The Taming of the Shrew
How to Become a Better Person
Prologue:
Few people in this world every become aware that they need to change. Fewer still are those who can identify what they need to change. Virtually none of those people then go on to successfully rewrite their story, their personality or their lives in the way they need to to be successful and happy. This story is based on my life and efforts to do just that. I am writing it in hopes it will inspire and guide others into becoming better versions of themselves; happier, healthier and more successful versions!Chapter 1: Knowing what's wrong!
Over the Forty-Five years I have been alive I have endured countless hardships, heartaches and abuses. If you dig around on Steemit.com/@venuspcs you will find my life story and be able to piece together some of what I have been through. Some of my earliest memories where of violence, fighting, drug abuse, alcohol abuse and other behaviors that I was lucky enough to know, at a very young age, where not right.
There was never really a strong moral compass in my life, in the way of a parent or guardian. From the time I could speak I routinely spoke out about what I was observing and that it wasn't right. Frequently this got the living hell beat out of me by the person doing the things I was voicing my frustrations over. Most of the time this turned out to be my mother.
Having been born addicted to Heroin, Crank, Cocaine, Crystal Meth and a slew of other drugs I spent the first 6 months of my life on life support; then at the age of 2 years old I came down with a mystery illness than put me on life support for another 6 months. I have lived my entire life enduring the side effects of this and surprisingly enough I can say they aren't all bad.
You see one of the distinct advantages the addictions gave me was the ability to see things no one else could. Most of the time this was hallucinations but occasionally it was truth. Truth about they way things are, the way things should be and how things could be different. As early as two years old I can remember analyzing situations, running simulations on possible events, determining all possible outcomes for a given set of circumstances.
Now I recognize this is not a natural ability that people are born with, it is however a learn-able ability. There are many people who learn to do this and never even know it. Truck drivers are a prime example. They are constantly looking well ahead of them, beside them and behind them and without even knowing they are doing it; they are analyzing the What-If's. What if that car 6 vehicles in front of me hits the brakes, what will the rest of these cars do, how can I escape without hitting or killing anyone. Good drivers do this so much that when "shit happens" it doesn't even surprise them, scare them or rattle them in any way. They react accordingly, safely and avoid dangerous situations.
Which brings me to "Knowing what's wrong!". The simple truth is that in order to know what's wrong you have to be able to analyze yourself. To run comparisons and simulations of yourself within your mind. Similar to the way programmers debug software. They test it, retest it and try to break it......until they do.....then they "Know What's Wrong" and are able to work on rewriting the code to eliminate the problem.
This may sound hard to learn, but honestly it really isn't. There are a few small and simple things you can do to learn this behavior that you can employ in your spare time and gradually work into your normal conscious way of thinking. When you aren't doing anything, important, put on a science fiction movie.....don't watch the movie, but instead look for the flaws, errors, holes in the story line, etc. You don't have to be scientifically minded or some supreme intellect to do this, there are obvious flaws and mistakes in everything.
Once you get good at spotting these mistakes in movies, start looking for the mistakes in life. When you are driving to and fro look for signage that is wrong, lights that don't work the right way, other peoples actions and behaviors that aren't right. As you progress in identifying the mistakes you will find yourself automatically saying things like "they should have done ....". Guess what you are now running simulations in your head, subconsciously, and predicting possible outcomes based on different possibilities. With practice this ability will become second nature and so ingrained in your psyche that you will do it all the time without even realizing it.
Now I must warn you, when you get good at this you will feel a rush of emotions every time your mind identifies something wrong. At first it will be disheartening and it will take some getting used to. There is, however, nothing to fear. Only worry about the things you find wrong with yourself, because those are the only things you have any control over.....at least for now!
If you like this, find it helpful or just want to see what I write next please follow @venuspcs and make sure to share/promote/re-steem this so everyone who needs to read it does! Thanks and have a wonderful day!