Today I was reflecting on the approach that I took to finding freedom. I was thinking about the principles and concepts that are discussed in James Clear’s book Atomic Habits, but primarily the concept of believing or even voting for yourself to be the kind of person that doesn’t look at porn. My case was a little different than most because I had already gotten to a point where I could go for a year at a time between looking at porn, so for me, I can more clearly see how the application of the concept had a big impact on my journey when I look at it in relation to me starting to believe that I could step into real freedom. For many years I believed the notion of, “Once an addict, always an addict” and it felt very comfortable to me. It almost provided me with a level of safety because it was the world I knew. However, when I was able to embrace the possibility of no longer being an addict, despite it being scary and unknown, I was able to start buying into the idea that real freedom was actually possible. It was an absolute game-changer for me. It didn’t fix everything, in fact, I was faced with new challenges, but I was now facing them as James Clear describes it, as “voting for myself” to become a new man. Its been interesting to examine my journey while reading Atomic Habits because I can see so many of the principles he explains. It’s also very interesting to compare and contrast the way he describes his principles vs the way they made sense to me. It gives me a new perspective with which to see myself and even helps me to simplify the way I can share with others.