10 Mar Life Lessons from the Strangest Places (Post 1)
If you’re of a certain age, you’ll be well familiar with the Seinfeld TV series. If not, look it up! Or just know that it was a show about nothing; or at least, a show about (mainly) 4 characters, living their normal lives in a normal apartment.
Nothing, and everything happened.
Anyway, today is about a lesson we can learn from one of the main characters, George. At the risk of being too blunt, George is a loser (in the most real and funniest way). He’s mostly unemployed, single, still lives with his parents, and gets much of his life wrong.
And he knows this.
So, one day George decides that if everything he does is wrong, maybe he should try to do the opposite of everything he does, and of everything he thinks about doing.
And so begins George’s behavioural experiment … seeing what would happen if he lived an opposite life?!?!
Amazingly, but not all that surprisingly, he starts to enjoy success and happiness; more than he’s ever really enjoyed before!
Which brings me to today’s life lesson. I’m not suggesting you’re a loser, and I don’t think I’m a loser but … I do know that when I’m experiencing deep depression, which unfortunately I experience semi-regularly, my depressed mind, my dark and cloudy mind, doesn’t always give me the best advice. In fact, my depressed mind often tells me to engage in behaviours that to be perfectly honest are unhealthy and unhelpful and self-defeating.
And so, one thing I’ve learned to do is to not listen to mind during these periods; and further, to do the opposite of what my self-talk is telling me to do, especially when I’m depressed and anxious.
And it works!
So, maybe you could try this. Not all the time. Sometimes it’s good to trust your intuition and to listen to that inner voice. But sometimes, doing the opposite might also be worthy of serious consideration.
What do you think? Have you ever tried something like this? Do you think it would be helpful?
NB: if you’ve found this, or any of my blog posts helpful, please feel free to share with family, friends, colleagues or anyone! I know it might sound a bit trite, but I’m driven to help people, so you sharing this with others will help me achieve my goal : )