TUESDAY, 16 NOVEMBER 2004
I felt slightly embarrassed about my appearance today at the school for adults. It was all about my clothing: old, worn-out belt, and a cheap-looking short-sleeved shirt.
This is another issue than can be debated until your belt finally rots off your waist, but it won’t take away a basic truth, namely that if you are embarrassed about how you appear, for whatever superficial reason, it just nips that edge off your confidence. The opposite is also true: if you feel good about your outward appearance, for whatever superficial reason, it just gives you that extra boost in confidence.
In light of these remarkable insights, what should I do? I need to buy myself a new belt tomorrow; I need to check out a few shirts, and I have to reattach the button on my green trousers.
FRIDAY, 26 NOVEMBER 2004
To accept the knocks in your programming, or not
The life experiences that give you psychological knocks form part of your “programming” that determines how you function as an adult. For example, certain experiences in my past resulted in a pathological unwillingness to work for characters who yell orders at me. I know where this reluctance comes from, and I definitely classify it as a knock. It also contributes to the particular programming that determines how “Brand Smit” functions.
Now for the really interesting point: this so-called programming can be changed through therapy.
What does this mean? It means I can go to a psychologist, and after a few months of hard work I will probably be able to accept a good job opportunity in a corporate environment where a moronic higher-up not worthy of my respect can scream at me, and it shouldn’t bother me.
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