No self control? No problem!

Background:

So, like many lurkers here, I really like the positive message of this subreddit. I like reading other people's "I can do it" messages, as they gave me hope. Coupled with the fact that I recently got dumped, I decided to use that as a turn around point. Before that, I was a compulsive planner. Every few weeks/months/whatever, I'd sit down, and say, okay, starting on an arbitrary date (Here's looking at you 11/11/11), I'll start doing x and y. Needless to say, it failed miserably every.single.time. This time, I decided to do things differently, however. Knowing my short comings, I sat in my room for a weekend, contemplating a method that would actually work. And this is what I came up with:

What if life was like a video game?

I thought about the Sims, at first. And I tried to imagine that an invisible giant was clicking on things for me to do, but that requires an imagination beyond my scope, regardless of how fun it might have sounded at first. And then, I remembered how addictive video games are. Namely, RPGs. And yes, I see the motivationRPG on the sidebar, but I've never bothered signing up. RPGs are addictive because they reward you with arbitrary points that allow you to "upgrade", loosely speaking. And that's what I did.

I first decided the categories of points I would get: Passion, Motivation, Confidence, Independence, etc... I defined what each of those meant for me, and how I would award myself points for them. Let's take Passion for example. Passion, for me, was something I enjoyed doing that would make me better (ie, not reddit), such as painting, drawing, reading, playing an instrument. Basically, it was a constructive hobby. For every hour I spent indulging in such a way, I would get a point.

Every point is recorded in my planner, and the best part is, the points are completely worthless! But they are, nonetheless, a reminded of my small victories, and a drive to accumulate more and more points. It might seem stupid to some people with self control, but for the rest of us, I hope this helps!