Me waterboarding Creative Loafing reporter Alex Picket. Courtesy St Pete Times
Once again our nation is talking about the harsh interrogation tactic of Waterboarding.
What baffles me is if we are so mindful about how enemy combatants are treated why are so many people willing to torture themselves? Especially when they are trying to get motivated!
Think about it? People have a tendency to forcefully try to motivate themselves to do something. When they resist they’ re own badgering they beat themselves up and make themselves feel guilty for not doing what they told themselves they had to do.
Have you ever been guilty of this? I know I have.
As intelligent, creative individuals of free will many of us have a tendency to rebel against authority figures. Even if that figure is ourselves. So what is the solution?
Well I would like to suggest a couple of ideas;
1) state your goals in a toward fashion instead of an away from. In other words say what you do want not what you don’t want.
2) When you are telling yourself what to do avoid the use of necessity words ( must, have to, ought, shall, should,won’t, will not, shall not,can not) after all there is nothing you really have to do ,except take another breath. Make it a nice deep one while you are at it. Use words of positive possibility(may, might, could, can). That way you at least know you have a choice and having a choice is always better than no choice.
3) Talk nicely to yourself. We all use internal dialogue to give ourselves instructions. Make sure you are not speaking in the voice of your parents or worse an Ex. Use a nice soothing tonality when you talk to yourself. You are a person too. You deserve to be treated well.
If you don’t do something you intended its o.k.; its not the end of the world.
P.S. Special thanks to Wendy Godmere for very publicly reminding me not to torture myself. The book is beginning to crystallize!
