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title: Temptation
date: 2025-11-20
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published: false
tags: []
---

At the time of writing this, I have been dieting for over a year. When you are on a diet, you have to learn to resist the **temptation** to overeat or eat stuff that is bad for you. Same thing with being on a budget; you must not give into the **temptation** to overspend. 

I have learned that the secret to resisting temptation is to implements systems to keep temptations away from you. Let me use the example of being addicted to candy. The first system I implemented is to not buy candy to keep around the house. That way, the only time I can fail is if I'm out. After Halloween, I slipped up and stocked up on candy. The next system I have is that my wife get mad at me if she sees me eating candy, and my son gets jealous and freaks out. This limits my candy eating to only when they're not around. The next system is that I brush my teeth immediately after dinner, which makes it *inconvenient* to eat candy through the night. 

Lord's Prayer says "lead us not into temptation...". It does not say "give us temperance against temptation"; it says to keep us away from it. While discipline and temperance are important virtues, you'll find much more success in erecting barriers between yourself and your vices.

Another example is doom scrolling. The first system I use is to always use Do Not Disturb mode (with exceptions for all phone calls), so that my phone does not summon my attention when I am content without it. The next system I use is app timers, Blocksite, and cosmetic uBlock Origin filters to make it inconvenient to access problematic websites. (You can find my uBlock Origin filters [here](https://git.jimlab.io/jim/ublock-origin-filters)). The next system I have implemented is to, as much as possible, leave my phone out-of-reach, so I can't just reflexively pick it up and start scrolling. I also leave it in the living room when I go to bed, so I can't just wake up and hop on my phone.