When you think of positive addiction, you probably just hear the word ‘addiction’, which has a very negative tone to it. I have had many negative addictions in my life, as I’m sure many of you have.
Negative addictions can be:
- Smoking
- Gambling
- Drugs
- Overeating
- Eating too little
- Not exercising enough
- Dating chaotic people
But it can also be other things such as living a life with constant stress, worry, and anxiety.
A negative addiction is something that has adverse consequences on your life.
What Is A Positive Addiction?
A positive addiction is the opposite of a negative addiction. It’s not about being addicted to something where it affects your life negatively, even if it seems positive because that would still make it a negative addiction.
For instance, if you are addicted to eating broccoli, and it impacts your life negatively in some way, then broccoli would be a negative addiction.
A positive addiction is anything that improves your life and makes you stronger, more confident, happier, or healthier.
For instance, yoga, meditation, visiting with good friends, taking personal development courses, and treating people wtih kindness could all be considered positive addictions.
I really started to implement positive addictions into my life after reading the Philosophers Note on Positive Addiction By William Glasser.
I happened to read this at a time that I was incorporating a new diet (as in healthier eating) into my life. I was grumpy that day in regards to the diet, and I was starting to question whether I was going to be able to handle a change in a diet or not. After reading the note, I spent the rest of the day (and every day since) addicted to my new, healthier lifestyle. And, it has affected many other areas of my life, such as my motivation and relationships.
That’s something you learn in Lifebook when you take a look at your entire life: when you make a positive change in one area of your life, it affects every area of your life.
I personally think of a positive addiction as a change in habits. Instead of sitting on the couch (negative addiction), you start exercising every once in a while (positive addiction).
3 Ways A Positive Addiction Can Impact Your Life
1. It Can Keep You Motivated To Achieve Your Goals
A positive addiction, such as being addicted to finishing your goals for the day, can keep you motivated, which will ultimately help you achieve your goals.
It is not enough to know that you should finish your goals for the day. You have to become addicted to the high you get when you finish off your day knowing that you have achieved what you wanted to achieve. That high will motivate you to do it again and again.
2. You Benefit Other People
When you do positive things, you affect not only yourself but the people around you as well. Your mood, attitude, and habits directly influence people you come into contact with throughout your day, both intimately and non-intimately.
Also, when you become aware of what makes you happy, you start to see that making other people happy is a very direct route to feeling good yourself. This causes you to be more respectful of other people and do things for them that you might not otherwise do.
In short, because your energy is always influencing others in some way, having a positive addiction that makes your life better will help you influence other people in a positive way.
3. Reduce Stress
When you do things that are good for you, stress shrinks away and is replaced by confidence. For instance, when I stopped viewing my healthy eating as a hard way of life and accepted it is a positive addiction that would benefit my life, my stress towards the lifestyle disappeared.
That stress affected other things in my life negatively, such as my writing and motivation, which in turn made me more stressed out. Therefore, the vicious cycle of stress was softened just by resolving one stressful issue in my life.
Try Positive Addiction On For Size
Even if you are unsure about it, because of the stigma ‘addiction’ brings, why not give it a try. Find something small that you think would make you feel good, such as sitting for 15 minutes in nature every day or talking to your partner about your life and connection on a deeper level, and then get addicted to it.
How To Become Addicted
Remember, I’m really just talking about adding good habits into your life that you do consistently every day or close to that. Therefore, develop your addiction like you would a habit!
1. Commit To It: Write down the positive addiction you want to develop and commit to it on paper or online. Write it down so that you can see your commitment to your goal of developing this addiction and why it’s so positive for you and your life, and your mind will automatically move it up on the ‘importance’ scale.
2. Do It Every Day: You have to train yourself to do your new addiction every day. It has to become a part of your life like brushing your teeth or watching TV before bed. Even if you don’t feel like doing it, make sure you do it at least once a day for the first 2 months. It can take an average of 66 days to form a new habit [Source], so don’t get discouraged if it doesn’t stick within the first few weeks. You can even use a goal setting software like Goals on Track to remind you of the habit you want to develop and keep track of it – that’s what I do!
3. Talk About How Great It Is: I recommend blabbing about your new positive addiction to the people who give a crap, like family or friends. Or get online and talk with other people who are already addicted to something you want to be addicted to. Thinking about it is great and helps you reinforce how important it is. But talking about it really helps drive home the message to your brain that you are finding this addiction awesome.
