When I first turned 21, I had a semi-addiction to poker.
I have always been kind of a loner and when I finally became legal, I found something that I could go do by myself that would kill a few hours of my time.
First, I will start off by saying that I have never been one to particularly favor house games because house games are rigged against the odds of the one betting.
What I mean by this is, the house always wins for a reason. Everything about the way casinos operate is designed to take your money and make them money - even down to programming the slot machines.
Poker is a little bit different.
While you are still gambling with poker, you are playing against other players, not the house.
Poker involves more time, patience, and skill for you to be able to win some money, as opposed to house games where everything is based off of odds and pure luck.
So, I am 21 years old, I find a new hobby, and I find myself going to play poker every weekend.
I will say, I am hands down not the best poker player in the world - I am mediocre at best. I understand the game enough to play my hand but in terms of developing actual strategy and understanding the intricacies of the game, forget about it.
I found myself going and playing poker every single weekend for about six months - I would win some weekends and lose others. All-in-all, I would say I broke even over the course of the six months I was playing.
One weekend I would win pretty big, and by big I mean maybe $1000 - I was not playing on the big blinds. Then, the following weekend I would lose everything I won the week prior.
After enough time of the back and forth between winning and losing, I woke up one day and decided that I needed to stop playing poker because I had no drive to learn how to be great at it - all I was going to do was keep going on that merry-go-round.
I haven't sat down at a poker table since...
One thing about me is that I have never truly had a problem quitting something that wasn't good for me.
I used to chew tobacco and I would be on and off with it for years. It wasn't hard me for me to stop doing it - I would just randomly get the urge to start doing it again a year or two later, then I would chew for a couple of months, quit, and then rinse and repeat.
I smoked weed religiously for five years straight every single day.
At first, marijuana was a sleeping aid because I have never been one to typically get what one would consider a full nights sleep - I had insomnia growing up and could never stay asleep.
Weed definitely helped me sleep through the night but I also found myself smoking more throughout the day which, in hindsight, I realize did nothing beneficial for me.
I used to smoke before every time I would go into the gym to workout for four years straight until it began to give me anxiety that I was going to hurt myself in the gym that day.
Once I began working with horses and running a ranch, I realized smoking weed didn't help my case at all - at least in terms of running the ranch.
There are many small little details one needs to take into account when they are caring for 50+ animals, while maintaining the property itself.
I found myself slipping on the small details as a result of the weed because I was not thinking clearly.
Something as simple as forgetting to give one of the 50+ horses their individualized supplement was enough to piss me off and force me to quit smoking weed.
The moral of the story is, I have never truly been a betting man.
I am at a point in my life now where the only thing that I am going to bet on is myself.
In order to bet on myself, I need to have a clear state of mind and clear focus on the desired outcome, so that I can continue to develop my plan as to how I am going to reach the desired outcome.
This is why in my blog post "Escape The Vices" (July 30, 2023), I talk about the various degenerate vices that a lot of men find themselves falling victim to in today's day-in-age.
Things like drinking, partying, gambling, porn, masturbation, etc. serve absolutely no benefit to you. In fact, every single one of these things impairs your ability to think critically and suppresses your ability to make good choices.
While these things may be considered "fun", every single one of them is a complete waste of time.
The dopamine rush you get from short-term gratification does nothing and will continue to do nothing to your benefit in the long run.
Drinking and partying will make you fat and unhealthy over a long enough time frame.
Gambling will make you poor if you go enough.
Porn and masturbation desensitizes you from actually being able to enjoy sex and appreciate genuine female beauty.
All of these things feel good in the moment and end up taking a fat shit on you in the long run.
If you are going to be a betting man, be a man that bets on himself. Betting on yourself is the only way to ensure that the odds are actually stacked in your favor.
Betting on yourself requires work and discipline over a long-term time horizon.
It is hard to stay disciplined at first because results in anything don't come immediately. Only focused work, discipline, consistency, and delayed gratification provide true genuine results.
There is a reason why so many people these days preach about going to the gym because going to the gym is one of the most efficient places to learn goal setting and genuine principles of success.
As a man, it is important to stay focused on things that actually matter - like becoming a good protector and provider for your wife and family for those who don't have families yet, or becoming a better protector and provider for those that do.
The short-term gratification you receive from degenerate behavior will do nothing but suppress your ability to find true peace in life.
Work hard, be diligent, have some self-respect, and for the love of God, stop being a fucking degenerate!!!