Weekly Hello! #22 — Addiction vs Commitment!

As I broach this highly nuanced and complex subject, I am painfully aware that it is at 11:11PM on a Sunday evening, following a vodka and whiskey-fueled visit to an acquaintance's home. So please mind how I might flatten this subject.

Before writing this entry, I'd just begun reading an excerpt from The Daily Stoic, partly because I'm committed to a daily reading habit, but mostly because I'm addicted to maintaining a streak for the things I choose. This has mostly bore fruit, but it has at times, many times, disallowed me rest when it was the most important activity could be performing, including for the past 2 weeks as I suffered from H1N1, and yet I took close to zero sick leave.
Thus I had to ask myself, what harmless commitments in my life would be better regarded as addictions? Here's the passage:

We must give up many things to which we are addicted, considering them to be good. Other-wise, courage will vanish, which should continually test itself.

Greatness of soul will be lost, which can't stand out unless it disdains as petty what the mob regards as most desirable.

— SENECA, MORAL LETTERS, 74.12b-13

I know, I know,  a bit dense and stoic. Ryan Holiday phrases it in a very accessible way:

The little compulsions and drives we have not only chip away at our freedom and sovereignty, they cloud our clarity. We think we’re in control—but are we really?

As one addict put it, addiction is when we’ve “lost the freedom to abstain.” Let us reclaim that freedom.

At which point do little commitments and indulgences become our authors? When does it begin to matter? What must we then do? Should I continue to refuse to sleep till I complete writing my weekly newsletter? When I succeed, what have I accomplished? Is it commitment or simply another addiction?

Maybe I'm overthinking things? What I know is, I don't want to exchange one prison for another, even if this new prison is lined with marble and gold. A life driven by compulsions is a poor life by most measures, and what I seek is freedom.

Okay, talk to you soon. Be you, be great! 👋🏽