Although many more steps were needed to complete difficult tasks and achieve goals, I didn’t mind. It wasn’t like extra work – actually, it was more enjoyable. I still had the tendency to demand perfection from myself, but I continued following the schedule I wanted, not what I felt I had to do.
Taking the so called “under achievers” route worked pretty well for me - I was getting more done in a day and I felt, generally, happier. Once I was able to get over my perfectionist attitude and allow certain things to go unfinished, I was good.
I was functioning in a world of grey. A [...]
To give you an idea of how the divide-by-two rule worked for me, I’ll use an example of something I dread every year: Taxes.
Sitting down and filling out my yearly tax forms is painful - I’m sure many can relate to this. In fact, it’s the one thing that is sure to get put on [...]
The “divide-by-two” rule is not something new in the area of self-improvement – so the concept may be recognized under different names. This technique is something that I’ve worked on and customized to help with my own situation. The name is just something that came to me at the time.
As I mentioned in the previous post, lack of motivation is not confined to one personality type. I’m sure that most of us (shy or outgoing) have had to deal with motivational challenges at some point in our lives. The reason I decided to tackle this first, was that it would prevent me from implementing [...]
Lack of motivation, procrastination, and maybe a little downright laziness, were certainly not qualities that I could be proud of. The first order of business in my quest to turn my life around was to take stock. I put everything down on paper – both positive and negative - the negative far outweighing the positive.
Money became tight and I came to the realization that I couldn’t afford to keep seeing my psychologist - I started to feel a little sorry for myself. Here was the help I had been looking for, but circumstances wouldn’t allow it to continue. There was that unseen force again – working hard to ensure [...]
Social anxiety disorder has contributed towards a lifetime of pain and suffering. There is the obvious anxiety, fear, low self-esteem and depression that I have had to deal with all my life, but it has also taken a toll in a slightly less obvious way.
Up until now, this condition was left to run unchecked. It [...]
Social anxiety wasn’t a 24/7 problem – that would have been way too much to handle. It would turn on and off depending upon the situation. For example: it was pretty much non-existent when I was at home and around my parents or brothers.
The time spent with my psychologist and the group was worth its weight in gold. Even though I already knew much about the techniques used, it was great to be able to talk freely with others about our problems. They made me feel like part of a family.
The cognitive therapy sessions were quite good. [...]