Where The Cellphone Sleeps :
Overnighting my phone on the kitchen table was a good habit I’ve recently resurrected.
When I went from October 2019 to January 2022 without watching porn it was a measure I instituted, daily, from the 2020 lockdowns when those urges born of loneliness were there – a practice I held to for about a year and a half – a practice that made the vice impossible to immediately hit (watch), as the paraphernalia (cellphone aka witchbrick) was not readily within arms reach.
I use drug terminology in relation to porn purposefully.
Holding to a positive regimen is easier when you set things up in a way that the temptations are more difficult to access.
As often as possible, instead of testing your willpower, simply be away from the temptation.
Penance :
This is the 6th year in which I’ve felt “if I cave, I shave”, and held rigidly to the sentiment.
It is a discipline challenge I’ve held to without exception.
Over time it varied, nay, gained stipulations.
It changed from shaving after watching porn to shaving 24+ hours after watching porn to signify a new day, a new start, a new period – A NEW ERA
At some point “with a fresh new razor” was too added.
You’d find me shaving at odd times throughout the day, basically asap, whether this was when the 24+ hours later was yet implemented or not, because I want my awesome thick red beard back AS SOON AS POSSIBLE.
Another stipulation, one I have not kept to without exception…
30 days, you go 30 days of discipline, of penance, without shaping, trimming, neatening, straightening up, or establishing lines.
I know where to establish the beard line. I’ve been shaving since 7th grade, growing a beard since 11th. I could establish that line as early as day 3 on the undergrowth…
But the discipline, the penance is to go 30 days…
So I’m going 30 days, not touching it once…
And this time another stipulation has been added –
nor am I buzzing my scalp in this period.
It’s gonna look real bummy before I look real good, and I may end up going 40 for the biblical connotation vs the 30 I initially expected.
What is another 10 days?
Persistence & Tenacity