LucrativeSid
New member
- Joined
- Oct 20, 2007
- Messages
- 837
Up until recently, it had been two years since I'd made a post on this site. It was fun to come back and read through my old blog posts. When I sit down and read my old blog posts, journal entries, and emails these days, I'm blown away by how much I've changed in the last 2-3 years. Some of the changes I've made came about through epiphanies or resolutions, while others were just the natural result of life-experience and an evolving mind.
In the last 2-3 years:
- I quit smoking cold turkey. (2 years and 4 months ago.) I wouldn't smoke a cigarette now if I was stressed out and you paid me $100 to do it. Not only does it no longer appeal to me, it absolutely disgusts me.
- I quit a shitty job and got a better one that was way outside of my comfort zone. I ended up expanding my comfort zone, boosting my confidence, and making and saving more money than ever before.
- I made a resolution to stop being a disorganized slob about 4 months ago. Since then, I've consistently kept everything clean and organized. This requires no self-discipline; it's just become a part of who I am now, sort of like how I'm a non-smoker now.
- I wrote a short non-fiction book and put it up for sale on Kindle. Although I didn't put much effort into marketing it and it didn't sell well, I proved to myself that I'm easily capable of such things. I do have plans to improve the book and relaunch it.
- I jogged for 30 minutes straight, shattering my previous record of only 10 minutes.
- Electronic music has become the kind of music I listen to the most.
- Two months ago, I decided to join a gym to sculpt my body and increase my health. I've made a lot of progress so far, and I really enjoy it. I just signed up for a one-year membership today. I know I haven't been doing it for that long yet, but I have a track record that shows I'm capable of adopting or discontinuing habits when I want to.
- I have stopped exhaustively comparing my ideas, opinions, principles, and beliefs to everyone else's in order to find out who or what is correct. I no longer need to reassure myself that I'm right, and I no longer need to prove that others are wrong. Now, I spend a lot more time living by my intuition, ideas, and opinions than I do questioning them. I haven't closed my mind; I've just grown to trust myself a lot more. I'm probably more open-minded now than I was before because my self-esteem is no longer linked with my ideas and my ability to be right.
- I've become much more tranquil. I used to allow small problems and setbacks to anger me a great deal. The angrier I got, the more power I lost to take positive and constructive action. Now, small problems don't phase me nearly as much. I see how insignificant they really are and I continue to focus on the big picture. From now on, I will keep a log of all the times I lose my temper and try to rid myself of the behavior completely.
- Constant improvement has become a habit. I relish solving problems, improvement methods, and striving towards new goals.
I'm happy with the progress I've made over the last couple of years, but it wasn't all easy sailing. There were moments of despair. Sometimes those moments lasted for days or weeks. It wasn't just one continuous push for progress. I became discouraged and gave up on things many times, but I always started back up again. Why? There are probably a few reasons, but ultimately, it's boring as fuck to not actually try! Negative thoughts can only keep me occupied for so long. Once they've run their course, I'm left with an overwhelming desire to expand and conquer. Every time I get back up and recommit myself, I'm stronger and less likely to even fall in the first place.
You'll never hear me talk shit about someone who continuously fails to achieve what they want. I know from personal experience that at any moment the scale can tip. At any moment, power can be seized. If you get knocked down, take a break for as long as you need to, but get back up again. Just. Keep. Trying. Not because it's divine, not because it's glorious, not because it's inspirational, and not because you're obligated to do it; do it just because it's more fun that way.
I look forward to a life of constant improvement. Ideally, I'll accomplish 10 times more in the next 2 years than the last two because during the last two I was only an amateur.
While reflecting upon the changes I've made over these last couple of years, I began to wonder if I would score differently on MBTI and Enneagram tests. Surely enough, I do. I know this isn't very scientific, but I invite conjecture on the subject.
I've always scored and self-identified as an NT. I've thought I was both an introvert and an extrovert at different times, ultimately settling on Introvert and becoming more and more sure about it. The whole time I was gone from this site I figured that I was an INTP. However, I've gone from scoring as a strong P to a strong J now. It's not that surprising, given how my behavior has changed so much.
Am I really a P who has deliberately adopted J-like behaviors? Probably. Or maybe I was a J all-along and I just hadn't figured out how to be good at being me yet. There could probably be convincing arguments made for me being any NT type, and possibly a few more. This is one of the reasons I lost interest in typology in the first place. I was more concerned with how I wanted to be than I was with analyzing how I was. I'm never going to fit snugly into one type or another. I'm not blaming typology, though. It's a tool and it's my fault if I didn't use it correctly.
On Enneagram, I've recently come out with 3 and 9 being tied. I used to score as a 3 a lot, but I've never scored as a 9, so that's interesting.
My true opinion is that I'm a Type 3 INTP, but whatever I am, at least I'll be more tomorrow.
In the last 2-3 years:
- I quit smoking cold turkey. (2 years and 4 months ago.) I wouldn't smoke a cigarette now if I was stressed out and you paid me $100 to do it. Not only does it no longer appeal to me, it absolutely disgusts me.
- I quit a shitty job and got a better one that was way outside of my comfort zone. I ended up expanding my comfort zone, boosting my confidence, and making and saving more money than ever before.
- I made a resolution to stop being a disorganized slob about 4 months ago. Since then, I've consistently kept everything clean and organized. This requires no self-discipline; it's just become a part of who I am now, sort of like how I'm a non-smoker now.
- I wrote a short non-fiction book and put it up for sale on Kindle. Although I didn't put much effort into marketing it and it didn't sell well, I proved to myself that I'm easily capable of such things. I do have plans to improve the book and relaunch it.
- I jogged for 30 minutes straight, shattering my previous record of only 10 minutes.
- Electronic music has become the kind of music I listen to the most.
- Two months ago, I decided to join a gym to sculpt my body and increase my health. I've made a lot of progress so far, and I really enjoy it. I just signed up for a one-year membership today. I know I haven't been doing it for that long yet, but I have a track record that shows I'm capable of adopting or discontinuing habits when I want to.
- I have stopped exhaustively comparing my ideas, opinions, principles, and beliefs to everyone else's in order to find out who or what is correct. I no longer need to reassure myself that I'm right, and I no longer need to prove that others are wrong. Now, I spend a lot more time living by my intuition, ideas, and opinions than I do questioning them. I haven't closed my mind; I've just grown to trust myself a lot more. I'm probably more open-minded now than I was before because my self-esteem is no longer linked with my ideas and my ability to be right.
- I've become much more tranquil. I used to allow small problems and setbacks to anger me a great deal. The angrier I got, the more power I lost to take positive and constructive action. Now, small problems don't phase me nearly as much. I see how insignificant they really are and I continue to focus on the big picture. From now on, I will keep a log of all the times I lose my temper and try to rid myself of the behavior completely.
- Constant improvement has become a habit. I relish solving problems, improvement methods, and striving towards new goals.
I'm happy with the progress I've made over the last couple of years, but it wasn't all easy sailing. There were moments of despair. Sometimes those moments lasted for days or weeks. It wasn't just one continuous push for progress. I became discouraged and gave up on things many times, but I always started back up again. Why? There are probably a few reasons, but ultimately, it's boring as fuck to not actually try! Negative thoughts can only keep me occupied for so long. Once they've run their course, I'm left with an overwhelming desire to expand and conquer. Every time I get back up and recommit myself, I'm stronger and less likely to even fall in the first place.
You'll never hear me talk shit about someone who continuously fails to achieve what they want. I know from personal experience that at any moment the scale can tip. At any moment, power can be seized. If you get knocked down, take a break for as long as you need to, but get back up again. Just. Keep. Trying. Not because it's divine, not because it's glorious, not because it's inspirational, and not because you're obligated to do it; do it just because it's more fun that way.
I look forward to a life of constant improvement. Ideally, I'll accomplish 10 times more in the next 2 years than the last two because during the last two I was only an amateur.
While reflecting upon the changes I've made over these last couple of years, I began to wonder if I would score differently on MBTI and Enneagram tests. Surely enough, I do. I know this isn't very scientific, but I invite conjecture on the subject.
I've always scored and self-identified as an NT. I've thought I was both an introvert and an extrovert at different times, ultimately settling on Introvert and becoming more and more sure about it. The whole time I was gone from this site I figured that I was an INTP. However, I've gone from scoring as a strong P to a strong J now. It's not that surprising, given how my behavior has changed so much.
Am I really a P who has deliberately adopted J-like behaviors? Probably. Or maybe I was a J all-along and I just hadn't figured out how to be good at being me yet. There could probably be convincing arguments made for me being any NT type, and possibly a few more. This is one of the reasons I lost interest in typology in the first place. I was more concerned with how I wanted to be than I was with analyzing how I was. I'm never going to fit snugly into one type or another. I'm not blaming typology, though. It's a tool and it's my fault if I didn't use it correctly.
On Enneagram, I've recently come out with 3 and 9 being tied. I used to score as a 3 a lot, but I've never scored as a 9, so that's interesting.
My true opinion is that I'm a Type 3 INTP, but whatever I am, at least I'll be more tomorrow.
