Cold Turkey


Blog / Wednesday, February 1st, 2017

If I’m going to quit something, the best method for me has always been going cold turkey. Late high school and on into early college I was hooked on World of Warcraft. I played it quite a bit, but it didn’t take over my life. Regardless, I was spending a lot of time and a lot of money to keep the habit going. Then one day, I decided to just stop and I haven’t been back since.

Same thing happened in Peace Corps when I decided I no longer needed Facebook to function. I said my goodbyes and then I was done. No looking back. The finality of it made it easier somehow. 

It’s like a break up; you can try to be friends after it’s over but it never works out the way you want. You either realize you could never stand to actually be without the person or you slowly fade away from them. Too much risk of a relapse. Going cold turkey takes out that possibility of a relapse for me. I have too much pride to go back on what I said I was going to do.

More recently, I was hooked on a Star Wars game for my phone. I kept playing it even though I was getting bored of it. They have the game set up so there are incentives to keep coming back each day. And I did. It got me no where. That’s why I decided that come the end of January, I’d quit it cold turkey. No hard feelings and no looking back. And nine hours into February, I have no regrets.

What works best for you to quit bad habits?

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