Will things get better if I stop gambling?

Life is not fair.
Life is not easy.

Many people think that once they stop gambling…all of their pain will just go away…

The fact is…life was probably not a bed of roses BEFORE we started gambling..so why should it be when we stop?

Besides…

There are likely consequences to be faced….these things do not just go away.

BUT

I KNOW..for a FACT…that if I had stopped gambling two months before I did stop….things wouldn’t have been as bad….and if I had stopped gambling six months before that…things would have been quite a bit better….or even six months before THAT…wouldn’t THAT have been nice.

The thing is…when we stop gambling…it doesn’t necessarily FEEL better….sometimes it feels like CRAP. Well…it does for some people…I have experienced it both ways…the first time I stopped gambling I did NOT feel better…my WORLD was crashing in..and I was sometimes resentful that I was doing the RIGHT THING…and I WASN’t gambling…yet…I was still being punished (consequences).

This time…well…my whole gambling experience was different this time..including how and why I stopped..but this time…I just felt RELIEF…and after a few days…once I realized I had broken free…JOY…I was…well…it’s not easy to describe…and I suppose it’s not necessary…one either stops gambling and has that experience or stops gambling and does not.

But…

When I stopped gambling BOTH times…things began to get better….even when it is still painful….we are suffering the consequences from what we’ve done…we aren’t creating NEW consequences….we aren’t making things any worse.

These consequences are hard to face…it’s scary. The debt…what we’ve done to our relationships….how we’ve abandoned our principles…often…we do not even know who we are anymore…what do we like to do? How can we fill our time if we don’t gamble? We’ve been consumed by it…to the exclusion of everything else…so stopping gambling leaves a vacuum ….we have to figure out how to fill it…
We have to sit down…look at our debt…make a plan…we have to get responsible..we have to do a lot of cr*p that we just do NOT want to do.

If we don’t….

Six months from now…we will be wishing we had.

And if we DO….we will still have moments…days when we feel overwhelmed…times when we are angry, sad or afraid…but

Things WILL begin to improve…slowly….if we begin to change the way we THINK…and the way we live.

It may take time for things to get better….but….if we do not gamble…and things will be better in three months…or six months or five years……we might say I cannot do this…that’s too long.

The thing is….three months…or six months…or five years is going to pass anyway…and right now…we can choose if things will be better then…or not.

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Nothing can stop the man with the right mental attitude from achieving his goal; nothing on earth can help the man with the wrong mental attitude. --Thomas Jefferson