Ouch

For the second hour in class yesterday, I was partnered with a man that I can only describe as a massive brick of pure musculature who doesn't understand the concepts and needs of lower-power level drills. Working with him takes a lot more patience, and I did have to get him to release his choke hold on me at least once so that I could explain that for this lower-level drill he needed to let go of the hold as part of the drill. He still insisted on powering against me a lot, which meant I was working triple hard during the lower-level drills. I finally gave up and decided this would just be my practice for speed of the drill (to get out of the hold before he could lock it into place, since he refused to let go of the lock once he got it - something that would be addressed in the higher-level drills).

The point of this story: Trying to power fight against a brick wall of muscles that refuses to move is like doing a Pilates workout against a 4-story building and then feeling like you got hit by a semi the next day. My whole body is aching.

Dude! WTF? Come back here you rodent!

Confidence

A key attribute towards building confidence is having the ability to overcome our greatest fears when dealing with situations we recognize as being dangerous. Confidence is primarily dealing with mind over matter.

Confidence is not something that you either have or haven't got. All that separates the under-confident from the confident person is how he chooses to behave in new situations.

We often decide that we're not capable, not interesting enough, and settle for blandness and routine. We also think that being more confident will be about being someone we're not, which is not actually the case at all. It's just about exercising our best aspects and learning new patterns of behavior which do us justice.

I have him project that new self image into the future, and to see that future as something bright and colorful. I have him look forward to taking advantage of new opportunities, so that he can build on this and secure it as a long-term change, which is vital.

This is the only life we have, and if we can engage with it charismatically, we'll get the best out of it, and put the best into it.

- Derren Brown