It’s not unusual for blogs to get cold after a young writer
like myself either runs out of ideas or ambition. I’d like to think that I am
an exception to many of the things that plague my generation at large, but that
just wouldn’t be honest. I am working a job that has nothing to do with the
degree that I have, I am no good with money and I complain about the incredible
piece of technology that is my cell phone. But, worst of all, I am a moper.
It’s been something I’ve had to fight my entire life. I just
have this negative attitude towards everything that does not seem to mesh well
with my attempt at overall nice-guyness. I don’t know what you optimists have
been doing this entire time that makes you think that everything is going to
work out all the time, but clearly while you were doing that I was preoccupied with
reality. I have never been able to see the bright side of anything.
I believe that this is many ways due to my background as an
athlete. I’ve discussed on this blog before about how I’ve grown since my days
as a concussion seeking, muscle bound football player. There was a time in my
life that my dream was to go play professional football. I’ve gotten to the
point now that any more than 10 minutes of pregame football commentary and I
start having overwhelming suicidal thoughts caused by the shame of knowing that
at one point I probably sounded like these chimpanzees. But that’s beside the
point.
When you play a sport, and take it seriously, as we were all
required to at the college level, you have to watch a lot of film of yourself
playing. Everything you do in practice and in games is recorded and analyzed by
the coaching staff. So, every time I would make a mistake, which was nearly
every play, I would have to watch it over and over again in a room full of my
peers and a disappointed coach. Every time I stepped six inches to the left
when I should have stepped right, that misstep was rewound, and replayed dozens
of times with the coach repeating the same criticism in a different way every
few seconds.
Part of a coach’s job is to be hard on their players, I
totally understand that. And there are some people that are cut out for this
kind of redundant scrutiny, and right now they are probably calling me a baby
as they admire how great their biceps look in their sleeveless t-shirt. But I
just wasn’t meant to put up with that any longer.
So now, when I make a mistake, whether it’s at work or on
stage or anywhere else, my mind goes back to that film room, replaying that
mistake until I’m so overcome with anxiety and shame that I lose all
perspective of how insignificant that mistake is. The other day, I got lost
trying to get somewhere in my car. I ended up having to turn into a parking lot
to get turned around. I ended up driving the wrong way down one of the parking
lot lanes and having a frantic hand gesture fight with a woman in a Kia Soul.
I was flustered, and starting to sweat, and found myself
repeating the phrase “you’re dumber than a parking lot” out loud in my car. This,
or something just like it, happens at least a few times a week. It’s this harsh
negativity that weighs me down in everything I try to accomplish.
“This joke sucks, don’t even bother finishing it.”
“That open mic sucks, don’t even bother going to it.”
“The expiration date on this sour cream is three days ago…
fuck it.”
You may be wondering how that last thought could fit in that
same stream of consciousness, but believe me, it does. The only time I
consistently feel optimistic in life is when I’m convincing myself I’m not
going to get some horrible virus from food I shouldn’t eat.
I, like many so other people, am seeking to become a better
version of myself. And convincing myself that I’m less competent than whatever
inanimate object I’m frustrated with at the time is not helping me achieve
that. My shortcomings are not going to be made up for by spending all my time
thinking about the problems themselves. At some point, I’m going to have to get
out of the film room, and start finding solutions.
No comments:
Post a Comment