, then this action is detrimental to you in some way. It’s an addiction and it should be avoided. Yes, feeding the addiction may satisfy your immediate internal craving, but long term its causing damage to you.

For example,

Food addiction: People who eat so much food that it potentially harms their physical body, including their ability to walk, their ability to live long lives, their ability to get a date, etc. clearly lack self-control. Anyone who eats large quantities despite knowing that fatness can/does have negative effects is addicted to a certain degree.

Caffeine addiction: Withdrawal headaches and irritability are a sign you’re not doing something good for your body. The addiction would also limit wilderness expeditions or enjoying a culture that doesn’t drink caffeine.

Sex addiction: Sex addicts depersonalize sexual intimacy and compulsively desire sex itself (or pornography) without love/intimacy, which limits their ability to have meaningful sexual relationships.

Addictions make you push aside self-control, sound judgement, rational thinking, and they cause you to act and behave in a way that you would prefer not to, and if you had the self-control, you would choose to do otherwise.

To add to this issue, unfortunately in today’s world there are many external forces (including corporations that market addictive products and services) that come directly at you constantly trying to compete for control over your decision-making and habits. These external forces pull on you for your time and attention, they excite your senses, alter your perception, and get you to do what they want. Yes, some corporations today are intentionally conditioning people to not only become addicted, but to accept these addictions and behaviors as normal.

We will discuss some of these in more detail, but first we need to understand the true nature of addiction.

Types of addiction

There are three main types of addiction.

• Chemical addictions, (smoking, alcohol, drug abuse) these are obviously bad because they alter your internal biological state or brain chemistry in a way that gives you immediate pleasure, but long term pain.

• Behavioral addictions, (gambling, eating, sex, shopping) these are just like it sounds: an addiction to a certain behavior. The dopamine reward system in your brain exists so it can reinforce positive behaviors. The problem is that it doesn’t distinguish between healthy and unhealthy ones.

• Conceptual addictions, (attachments to people or objects) these are often not recognized as bad because these seem “normal”. All of your friends are doing this or buying that, and often these kinds of addictions are so subtle and abstract that they can actually seem good for you because these are accepted by your peers. These addictions can linger for years and years and you never even notice that there is a problem.

It’s easy to rationalize some conceptual addictions as being good, since they seem normal, whereas with chemical addictions (drugs/alcohol) you will feel bad as a result of these wearing off so it’s easy to associate these ones as being bad. But in reality, they are all bad.

Ready for some specific examples? Lets dive in.

Misguided desire for love

Most people in society are supportive of “romantic love” when they see it, and this acceptance of it is also expected of them, but sometimes what people see in public is not the same as what goes on behind closed doors.

This woman who appears to be madly in love, is actually trapped in a toxic/abusive relationship with a controlling tyrant. Instead of facing the reality of her situation, she is addicted to the concept of being in love, and feels that she needs to get the approval of her man. So much so that she just cannot break away from this bad relationship. She cannot fathom what life would be like without having someone in her life, and she thinks she needs this kind of man.

Whats worse, even if/when she does breakup, she keeps coming back to awful relationships just like this one. Again and again, repeating the same cycle. Always being attracted to the same kind of man, which always ends up with the same inevitable outcome. Yet, even if the abusive relationship ends, there are usually withdrawal symptoms, sometimes severe. Just like every other addiction.

NOTE- Please do not misunderstand. I’m not saying don’t ever get married or fall in love. What I’m saying to use your head before listening to your heart. If your partner is abusive, that’s not real love. Get help, and tell someone you trust.

Dopamine Deficiency

Most people already know that using social media can be addictive, but they may not understand how, or why this addiction is harmful.

When a person posts a picture online and gets positive social feedback from others, it stimulates the brain to release a chemical called dopamine, which rewards that behavior. Dopamine plays a role in how we feel pleasure. Naturally, this elicits even more reward-seeking behavior in us. We crave more, so we post even more pictures, send more likes, and make more comments.

We humans are social creatures, and we need emotional support from others to be happy. So what’s the issue here?

You see, dopamine does more than just give you a feeling of pleasure, it also affects many parts of your behavior and physical function such as: Learning, Motivation, Heart rate, Blood vessel function, Kidney function, Lactation, Sleep, Mood, Attention and so on.

If you fiddle with brain chemistry, it can lead to a chemical imbalance; such as dopamine deficiency, which has symptoms that include depression, disturbed sleep, apathy, and no motivation in life.

Too much or too little [of dopamine] can lead to a vast range of health issues.

WebMD

Have you ever wondered why you feel anxious and jittery any time your phone is not within an arms reach? Do you also feel that way every time your phone makes a beep, buzz or bloop? The urge to instantly grab your phone is almost impossible to ignore, like a drug addict who is craving his next hit. That’s your brain craving that next rush of dopamine. And it is far worse if you are constantly getting comments and likes from social media platforms that are designed to be addictive by nature.

These apps create a “look at me” culture of insecurity in people when they feel others ignore them or don’t pay attention to their posts. The companies that build these social media apps want your eyes and attention on their ads as much as possible, so they exploit of this aspect of human nature to keep you addicted and coming back.

Remember the days when people used to strike up conversations with total strangers on the bus and at the train station just to talk?

Back in those days people understood that inside another human brain is a lifetime of memories, interesting stories and layers of complexity. You can tap into some of that by just communicating with a stranger. But no one does this anymore. No one has time to show personal interest in the well-being of their fellow man/neighbor anymore because there is so much to do and see on their smartphone.

Who has time to be polite and courteous to strangers when your twitter feed never stops blowing up? Who wants to hear another persons voice and look into their eyes when you can simply send a quick text message and then go back to watching cat videos?

This shift is human social behavior seems to have happened so gradually that many haven’t even noticed it. But that’s how addiction usually begins.

The good news is that you can gradually reduce your dopamine intake. Turn off your phones social media notifications. And if possible, delete social media apps like Facebook and Twitter.

Never enough sugar

Research conducted by scientists on lab rats has found that sugar is even more addictive than opioid drugs like cocaine, and that there can be real withdrawal symptoms such as depression and behavioral problems when people try cutting out sugar completely.

The Global Industrial Sugar Market is expected to reach $45.6 billion dollars by the year 2027, in terms of value at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 6.5% from 2020-2027.

Clearly, the addiction is real. People just can’t get enough of this refined white sugar and also fake sugar substitutes.

But is sugar really all that bad?

Eating refined sugar does nothing good for your health. There are no vitamins or nutrients AT ALL in sugar to keep people healthy. All it does is excite your sense of taste, contribute to tooth decay and give you a short burst of energy from eating the calories in sugar. Naturally, people become addicted to this rush of energy and sweet flavor, and they begin to feel that they need a ever-increasing dosage of sugar just to get moving.

There is new evidence that suggests that sugar may not be the cause of diabetes, but even so, after a person’s sugar rush wears off, they usually crash—feeling tired/hungry all over again, and once again they reach for even more sugar.

No one needs to eat white refined sugar for energy. The human body is designed to break down carbohydrates for energy. This can be starchy vegetables like beans, corn, lentils, peas and potatoes.

Settling for Comfort

This one may seem unusual, but comfort is probably one of the most dangerous addictions that there is. But why is comfort an addiction?

Because it feels good.

Nobody wants to be cold. Nobody wants to exercise hard. Nobody wants to try a restrictive diet. Most people would rather choose comfort instead. Most people just want to click a button (or swallow a pill) and have all their needs instantly satisfied, but the reality is that growth happens with discomfort, with struggle, with learning, and with pushing yourself to do what others fear.

• This is why some people would rather sit at home on the couch and watch the Discovery Channel instead of actually flying to Africa and going on a real African Safari tour, even if they had the opportunity.

• This is why some people would rather settle for staying at a job that they hate for years instead of taking a risk to find something better. They’re too comfortable in their current crappy situation to put themselves in a perceivable worse outcome (the unknown).

Addiction to comfort also gets harder to break out of as you begin to grow older. The older you get, the more deeply embedded you become in your current lifestyle. Your habits solidify. Your beliefs harden. You get in a routine. And then you won’t want to change at all.

Comfort makes people turn on the television and turn off the passion that they once had, the goals they worked hard for, and the amazing things they wanted to do when they were younger.

Comfort allows you to just accept what life has dealt you, instead of pushing yourself hard to obtain the kind of life that you dream about and wish you had.

When you choose comfort, you find an excuse not to take action, because its easier to just be a loser. And many people today have chosen to be soft and lazy due to all the comfort and conveniences of this so-called modern life. But its only through challenges, effort and endurance that people can grow stronger, and become more than what they are now.

Instead of always seeking to be entertained, use your brain to be creative and productive. Learn a new language or skill, volunteer to help those in need, build a side hustle or start a business. You’ll find that the rewards are much better than anything television can offer.

Work-life imbalance

Last but not least, many companies use the term, “work-life balance”, but is it really being balanced if some of their employees compulsively keep working outside of work hours, in their personal life and while they take vacation as well? Whether people are willing to admit it or not, being a workaholic is definitely an addiction for some.

People today are becoming more and more disconnected with one another because they spend so much time with their face glued to a screen. There is an ever-increasing addiction to depend upon technology for everything. What this does is waste precious time, creates insecurities, and makes people less efficient at real communication.

Outside of work, many people also heavily rely upon technology to provide much of their entertainment as well. Your friends all expect you to have high-speed internet, Netflix, and the latest iPhone. Television, the internet, video games, and digital music stream constantly. Having all these things brings you a measure of happiness, so conceptually, there is nothing wrong with them. But are you addicted to them? Most people would say no. But lets think deeply about this….

If you wake up every morning and the very first thing you do (before you urinate) is reach for your cell phone, I’d call that an addiction. If you feel depressed/sad and anxious without access to the internet or your mobile device, I’d consider that an addiction too.

Taking back control

Addictions are real and we all have them. And they can be detrimental to us if left unchecked. If you don’t fight your addictions as often and as best as you can, the consequences can be tragic. Addictions can turn your mind, body, and life into something you don’t want it to be.

If any of the above-mentioned examples is you, take notice of your habits. And make small steps to reduce these, such as:

• Regularly taking walks outside without any devices on you,
• Limit technology usage indoors when you don’t need it,
• turn off all non-essential notifications on your phone,
• don’t eat refined sugar/fake sugar or white salt, and
• leave work at the office when you go home.

Remember, it’s important for you to recognize emerging addictions before they grab hold of you, and decide early if you will allow it or push it away. The choices you make can have a huge impact upon how you spend a big portion of your time and your future. So make good choices. You can do it!

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Additional Resources

• Healthline: What is Addiction?
• The Acceleration of Addictiveness
• WebMD: What Is Dopamine?
• NHH: Is Sugar More Addictive Than Cocaine
• The Recovery Village: Overcome Your Addiction
• The Difference Between Good And Bad Addictions
• News story: Man divorces his wife because of her addiction to Jigsaw puzzles
• Brain anatomy alterations associated with Social Networking Site (SNS) addiction

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Disclaimer: This article was written for educational and entertainment purposes only. The author is not a psychotherapist or licensed counselor. We are not responsible for any decisions that you choose to make. On the internet there are various resources that will advise you on how to overcome addictions of various kinds, and there are support groups designed to assist people with some of the most chronic of addictions. If you stumbled upon this article because you feel you need help, check out some of the additional resources.