Hey man!
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Today was a bad day. I spent the morning, mostly cruising the internet. Not good.
^ This right here is what I mean when I write about becoming more autonomous, more independent in my journal. In our life, we are constantly under the influence of external things... we don't have influence on most of them, but sometimes we do have a marge of action. Take it. You're going on the internet for a good reason? Good for you, open your browser, do your thing... You're on the internet to waste time? Then express yourself and take action: stop it. Most of the time we realize while doing it that we shouldn't be doing what we're doing... How many time have I fell asleep watching YouTube videos... I know it's bad, I need to stop that. It's this small room of action that gives birth to Inner Game. Be as active as you can be, less passive. That's why I sometimes decide to deprive myself from something (social media, tv...), to grab my "power of acting" in my hands, to free myself from external influences.
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Approaching two indian/asian girls
-So the goal for today was to just approach two indian girls and ask for directions. Nothing hard it would seem, but there I am lost in my head as to why I CAN'T do that. It's true I have a slightly higher anxiety with these type of girls. I guess it is because they could actually be my GF, (this is just a limiting belief in reality, any type of girl could be my GF)- This made it harder.
I know that feeling pretty well... but we both know this is not thinking rationally... Come on they are just girls, we could at least start a conversation... maybe take their number... we might even find them boring in the end... Yet we end up being irrational and having this distorted view on reality. We start to speak in our head, having non-sense conversations with ourselves. This is all bullshit. The thing is, it's a vicious circle we don't want to start. What we need is to stay rational in those situations. Being filled with regret, doubt or any form of negative thinking is the best way to fail because... IT PREVENTS US FROM THINKING CLEARLY... That's what Inner Game is all about, keeping this negative thinking out of the way so we can see things as they are... not distorted by our inability to think.
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I came back from town a little disgruntled that I could even open. I walked around once then thought to myself, fuck this I'm going home.
That would be the result for me too... We need to force ourselves to stay in touch with reality... You couldn't talk to this girl? So what? Let's have a nice interaction with the cashier at this Starbucks, enjoy a coffee... Go to a clothes store and throw an hello at the clerk... speak with the bus driver... stay in touch with reality. Yes, our imagination will be here to distort everything for us once we've missed a small opportunity, it's our job to get back to reality! Every time we catch our imagination picturing bad things, it's a sign we need to go back to reality. I usually say to the voices in my head: "okay, I hear you but not now... let's speak to someone".
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I guess I should just stick it out until I do it, but sometimes... I don't know it took two failed attempts for the compliment. Maybe the same is true for this. I did however, manage to compliment the woman at the checkout when I was packing my parcel. She was much older though so it doesn't really count.
Yes IT COUNTS!
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I'm not sure what to do when I have such a mental block. Do I persist or just bail out? I think the answer is to persist. I've always bailed out all my life.
Let's at least try and get my adverts finished and an online template done.
For tomorrow, I got to prepare my final lesson with a student. After that it's into town to do the two compliments. Wind, rain or shine.
Well it's a hard question. I remember swearing to myself "I will do it tomorrow no matter what"... and nothing happened. It's okay to fail, sometimes things are just not helping you at all. What matters is the attitude... going back home with that "I suck" attitude is when you lose... The more I read your journal, the more I think we have the same self-sabotage thing. Again, the key is to stay in touch with reality. Understand what's at stake... that is to say... not much really. You won't have any mental block if you understand (reasoning) what really is and what is made up by our imagination (result of being overwhelmed by emotions). Let's train ourselves to see this irrational thinking!
At least that's my take on it!
Daniel..
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On the Road to Manhood, my new learning journal:
http://bit.ly/TEVapM
(My old learning journal
http://bit.ly/eYRWL4)