you never go outside anymore

When's the last time you actually went outside? Not to do a chore, just to be outside, to walk around with no goal, to sit somewhere and just relax. You probably can't remember. You never go outside anymore. And for the most part, it's really messing you up.

I didn't even notice I stopped going outside. Like, it happened so gradually that I didn't realize it was a problem until it already was. I remember when I was younger, I would go outside all the time. Not for a reason, just to like walk around though, like hang out, explore, be bored outside. But then at some point that just stopped. I started spending all my time inside [music] my room, you know, my house, just constantly indoors. And at first I didn't think it was really a big deal. Like what's the difference inside, outside, you know, whatever. As long as I'm doing what I want to do or what I need to do, it doesn't really matter to me.

But then I started noticing a lot of things. I felt more tired all the time, more foggy, a little bit more depressed. Like there was a consistent low-level heaviness that I just couldn't shake. And I didn't connect it to staying inside. I thought it was kind of just like life. You know, I was getting older, just how things are now.

But then one day, I decided to go for a walk. Not because I wanted to, but because the battery on my car died and Pizza Hut was like 6 minutes around the corner. So I was like, "Man, I really want this pizza." And I had a good deal on my phone, but it was in stores only. So, you know what I did? I walked. And that was the craziest thing ever. I never went there before. I always knew it was an easy walk, sidewalks, whatever. But I remember how funny it was just going there. I got my pizza and I think it was like a 20-minute walk. I think it was like a 5-minute drive, but 20-minute walk. And man, that was insane. I'm just walking around with a pizza box in my hand. I didn't want to eat it yet because I wanted to save it for when I was inside so I can watch YouTube. But then halfway I was like, "Man, I can't wait." So I I opened it and I was eating pizza, walking around and from there I was like, "Eh, you know, I'll just walk around a little bit more." I went to the park and I'm just walking around with pizza in my hand, the box in the other, and uh these group of people, it was like maybe two people, three people, I say group, but like three people. And I offered them a slice and it it was cool. like we we talked for a little bit. Um, and I just carried on my day. And then I've been out for like an hour and a half and I was like, you know what? I'm going to I'm going to start heading back. And I realized the more I talk about this, the crazier it is uh that I have a whole pizza for myself. Um, it was just one of those days. But I I got in my room, I sit down and I'm like, man, that was just so fun. And I just felt so happy that day. I was just so happy. I felt like I had good energy. I wasn't tired at all. I took a nice shower because it it was kind of hot, but like man, it it was just I was just so happy. And then I got right back on to ranked Overwatch and started getting destroyed.

And so what I realized is that part of the problem is that everything became indoors. If I didn't have a discount that was for in store only, I would have never left. So I would have just had it delivered and then just entertained myself with my game. There's no reason to leave. And so you don't. I remember looking at my schedule, like a schedule, it's just just a whiteboard, but I looked at it and I was like, man, I can go days without having to step outside besides from school. Like, I never have to leave anywhere. Imagine doing that for 4 years. And it feels smarter like, oh, I don't have to waste my time, money, going places. I wasn't dealing with weather or traffic or people. I was just staying in my room, a controlled environment, a nice 68°. Cuz man, it cannot get any better than that. You sit down, you open YouTube, you get your Door Dash, nothing gets better than this. Nothing.

And for a while, it didn't. Because being comfortable isn't always the best thing for you. I wasn't really happy just being inside doing nothing, talking to, you know, my friends online. And I never thought that maybe me feeling this way has something to do with my lights being off, uh, my door closed and staring at my screen 24/7. Like, it got to a point every [music] day became the same. Every day was [music] exactly copy and pasted. I can go on Steam and I see the hours on my recent games just going higher, just getting extremely higher. So, it got to a point where my life started to feel meaningless. I'd have way less energy. I I'd go to bed late, wake up late, like at 12:00, I was gaining weight rapidly, [music] and I just felt horrible. It even got to a point where I couldn't concentrate that much. I started forgetting a lot of things. My mind just couldn't work right. >> [music] >> I would literally just forget everything. Every time I wanted to think of something, I couldn't I couldn't remember what it was. I'm like, "Ah, I need [music] I need that. What What is that? Ah, man. I need this that whatever." I just couldn't remember anything. [music] And what scared me the most was that I got worse at games. That scared me. But again, I never realized that I needed to go outside. I needed to do something else.

And what really shifted my mentality on like going outside was me being with my girlfriend. You know, she's very similar to me. Likes to be inside, play games, and you know, chill out. But what makes us different is that she actually likes to go out, like finds a purpose in going out. So, when we got together, I started going out more. Did I like it? No. But slowly, we started going on more of our own type of dates. Not like just going to a restaurant. Like at parks, we would set picnics. We would walk around the town and just kind of look at everything. We would even go to museums. But even though all this was like so fun, I still craved just being inside and just playing my game doing nothing. Like I started having my baby steps. Like I knew this was helping me, but I really want to, [music] you know, go back. It's like being 2 days clean and then getting back on crack. It's kind of like that feeling.

So I tried to make slight adjustments. I would force myself to go to sleep earlier so I don't, you know, have the cravings to stay up all night playing whatever game. Like it's not just like about games. It can literally be anything. I tried to stay off my phone a little bit longer, especially while I was outside. And I'm not trying to say this in a way that everyone says it, but uh, you know, you walk around and [music] quite literally everyone's on their phones. Oh my gosh, I didn't even realize that. This is like the first guy to ever say it. But I mean it quite literally. For myself, I tried to stay off my phone because at times I was, you know, it was pretty rude to be with my girlfriend and just be on my phone all the time, especially at like a dinner. Like that [ __ ] is embarrassing. So, I I completely put a stop to that. And like I said before, I wanted to go to more open areas, you know, a park, a trail is not as open, but where I could just keep walking, where people are there and just walking. And you don't really have those in like small cities. But even then, there's like some shopping centers. Like nowadays, if I want to do something, I can just go to [music] Walmart or Target and just look at the games, look at all the Lego sets I can't afford, I would even do it by myself.

But I know for a fact most people don't have a partner that would tell them, "Hey, let's go out." Cuz most people don't have that. But everyone has their own different kind of moment where they realize being inside is kind of just depressing. And I'm trying to say this in a way where I don't sound like a another guru or whatever. I don't even know. But like I'm genuinely serious that being inside 24/7 is not cool. And I'm not saying like it's not cool for the people around you to see you like that. It's it's like it will genuinely get to you. Maybe you don't notice it now, but there will be a time where you're like, man, I just don't feel happy.

And just like everyone else, I'm so sure that it happened during co, you know, just being inside playing my war zone and my teachers didn't even care if we were on the Zoom. So, I would just you you open up the class 5 minutes, they give instructions for the day, and then say, "All right, bye." That's it. So middle school me got so comfortable that, you know, it [music] went and extended out till high school. And when I was outside doing something, I always thought I had to be with friends cuz I'm like, what am I going to be a loser just by myself doing stuff? But at the same time, these weren't my friends. They were I I didn't know these people as much as I thought. And so I was like, "Okay, well, I guess I'll just stay inside."

Like another thing, if you have a dog, depending on the type of dog you have, if it's trained, take it on a walk. When I realized I don't like being inside anymore, I looked at my dog and I'm like, "Hey, want to go outside with me?" Cuz imagine how it feels for them. Like if I was my dog, I would have already ran away. And I would understand if you don't like to go out because either it's too hot or too cold. To me, the cold is not an issue. The the heat, oh, dude, I cannot handle it. But when it's cold, that is like the best time for me to go out. I got my nice hoodies, my nice jackets, my nice jeans, and I'm just walking around.

Like when I was younger, I had an Xbox 360, a DS, and a Wii. Even like the six or seven-year-old me knew knew that I should go outside. And so I would I would just explore. I lived in a neighborhood that was like a circle. So, you're just infinitely going in a loop and that was like the best thing because I would get on my bike and just go around or I would like hop fences because it would instantly cut time uh going across the neighborhood and you know I made a video recently that I broke my ankle so you know I had to be inside for a while and it made me feel horrible like I was just so tired all the time because that gave me a good reason you know I'm just going to sit here play my game and do nothing cuz you I'm letting my ankle heal, so I'm just going to play my game. It has been 6 months, and the first two months were the worst months ever. Do you want to know why? Because I couldn't go outside. And when I realized that had such a big impact on me, that's when I realized, you know, I need time to go do stuff. Maybe it's not as important as Minecraft or, you know, any game that I play, but I just want to go relax and just walk around or walk at a park or have dinner with my girlfriend or a picnic, going to stores. Like, I would get my cart at Target and I know damn well I'm not buying anything. I just kind of like that feeling of holding the cart while walking. Like I would go to Five Below. I hate Five Below, but there is the stupidest [ __ ] there. It's so funny.

And even after recording this video, I'm on a little time crunch, but I'm going to go outside. I'm going to go do something. And I know most people don't have that luxury. Uh maybe you're too young to just be like, "All right, I'm just going to go outside and do this." Like you can drive yourself. But if you have like a backyard, you know, use it. If you don't have a backyard, use the front yard. And if you don't have any of that, clean your room and treat it like just [music] the most productive area ever. Like don't have your room just be about doing homework, playing games, going to sleep. You know, be productive in your own space. Like I don't have the biggest room, but I bought myself a golf swing [music] set so I can hit I can hit the balls as hard as I want and it hits a net and uh it's fun.

Anyway, I'm just kind of like yapping at this point. Um I'm just trying to make it in a way where it sounds fun because it is. Just doing something other than what you do every day is just it's fun. It's better. And you don't have to do that thing for hours. It just has to be something different for a small period of time. But yeah, I I don't think this video is going to do that good. This isn't really a topic that does the greatest on YouTube. But but I wanted to kind of share this because there are a lot of people like me and do the same stuff that I do. I just want to keep people open-minded about this stuff cuz maybe this video might want to make you do something the same way someone brought that into my life. But yeah, I hope you guys are having a great day. If you guys want to support me, subscribe. We are getting a lot of subscribers pretty fast. So amazing. I want to reach 100K by the end of the year, which it's a big goal, but I mean it's possible now. I can I can see it now. I can literally see it now. If you want to further support me, there's a buy me a coffee link in the description. Anything helps. And uh yeah, that's about it. And I'll see you guys pretty soon. Bye.