Positive Addiction

Apparently it was William Glasser who coined the term ‘Positive Addiction’. This article would argue that such term is an oxymoron. I do not want to argue with the writer but here I pasted the six criteria that must be fulfilled for a person to have a positive addiction to an activity

1. It is something noncompetitive that you choose to do and you can devote approximately an hour per day;
2. It is possible for you to do it easily and it doesn’t take a good deal of mental effort to do it well;
3. You can do it alone or rarely with others but it does not depend upon others to do it;
4. You believe that it has some value (physical, mental, or spiritual) for you;
5. You believe that if you persist at it you will improve—but this is completely subjective—you need to be the only one who measures the improvement; and
6. The activity must have the quality that you can do it without criticizing yourself. If you can’t accept yourself during this time the activity will not be addicting (emphasis original).

I would argue that my routine run would meet all the above criteria. Again I do not have any interest with correctness of terminology. Nor I am now super happy that someone (Glasser) had coined this terminology but at least Glasser’s criteria provide a good way to distinguish healthy and pleasant activities from ones that are not

Of course I have to admit that I would be disappointed if ever I would deliberately miss any day for reasons such as being lazy (not me), weather (thanks God not in my place), sleepiness (I just run slower or shorter), schedule (I would just run earlier). It looks like my 365 days of exercise last year has become a habit that there nothing internally that would stop me from doing it.

This year I know that I would miss some days for some reasons. Too bad for that. But at least I know that this is outside my control and to the least it is still possible for me to some kind of activities to compensate. Not of equal intensity or duration but still not zero

I guess I have learned from the Stoic: “Some things are within our power, while others are not,” (Epictetus). I wish the world is not going to end too soon so that I would be able to do my extra miles in compensation of days that I missed my runs