The ability to abstain is a superpower.

This isn’t the type of abstinence you are thinking about.

I’m talking about the ability to abstain from the little habits that can be become full blow obsessions. I’m not talking about drugs. I’m talking about everyday things.

Smart Phones. Email. Twitter. Facebook. The NFL. Instagram. Netflix bingeing. Reality television.

It’s often not about what our priorities are, but what are priorities aren’t.

Ask anyone what their priorities are and you’ll get the typical list.

Family. Work. Marriage. Faith.

But It’s the non-essential things we often prioritize that get into the way of our real priorities. For all the emphasis on the important things, like family and our marriage, we let things that shouldn’t be priorities get into the way.

Guilty as charged here. I’m the guy who has been guilty of prioritizing the NFL game that’s playing over my wife’s shoulder at the restaurant over the real conversation with my wife. I’m also the guy that’s been guilty of grabbing the phone at the same dinner to check hockey scores. We tell ourselves that it doesn’t matter, but they notice. No game is more important than quality time with your partner.

Priorities.

We all know this, yet we persist. I’d venture to guess the vast majority of us that find ourselves picking up that smart phone over and over are aware of it, yet we can’t resist that urge and the little dopamine hit that goes with it.

It’s a new year. Focus on resisting the little fix. Prioritize what is important, i.e., the list you would write when someone asked you what your priorities are. Need a little help doing it? I suggest Atomic Habits by James Clear. It’s a great read and has helped me on my journey to turn around a lot of these habits. I’m still a work in progress, but real progress has been made.

We can all learn to abstain from our digital urges in 2019.

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