I am probably poorer than I've ever been – school and age will do that to a person. So I'm editing all of my negative thoughts about money into positive ones.
In no way am I bitching about being impoverished because I can afford basic needs that many others may not and I count myself lucky every day (disclaimer: I'm not a moron).
Negative thought a) I can't afford take-out anymore.
Positive thought a) Mini Wheats are awesome. I will eat them for breakfast, lunch and dinner because they are THAT awesome. Sometimes I will eat them without milk to switch it up a bit. They also come in about 17 different flavors, so when I finish this box of regular frosted I can eat any other flavor from the frosted rainbow.
Negative thought b) I can't afford to go to BOTH a movie and out for dinner.
Positive thought b) I will go to the movie and eat popcorn for dinner. Popcorn is awesome.
Negative thought c) I can't afford new clothes and all of my old clothes are frumpy and ugly
Positive thought c) time to clean out the closet. If your clothes look ugly they were a waste of money in the first place. This will teach you fashion sense for the future.
Negative thought d) I hate the bus. It stinks and it's gross and I don't want to take it.
Positive thought d) This may be the last 20 years where people will interact with each other. Make the most of seeing people.
Negative thought e) My wallet is empty
Positive though e) There is more room for bigger bills
Negative thought f) my job sucks
Positive thought f) thank goodness that you HAVE a job, and now you know what you don't want to do for the rest of your life.
Negative thought g) I can't get that new technology thing
Positive thought g) that new technology thing will be outdated the second you buy it anyway. Like a car.
Negative thought h) I can't afford to drink and smoke anymore
Positive thought h) that's probably a good thing?
Negative thought i) I can't afford to buy my cousin's niece's cousin's cousin a really nice gift for her birthday
Positive thought i) who exactly are you trying to impress again? save your money, she's not impressed.
Negative thought j) I can't buy coffee anymore
Positive thought j) Do you know how much of a rip-off coffee and tea are? A tea bag costs 10 cents maybe. Coffee made in a pot costs maybe 25 cents. And you're going to pay $4.50 for it? Coffee is essentially a roasted bean broth. If I put "bouillon de grains de café torréfiés" on a menu, you would probably pay $15 for it.
Negative thought k) I think like an old person now
Positive thought k) you will eventually anyway, might as well get it over with now
Monday, June 20, 2011
Tuesday, June 14, 2011
Editing a habit
I have two habits I hate...smoking and coffee. I recently cut coffee out almost entirely and cigarettes are more difficult. But I have quit smoking before so I will tell you how I edited out coffee and cigarette addictions.
1) drink a lot of water (like 3 L a day)... Not only is smoking dehydrating, I'm pretty sure it takes nutrients out of your tissues. That craving goes away when you're at your optimum fluid capacity. Same with coffee...coffee is acidic so drinking tons more water will make you crave it less.
2) exercise...nothing is grosser than when you're doing a really hard exercise and you puke from dehydration or choke up a lung. Have some goals and the other two will get less and less.
3) just don't buy any...there's the whole, "I just want one cigarette but then I have to try to get the individual cigarettes and it's just easier to buy a pack and smoke one and keep the others for an emergency.". That doesn't work. Buying extra large coffees because you think you're getting value is a bad idea as well.
4). boredom is a killer. It's what gets be every time. Being over stimulated gets me too, like when I read a book or eat too much or watch a movie and get bored halfway through. You pretty much have to reboot the mind by disciplining it. "no, just because you're bored doesnt give you the right to smoke a pack in one sitting."
5). Be conscious...sometimes the act of buying these things is more unconscious than the act of ingestion. Make sure you're on top pod your thoughts...try not to let your prions get the better of you and take power over you in certain situations that would make you buy these thongs.
1) drink a lot of water (like 3 L a day)... Not only is smoking dehydrating, I'm pretty sure it takes nutrients out of your tissues. That craving goes away when you're at your optimum fluid capacity. Same with coffee...coffee is acidic so drinking tons more water will make you crave it less.
2) exercise...nothing is grosser than when you're doing a really hard exercise and you puke from dehydration or choke up a lung. Have some goals and the other two will get less and less.
3) just don't buy any...there's the whole, "I just want one cigarette but then I have to try to get the individual cigarettes and it's just easier to buy a pack and smoke one and keep the others for an emergency.". That doesn't work. Buying extra large coffees because you think you're getting value is a bad idea as well.
4). boredom is a killer. It's what gets be every time. Being over stimulated gets me too, like when I read a book or eat too much or watch a movie and get bored halfway through. You pretty much have to reboot the mind by disciplining it. "no, just because you're bored doesnt give you the right to smoke a pack in one sitting."
5). Be conscious...sometimes the act of buying these things is more unconscious than the act of ingestion. Make sure you're on top pod your thoughts...try not to let your prions get the better of you and take power over you in certain situations that would make you buy these thongs.
Monday, June 6, 2011
Editing your Perceptions of Yourself
This may be dangerously close to Brian's post, but I guess we had the same wavelengths going on this week.
I used to think that I totally sucked at everything. If I wasn't perfect the first time, I as a person just wasn't any good. When I was little and I colored outside of a line in a coloring book, I would throw the whole coloring book away. I would Hulk rip it in half. Which is quite an achievement for a 4 year old, now that I think about it.
Now that I'm older, I find that I'm really good at a lot of things that I never would have imagined. It all comes down to editing your perceptions of yourself and just not caring what anyone else thinks. Ultimately that's what it comes down to. Don't doubt yourself before you've even tried something because we're all just empty vessels, if you really think about it. The only thing holding half of us back is perceptions and negativity.
A) High Interval Training -- I never ever thought of myself as athletic, and no one else ever did, so I never tried. Then one week I started jumping rope and I lost 10 lbs in 1.5 weeks. I didn't put much thought into it until I tried it again. Now I've been doing high intervals every day for the last month and I love it! My favorites are any of the Jillian Michaels' workouts (particularly the 30 Day ones), P90X Plyos and any of the Shaun T Insanity workouts (which are very hard, by the way). Jumping rope is still fun, too. I actually enjoy doing high intervals and they can take down the average athletic person. Now I don't particularly care what others think of me because I'm doing something healthy that I enjoy doing. And I lost weight.
B) Twitter -- Sometimes with Twitter I'm really on with it. If I don't have anything witty to say about a current event I usually just avoid it all together because I think Facebook is the place for status updates. I'm not really that bad at Twitter. I hated Twitter; I had a Twitter account for 2 years before we were forced to use it in school. If we hadn't have been forced to do it, I would have never found out that I'm semi-witty.
C) Baking -- One of the first things I ever baked was zucchini chocolate cake, and it won first prize in the fair 3 years in a row. It even went up against my sister's identical cake. I love baking much more than cooking, even though I love that too. I make pönnukökurs quite often, which are Icelandic pancakes rolled up with brown sugar. Sometimes I make vinarterta, which is an Icelandic cake made of sugar cookie layers filled with prunes (it sounds kinda gross but it's like a big Fig Newton, and everyone likes Fig Newtons). Apparently no one has the patience to make them so you can sell them at Christmas time. I mean I also make pies and bread and doughnuts and cupcakes, etc etc, but the funny thing is that I don't like sugar so I never eat my own baking except to taste it.
D) Video Games -- I think I started playing video games when I was 4. First game I ever played was Super Mario (pretty obvious) but then I graduated into Battletoads, probably one of the most challenging games on the NES. My grandma bought me a Playstation for Christmas (coolest Grandma ever) and I played that a lot. I saved up my money from my first ever job to buy a PS2, and I played that a lot. Then it was onto the PS3. And between all that was computer games. I think I made a Sim City with 1 million people once, which was a challenge. I don't have time to play video games very often anymore, but I beat LA Noire twice and Portal 2 so I guess I have enough time lately.
See? Even I'm good at some things. There are things I want to try but I'm not scared to even try them because I'm not afraid to try things anymore. Anyone can be good at anything if they just edit out other people's perceptions and projections and just work at it. So what is everyone secretly good at, come on, share.
P.S. Sarcasm isn't a talent.
I used to think that I totally sucked at everything. If I wasn't perfect the first time, I as a person just wasn't any good. When I was little and I colored outside of a line in a coloring book, I would throw the whole coloring book away. I would Hulk rip it in half. Which is quite an achievement for a 4 year old, now that I think about it.
Now that I'm older, I find that I'm really good at a lot of things that I never would have imagined. It all comes down to editing your perceptions of yourself and just not caring what anyone else thinks. Ultimately that's what it comes down to. Don't doubt yourself before you've even tried something because we're all just empty vessels, if you really think about it. The only thing holding half of us back is perceptions and negativity.
A) High Interval Training -- I never ever thought of myself as athletic, and no one else ever did, so I never tried. Then one week I started jumping rope and I lost 10 lbs in 1.5 weeks. I didn't put much thought into it until I tried it again. Now I've been doing high intervals every day for the last month and I love it! My favorites are any of the Jillian Michaels' workouts (particularly the 30 Day ones), P90X Plyos and any of the Shaun T Insanity workouts (which are very hard, by the way). Jumping rope is still fun, too. I actually enjoy doing high intervals and they can take down the average athletic person. Now I don't particularly care what others think of me because I'm doing something healthy that I enjoy doing. And I lost weight.
B) Twitter -- Sometimes with Twitter I'm really on with it. If I don't have anything witty to say about a current event I usually just avoid it all together because I think Facebook is the place for status updates. I'm not really that bad at Twitter. I hated Twitter; I had a Twitter account for 2 years before we were forced to use it in school. If we hadn't have been forced to do it, I would have never found out that I'm semi-witty.
C) Baking -- One of the first things I ever baked was zucchini chocolate cake, and it won first prize in the fair 3 years in a row. It even went up against my sister's identical cake. I love baking much more than cooking, even though I love that too. I make pönnukökurs quite often, which are Icelandic pancakes rolled up with brown sugar. Sometimes I make vinarterta, which is an Icelandic cake made of sugar cookie layers filled with prunes (it sounds kinda gross but it's like a big Fig Newton, and everyone likes Fig Newtons). Apparently no one has the patience to make them so you can sell them at Christmas time. I mean I also make pies and bread and doughnuts and cupcakes, etc etc, but the funny thing is that I don't like sugar so I never eat my own baking except to taste it.
D) Video Games -- I think I started playing video games when I was 4. First game I ever played was Super Mario (pretty obvious) but then I graduated into Battletoads, probably one of the most challenging games on the NES. My grandma bought me a Playstation for Christmas (coolest Grandma ever) and I played that a lot. I saved up my money from my first ever job to buy a PS2, and I played that a lot. Then it was onto the PS3. And between all that was computer games. I think I made a Sim City with 1 million people once, which was a challenge. I don't have time to play video games very often anymore, but I beat LA Noire twice and Portal 2 so I guess I have enough time lately.
See? Even I'm good at some things. There are things I want to try but I'm not scared to even try them because I'm not afraid to try things anymore. Anyone can be good at anything if they just edit out other people's perceptions and projections and just work at it. So what is everyone secretly good at, come on, share.
P.S. Sarcasm isn't a talent.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)