Tired of Resetting? The Answer is - RESOLUTION

What's up Fapstronauts!

I've been there. Addiction has bullied me into submission since I lit my first cigarette at the age of 11, had my first orgasm watching soft porn at the age of 12, got drunk for the first time at age 13 and got stoned later the same year!!! This later led to experimenting with LSD/Acid, Magic Mushrooms and a severe addiction to Marijuana, Alcohol, Cocaine, Ketamine, Extacy including police arrests and rehabs, overdosing and ending up in the emergency unit of the hospital numerous times - blah blah blah! Today, I'm a 25 year old Management Consultant doing a Masters degree in Strategy who is financially independent and is 100% clean of substances including cigarettes and nicotine.

I know how hard it is to walk away from addictions, I've been doing it for the last five years while college/university degrees and keeping jobs! There is only one remaining; fapping... and I know it is without a doubt one of the hardest... oh man it is a beast and by no means to be underestimated - it will test everything you have. I don't remember how many times I wondered what it would take to free me from the clutches of the addiction to masturbation. I have failed over and over and over again in many of addictions to substances and drugs but not as much as I have in this department - I am with you Fapstronauts! Whenever I am trying to overcome something there is a piece I read by James Allen called Resolution and I thought some of you would benefit from it too, I hope it helps you to get Resolved (we're tired of resetting, we're tired of letting ourselves down, we're tired of living up to 10% of our potential!!!). Enjoy:

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Chapter 16. Resolution by James Allen (in Above Life's Turmoil)

When a man makes a resolution, it means that he is dissatisfied with his condition, and is commencing to take himself in hand with a view to producing a better piece of workmanship out of the mental materials of which his character and life are composed, and in so far as he is true to his resolution he will succeed in accomplishing his purpose.

To arrive at the fixed determination to walk a higher path than heretofore, although it reveals the great difficulties which have to be surmounted, it yet makes possible the treading of that path, and illuminates its dark places with the golden halo of success.

The true resolution is the crisis of long thought, protracted struggle, or fervent but unsatisfied aspiration. It is no light thing, no whimsical impulse or vague desire, but a solemn and irrevocable determination not to rest nor cease from effort until the high purpose which is held in view is fully accomplished.

Half-hearted and premature resolution is no resolution at all, and is shattered at the first difficulty.

A man should be slow to form a resolution. He should searchingly examine his position and take into consideration every circumstance and difficulty connected with his decision, and should be fully prepared to meet them. He should be sure that he completely understands the nature of his resolution, that his mind is finally made up, and that he is without fear and doubt in the matter. With the mind thus prepared, the resolution that is formed will not be departed from, and by the aid of it a man will, in due time, accomplish his strong purpose.

Hasty resolutions are futile.

The mind must be fortified to endure.

Immediately the resolution to walk a higher path is made, temptation and trial begin. Men have found that no sooner have they decided to lead a truer and nobler life than they have been overwhelmed with such a torrent of new temptations and difficulties as make their position almost unendurable, and many men, because of this, relinquish their resolution.

But these temptations and trials are a necessary part of the work of regeneration upon which the man has decided and must be hailed as friends and met with courage if the resolution is to do its work. For what is the real nature of a resolution? Is it not the sudden checking of a particular stream of conduct, and the endeavour to open up an entirely new channel? Think of an engineer who decides to turn the course of a powerfully running stream or river in another direction. He must first cut his new channel, and must take every precaution to avoid failure in the carrying out of his undertaking. But when he comes to the all-important task of directing the stream into its new channel, then the flowing force, which for ages has steadily pursued its accustomed course, becomes refractory, and all the patience and care and skill of the engineer will be required for the successful completion of the work. It is even so with the man who determines to turn his course of conduct in another and higher direction. Having prepared his mind, which is the cutting of a new channel, he then proceeds to the work of redirecting his mental forces - which have hitherto flowed on uninterruptedly - into the new course. Immediately this is attempted, the arrested energy begins to assert itself in the form of powerful temptations and trials hitherto unknown and unencountered. And this is exactly as it should be; it is the law; and the same law that is in the water is in the mind. No man can improve upon the established law of things, but he can learn to understand the law instead of complaining, and wishing things were different. The man who understands all that is involved in the regeneration of his mind will ―glory in tribulations,knowing that only by passing through them can he gain strength, obtain purity of heart, and arrive at peace. And as the engineer at last (perhaps after many mistakes and failures) succeeds in getting the stream to flow on peacefully in the broader and better channel, and the turbulence of the water is spent, and all dams can be removed, so the man of resolution at last succeeds in directing his thoughts and acts into the better and nobler way to which he aspires, and temptations and trials give place to steadfast strength and settled peace.

He whose life is not in harmony with his conscience and who is anxious to remedy his mind and conduct in a particular direction, let him first mature his purpose by earnest thought and self-examination, and having arrived at a final conclusion, let him frame his resolution, and having done so let him not swerve from it, let him remain true to his decision under all circumstances, and he cannot fail to achieve his good purpose; for the Great Law ever shields and protects him who, no matter how deep his sins, or how great and many his failures and mistakes, has, deep in his heart, resolved upon the finding of a better way, and every obstacle must at last give way before a matured and unshaken resolution.

End of Chapter 16. Resolution by James Allen (in Above Life's Turmoil)
www.jamesallenwisdom.com (or just Google him, all his works are FREE)

 

Sure Welmwerth! I'm glad you're self-reflecting. Some people go through their whole lives without ever being really honest with themselves about; their potential, their fears, their confusion, their weaknesses, their strengths, their purpose.

All the best to you too on this journey... You're not alone, we're in this together and persistence, even in the face of massive failure is key! Keep it up.