What is your self improvement plan?

Thoureh

Thoureh

Regular Poster
MBTI
INFJ
Do you have any self-improvement plan?
Have you ever tried to fight against your bad habits or your weaknesses?

It is a habit for me to focus on something as a goal and achieve it. Since hot weather always irritates me so that my nerve goes to the edge, this summer, my recently rented hole-like apartment with no air conditioning system made me challenge myself to increase my patience in hot environments 😎 … well the first few weeks were awful and my efficiency decreased significantly 😵‍💫… but now I am OK even if I am covered in sweat 🥵 … I drink like an elephant to prevent from dehydration 😂 … I really miss winter ❄️

Although I have started making an air conditioner through the steam channel - that hopefully exists -, after three months of tolerating this heat with no equipment I can tell I have become more patient and it does not bother me anymore 🥳 ... one of the most amazing traits of a human being is that they can change themselves by changing their habits ... Have you ever tried? 😉
 
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A few summers back I deliberately went for runs at the park at the hottest point of the day - ensuring I brought water and paced myself appropriately. Cold never bothered me as much, but I keep thinking it would be good to get back out there mid-July in the 95+ degree heat. Makes one appreciate cool environments much more.

I respect the deliberate aim towards discomfort. There is something to be said for intentionally subjecting oneself to that. It makes the rest of life - even the unfortunately uncomfortable bits - just a tad more tolerable.

In more recent days, it has meant been dialing back alcohol intake. It got a bit out of control back in 2020 - I would say more 'problem drinking' than blatant alcoholism, but it's stymied a lot of my more intentional positive goalsetting. I'd like to get that back to zero, but there are certain triggers that make this difficult. It seems to be the singular thing that negatively touches the most other facets of my life - mental health, physical health, etc.
 
HeavyNeuralPayload said:
I'd like to get that back to zero
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Great 👍 ... I used to drink coffee a lot, like more than 10 cups a day ... It felt great but I also found it difficult to concentrate on my work without it and it seemed to me that I have started becoming addicted ... as soon as I found it out, I start decreasing the amount and substituting it with water ... and of course, I set a penalty if I disobeyed the new rule, 100 push-ups, and if it does not work 150 ... by this punishment I could decrease the coffee drinking to only ONE cup every day ...

Although I have never drunk alcohol and do not know what you will experience if you do not drink it, I suggest you start substituting it with something healthy like water or sparkling water and make yourself stick to the plan by setting a punishment (everything that consumes your energy and makes you tired, like doing exercises) ... good luck 🤞
 
Thoureh said:
I suggest you start substituting it with something healthy like water or sparkling water
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I've lost the taste for most alcohol except certain light beers, certain IPA's, pumpkin ale, and weirdly enough gin. For awhile I was substituting "every other drink" with just low-cal diet tonic water with a splash of lime juice, and more recently I've been legitimately enjoying just that by itself some days.

From what I've observed here, more than a few seem to have an aversion to alcohol, but I seem feel a little bit more "normal" (that is perhaps to say a bit less "weird" maybe?) after having had a couple drinks. I think it just brings me a little bit outside of my own head. But it's also a slippery slope with far more negatives than that one positive.
 
HeavyNeuralPayload said:
I've lost the taste for most alcohol except certain light beers, certain IPA's, pumpkin ale, and weirdly enough gin. For awhile I was substituting "every other drink" with just low-cal diet tonic water with a splash of lime juice, and more recently I've been legitimately enjoying just that by itself some days.

From what I've observed here, more than a few seem to have an aversion to alcohol, but I seem feel a little bit more "normal" (that is perhaps to say a bit less "weird" maybe?) after having had a couple drinks. I think it just brings me a little bit outside of my own head. But it's also a slippery slope with far more negatives than that one positive.
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It is good to know where you are standing and have control ... some times some seemingly bad things have good effects on us, and as long as we have control, it is ok to keep living with those apparently bad habits 😎

I love ice cream and can not stop eating it, I know the excess sugar and fat are not healthy but I can not help it, since it is one of my pleasures in my life and I really feel good after eating it 😄 ... but to avoid the harm side, I do excess exercise when I eat ice cream to burn and dissolve the excess fat and sugar, I mean this is my way to control the side effects of my bad habit ... have you searched for any solution of yours?
 
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My plan is to absorb the universe and all its gifts until I become so unstoppable that movement itself is trivial and meaningless
 
Thoureh said:
Cool ... How you manage to do it?
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By relinquishing the individuated you.

Uni-verse is.

Surrender the illusion and accept the truth of the ever-present.

The end of forms, the end of cause and effect.

The Isness.

Cheers,
Ian
 
Thoureh said:
Do you have any self-improvement plan?
Have you ever tried to fight against your bad habits or your weaknesses?
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On a more serious note, it's far better and more practical to focus on your strengths than try to fight to improve weaknesses
 
Wyote said:
On a more serious note, it's far better and more practical to focus on your strengths than try to fight to improve weaknesses
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To become a better human being and not too proud of what we already have (as our strength), I think it is a good practice to know our weaknesses and work on them ... this idea does not deny the importance of paying attention to our strengths and using them to make the world a better place to live in
 
Thoureh said:
To become a better human being and not too proud of what we already have (as our strength), I think it is a good practice to know our weaknesses and work on them ... this idea does not deny the importance of paying attention to our strengths and using them to make the world a better place to live in
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Inasmuch as strengths and weaknesses are judgments, they are phenomena of the mind, and so thoughts, and the psychoemotional cascades which may follow.

To this end, do not treat them as more real than they are, which is to say, do not treat them as real whatsoever.

Be like water, and flow. Live your life, and remember, you are process, not thing.

In each moment, awareness, discernment, and prudence. Do, or do not, as you would do.

Reflect thereupon, and contemplate, then rest, and rise the next day to live your life.

Where you direct attention, you will grow. But perhaps not in a way that metrics can capture.

Water cannot lift, but it can wear down a mountain. So what is strength?

You are not a thing to be improved. You are a life-artist with a deeper and wider repertoire.

Cheers,
Ian
 
Thoureh said:
To become a better human being and not too proud of what we already have (as our strength), I think it is a good practice to know our weaknesses and work on them ... this idea does not deny the importance of paying attention to our strengths and using them to make the world a better place to live in
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I think that's fair in a general sense.
Being mindful of what you're bad at is as important as knowing what you're good at.
I just meant that focusing on improvement in a way that tries to improve weaknesses first is the wrong way about it.
 
aeon said:
Inasmuch as strengths and weaknesses are judgments, they are phenomena of the mind, and so thoughts, and the psychoemotional cascades which may follow.

To this end, do not treat them as more real than they are, which is to say, do not treat them as real whatsoever.

Be like water, and flow. Live your life, and remember, you are process, not thing.

In each moment, awareness, discernment, and prudence. Do, or do not, as you would do.

Reflect thereupon, and contemplate, then rest, and rise the next day to live your life.

Where you direct attention, you will grow. But perhaps not in a way that metrics can capture.

Water cannot lift, but it can wear down a mountain. So what is strength?

You are not a thing to be improved. You are a life-artist with a deeper and wider repertoire.

Cheers,
Ian
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challenging to overcome your weaknesses makes us mentally strong so we can face the outside challenges in the world more easily and more efficiently … It's like how doing exercises works; we make our body strong for a healthy life and to overcome pathogens …
 
You aren't going to "overcome" your weaknesses.
You'll actually more than likely eventually have a mental breakdown trying to go that route.
Embrace your natural gifts, feed those and tend to your weaknesses appropriately so that they do not create problems.
 
Wyote said:
You aren't going to "overcome" your weaknesses.
You'll actually more than likely eventually have a mental breakdown trying to go that route.
Embrace your natural gifts, feed those and tend to your weaknesses appropriately so that they do not create problems.
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I do embrace my natural gifts and I am grateful for having them enormously ... but I can not accept what you are saying about not being able to overcome the weaknesses ... Have you ever tried? ... The human being is a wonderful creature and its mental ability to change is a wonder 😇
 
We are probably talking about two different things, in essence. And I'm not trying to say anything about you directly, personally.
I'm just speaking more on practical intrinsic matters based on scientific data, and you're more speaking on incremental knowledge building.
They are both true things.
 
Wyote said:
We are probably talking about two different things, in essence. And I'm not trying to say anything about you directly, personally.
I'm just speaking more on practical intrinsic matters based on scientific data, and you're more speaking on incremental knowledge building.
They are both true things.
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See this article: Can people change their attitudes? ... The answer is Yes
 
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