Been working at it alone for a year, time to get help

I'd like to preface this by saying that I've never posted anything on a forum, ever, so I'm literally terrified right now.

I've been attempting NoFap on and off for almost a year at this point. I've tried many different things to try to make it past one week, but there's one thing I haven't yet tried - getting external support from fellow NoFappers. So here I am!

A bit of background. I'm 24. I work for a large corporation, but I don't really mind the corporate environment. I don't love my job, but it pays the bills and from time to time I get to work on cool stuff. My work ethic is on-and-off - I generally have a hard time sticking with one project for long periods of time, but I've been doing my best to improve on that. It's a lot like my attempts at NoFap in many ways.

My longest NoFap streak was around four or five days - I can't remember, it was a while ago. Generally I average around two days...

I've tried everything (at least that's what it feels like) - meditation, hobbies, exercise, improving my diet... I've a hard time sticking to these things consistently, so that's been difficult too. I've even tried taking it slow, one-commitment-at-a-time. I once dropped to just one minute of meditation daily as my only commitment (even excluding NoFap), and I wasn't even able to maintain that for more than a few days.

I don't know where to start anymore, and I'm sick of lurking on Reddit and trying to find a magic bullet. I know the benefits of NoFap are great - I've felt them the many times I've gotten past the 3-day mark. I'm sick of objectifying women, spending my Fridays in my apartment alone, doing my work like a zombie and neglecting my hobbies and passions.

I'm here, and I want to make a positive change in my life.

 

That sounds like a great idea!

I propose we do it this way, because you said you sometimes have trouble with commitments: we make a commitment to provide encouragement to someone on the newbie forums once per day (it can even be as simple as "good job") . This keeps it small and specific. And if you write more stuff in a day because you feel like it, good ! But you only need to do the minimum.

It's been shown that small and specific commitments over a long period of time have really positive effects on our perception of ourselves. Just remember not to think of yourself as "lazy" and "not doing enough" just because the habit is small. It's still infinitely more than nothing, and it's a positive action - nothing wrong with that! Eventually you'll derive a huge sense of value, and will develop a better mindset, simply from having repeated the small, positive habit over and over. Kind of like exercise is most effective when you do it consistently - same idea.

And if you miss a day or forget to post etc. remember to not be stressed about it - jump back on the next day! That's a trap I often fall into - I mess up and then I think it's then end of the world and then I "check out" for weeks at a time. I won't judge, I break commitments all the time. If you learn to get back on the bandwagon as soon as possible, you minimize the negative effects. This has helped me a lot with many of my commitment issues.

I'm making this commitment as of this post - I will encourage a newbie once per day, and if I miss a day I will jump back on the bandwagon as soon as possible. What do you think? You down with it ?