Rules of the Game (Girl Version): Day 6
I’m not going to lie. Day 6 was pretty boring. Maybe because I opted out of one of the missions. It was too cheesy.
Mission 1: Conquering AA
According to Neil Strauss, AA has nothing to do with alcohol, rather it means approach anxiety. (I guess alcohol may have something to do with it, if you use it as a coping method. ..in which case the other AA may also be relevant.)
To understand approach anxiety and how to overcome it, there was a reading assignment by Don Diego Garcia.
Some helpful tips that I learned:
“To help eliminate negative internal dialogue, try adjusting the submodalities of your limiting mind’s voice. Make it quieter and further away; stammering and squeaky; or use the voice of a person you don’t like. ¶ At the same time, give your freedom mind a strong, low-pitched, calm, nearby voice. Consider making it the voice of someone you respect: a mentor, an actor, or your future best self.”
As Snooki and J-Woww pointed out on the Jersey Shore, nothing is worse than a parent telling his or her kid that s/he is a disappointment. My negative internal dialogue starts with my disappointed dad saying, “Typical, Melissa. Typical.”
“Typical, Melissa. Typical. You’re too shy to go over to that guy.”
“Typical, Melissa. Typical. You over-think things.”
I can go on and on. Maybe I need to have my dad record a positive, mind-shaping mp3 for me.
The other platitudes the briefing included:
Michael Jordan’s “I’ve missed more than 9,000 shots in my career. I’ve lost almost 300 games. 26 times, I’ve been trusted to take the game-winning shot and missed. I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.”
Samuel Hazo’s “Expect everything, and anything seems nothing. / Expect nothing, and anything seems everything.”
Platitudes or not, they’re still good things to remember. (Also, this is totally random… I looked up Samuel Hazo and he was the first State Poet in this lovely Commonwealth. Random.)
Mission 2: If You Can’t Say Something Nice…
While I may suffer from AA, I also have mastered the art of self-talk and I make sure it kicks in when necessary. Therefore, I decided to skip this mission which told me to compliment four (wo)men.
I understand spontaneous compliments can be nice but no one around me did anything that I felt the need to compliment. If the goal of the mission “is to be perceived not as trying to flatter or hit on [someone] but as showing sincere appreciation of something,” I felt that complimenting a stranger for the sake of completing this mission would be counter-productive.
Am I just a wimp?
Mission 3: The Eight-hour Rule
Sleep for 8 hours.
…I can do that!
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