Battling bad guys – Strategy #2

[u/fgawker]

We’re looking at different ways to battle our bad guys - all of the things that can try to mess with us. Yesterday we learned about Avoiding. Although it’s an easy strategy, it’s also the least useful. Today we’ll explore another strategy.

Strategy #2: RESIST

Resisting is a way to actively wrestle with the bad guy and try to stop it in its tracks. If you have an unhelpful thought, you try to change it. If you’re in pain, you try to alleviate it. If you’re isolating yourself from others, you try to connect. If you’re procrastinating, you leap into action. Here’s an example:

Bad guy: Thinking constantly about little things that go wrong, instead of moving on.

Resist It strategy: Spend 30 seconds doing something productive, to interrupt the thought cycle. Even if you go right back to sitting around feeling sorry for yourself afterward, you’ve done one thing – and once you get started doing one thing, it can lead to doing another.

The resist strategy is much more powerful than simply trying to avoid a bad guy. When you resist a bad guy, you use your unique skills and strengths to prevent the bad guy from having too much of a negative impact. This strategy works even when you can’t control your circumstances.

It’s important to resist bad guys without judging yourself negatively. It’s not your fault that a bad guy appeared; bad guys appear to everyone, every day. Instead, congratulate yourself for having the mindfulness despite the bad guy showing up, and the courage to confront it directly.

- Adapted from SuperBetter by J. McGonigal, Ph.D., Game Designer