The thought occurred to me today that we do in fact have a great deal of control of our own destiny, we make the choice to gamble or to do some other activity. Yes it is a compulsion, and yes it is an addiction, but it is purely psychological. We can either choose to distance ourselves from our past gambling selves, by putting up blocks, having others manage our money, stop associating with gambling buddies, etc… or choose not to and allow the cycle to continue.
We all know we have a limited amount of time left on this planet, starting from today. What will we do with that time? Shall we spend it miserably regretting past failures? Shall we spend it secretly planning our next bet? Shall we get back on the treadmill of darkness that is gambling? When we are in a gambling frame of mind, it is so difficult for us to shut out all of these dark thoughts.
Or shall we set about doing what we can, however small, to make things better than they were yesterday? Every bit of work we do to make things a bit better for ourselves and our families is valuable and constructive and puts a bit more distance between us and what we were. Every plan or act of gambling is destructive and brings us back to what we were.
It’s almost like a gravitational force. The gambling gravitational force gets weaker as we move toward other constructive things and as time goes by. Less gambling thoughts and urges. Less preoccupation and scheming. Less feelings of not caring about current job, family, responsibilities. Less feeling like this life is pointless. Less guilt and shame. But it takes time and a lot of effort.
We have the power to make the right choice every day. Each gamble free day makes the choice a little bit easier.