Have you ever started an experiment that later became a way of life? Have you ever wanted to just try out a 30-day challenge, but then you ended up being on this challenge for years? That’s what happened with me and the no fap challenge.
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Why I took on the nofap challenge
We usually don’t question whether we should masturbate or not. It’s something we do by default.
If you add to the above that the no fap challenge has a funny name, then it makes sense why people never took it seriously. I had a different view though…
In late 2017 I decided I wanted to quit masturbation. Why? Because I had read about the benefits of nofap and so I wanted to find out whether it was an actual thing.
The first days without masturbation were tough. Most men masturbate daily… best case weekly. Before the experiment I was part of the latter group.
Why is it difficult to quit masturbating though? Because of 3 reasons:
- If you’ve been doing something consistently and for a long time it becomes an addiction.
- Access to free porn is easiest than ever.
- External stimuli on traditional media (television) and social media (mainly on Instagram) made my challenge even harder.
The social media curse
Let’s stay on the external stimuli factor for a while… I want you to think about your own Instagram feed.
How much scrolling do you need to do until you find a photo of a semi-naked Instagram influencer posting an irrelevant inspirational quote?
And, if you don’t follow Instagram influencers, that’s great. Unfortunately, though most men (and women) do.
Scrolling through photos of semi-naked women made my challenge hard.
So, unfollowing all those influencers (and stop scrolling down the Instagram feed in general) helped me a ton.
How to stop masturbating
After 1 month of no fap, I was still feeling addicted. Don’t forget that I had stopped doing something that I had been doing for around 13 years.
2 months in and I’m still going strong. Leaving in a house with housemates helped me a lot up until that point. It’s just less convenient to masturbate when you don’t live alone.
I’m on my 3rd month, still addicted and I’m thinking to quit. I was telling myself: “No fapping for 3 months is still a great accomplishment”.
Another huge factor that helped me was the fact that I was having sex (yes, with a real human).
4 months after I went on the challenge and this is it… I am healed! I don’t feel the need to masturbate anymore!
The time duration may be random but keep in mind that it also took me 4 months to eliminate my caffeine addiction. So, 4 months must mean something after all.
To succeed on the no fap challenge, the first thing you need to understand is that masturbation is not a biological need. It’s a mental addiction.
Just like junk food or heroine, it gives you short-term satisfaction, but in the long-term it makes you feel weak, stupid and low in energy.
With that said, maintaining willpower for 4 straight months is challenging. A trick you can use is to take naps.
So, whenever you feel that your willpower is low and that you’re ready to succumb to fapping, take a nap to restore your energy and willpower.
Nofap benefits
I had started to observe the benefits of no fap from the first weeks of the challenge, but it wasn’t until the addiction was gone that I began experiencing them.
So, why should you stop masturbating? Not, of course, because your parents may used to tell you that masturbation causes blindness.
You should stop fapping for your own self-improvement.
1. Sexual energy transmutation
Read the excerpt below from Napoleon Hill’s book Think and Grow Rich:
"Sex energy is the most powerful of all the stimuli which move people into ACTION. Because it is the most powerful of the emotions, it must be controlled, through transmutation, and converted into other channels."
Napoleon Hill
In other words, masturbation drains your energy. Like all addictions it gives you short-term satisfaction (orgasm through ejaculation), but after each session is over the negative effects start to appear.
Most common masturbation side-effects include sadness, depression, loneliness, anxiety and sleepiness. It also damages you long-term by draining your energy.
By not wasting my energy on fapping I was able to instead use this energy to work on my business.
Because of the nofap challenge I managed to get rid of these side effects and replace them with motivation, strength, mental clarity and better sleep.
I even started to find joy in little things that didn’t matter before. For example, things like going for a walk or eating breakfast became fun again.
2. Better sex life
Sex and masturbation can of course co-exist as history has shown.
However, it’s frequent that many men who masturbate (aka wankers as per our British friends) fail to reach erection during sex.
In the Bible, Paul the Apostle says:
Let the husband render unto the wife due benevolence: and likewise also the wife unto the husband.
The wife hath not power of her own body, but the husband: and likewise also the husband hath not power of his own body, but the wife.
Defraud ye not one the other, except [it be] with consent for a time, that ye may give yourselves to fasting and prayer; and come together again, that Satan tempt you not for your incontinency.
1 Corinthians 7:3-5
In other words, a husband and a wife need to be available to each other for sexual intercourse.
If you want to have a successful marriage it's better to stay away from masturbation.
3. Increased confidence
It’s common that men substitute sex with masturbation.
They are sitting in their filthy apartment masturbating all day and don’t go out to meet women to have sex. They don’t feel a need to do it.
On the other hand, no fap gives you energy.
And energy gives you confidence to go outside, socialize, flirt, meet women and stop being shy. So, down goes your social anxiety.
4. A chance to be among the great
Do you know what Sigmund Freud, Steve Jobs and Michelangelo had in common?
They all had done semen retention to make themselves great. And it’s not just them…
Athletes like Mike Tyson and Muhammad Ali have embraced the no fap challenge, so as they could compete at a high level.
Scientists like Nicola Tesla and Isaac Newton were abstaining from masturbation, because they needed all the energy they could get, in order to start and complete their inventions.
Finally, Greek philosophers like Plato, Pythagoras and Socrates were in favor of the mind in this matter and they were prescribing abstinence from sexual desires.
I can already hear you screaming: ‘And am I going to become like them, if I stop jerking off?’
No, you won’t discover gravity or become a philosopher just by quitting masturbation. However, if you keep doing it, you’re eliminating any little chance there is to achieve greatness.
You can view a full list of all the great nofap advocates here.
Is nofap worth it
Since the day I started the experiment (2 years ago) I haven’t masturbated not even once for old time’s shake. It’s a challenge that became a way of life.
And I’ve become a better person. I feel more mature, intelligent and confident now.
You want to do so many things in this life, yet you have limited time. Why waste it on masturbating?
So, if I could give only 1 piece of advice to a fellow male that would be: “Stop jerking off man, give it 4 months and thank me later”.
Nofap is the 1st step towards greatness...
The next step is called Monk Mode. You can read about my 30-day monk mode challenge here.
Until next time.
Sooooopr initiative for fappers like me man!!