Not JMG, but in case it helps, a few thoughts on what has seemed to help me some, though I'm not where I'd like to be.
I mitigated much of my teenage and 20s leanings towards slacking by having a pretty good relationship with my parents (so I actually cared that they wanted me to do well in school), and then by finding extrinsic-motivational systems aligned with stuff I actually cared about (I studied subjects I genuinely liked in college, and then I joined the Army for my own reasons). The plus side was that outwardly, I got stuff done and did well, the downside was that eventually I ran out of extrinsic-motivation frameworks I cared about enough.
So, occult work has been helping me learn discipline not because I'll get in trouble or get rewarded for being disciplined, but because I value the results myself. A few other thoughts that have helped/are helping along the way:
1) "The Divinity of Interest": I think this particular phrase came from Jordan Peterson, but basically, if you learn to pay attention to what you actually care about, what grabs your attention, what you do for its own sake, you can start to work with that. Maybe right now that's video games and booze and porn (or whatever else), but maybe scratch at what about those grabs you (besides the obvious, of course). Take video games. Maybe it's the achievement. Maybe it's strategy. Maybe it's competition, or challenge, or exploration. Whatever it is, see if you can find ways to get that that are closer to "productive" for values of productive you actually care about.
2) Small Wins: it can help to identify incremental steps that are more achievable, shoot for those, and celebrate when you get them. Start chaining them together, and you're getting somewhere. Take daily meditation. Maybe you'd like to get to doing it for 20-30 minutes every day, but if you're starting from zero, meditating for five minutes once a week is still doing better. The trick is not to get too comfortable with the incremental steps, but not beat yourself up for staying with them for as long as you need to. Easier said than done, I know.
3) Find a Community that Supports You: Different folks respond differently to peer expectations - for some, its' the make-or-break between success and failure, for others it's a non-factor. But for most folks, it's at least a little helpful for motivation, and if nothing else, it can be practically helpful. That's one thing I've found so helpful about these Magic Mondays - reading about what other folks are doing, asking questions, sharing milestones, and the like have certainly helped me stay on track, so maybe it could help you as well.
Whatever you end up doing, good luck, and hope some of this helps! Jeff
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
branchandroot
Re: Indigo Children Prediction
Date: 2024-11-12 01:45 am (UTC)I mitigated much of my teenage and 20s leanings towards slacking by having a pretty good relationship with my parents (so I actually cared that they wanted me to do well in school), and then by finding extrinsic-motivational systems aligned with stuff I actually cared about (I studied subjects I genuinely liked in college, and then I joined the Army for my own reasons). The plus side was that outwardly, I got stuff done and did well, the downside was that eventually I ran out of extrinsic-motivation frameworks I cared about enough.
So, occult work has been helping me learn discipline not because I'll get in trouble or get rewarded for being disciplined, but because I value the results myself. A few other thoughts that have helped/are helping along the way:
1) "The Divinity of Interest": I think this particular phrase came from Jordan Peterson, but basically, if you learn to pay attention to what you actually care about, what grabs your attention, what you do for its own sake, you can start to work with that. Maybe right now that's video games and booze and porn (or whatever else), but maybe scratch at what about those grabs you (besides the obvious, of course). Take video games. Maybe it's the achievement. Maybe it's strategy. Maybe it's competition, or challenge, or exploration. Whatever it is, see if you can find ways to get that that are closer to "productive" for values of productive you actually care about.
2) Small Wins: it can help to identify incremental steps that are more achievable, shoot for those, and celebrate when you get them. Start chaining them together, and you're getting somewhere. Take daily meditation. Maybe you'd like to get to doing it for 20-30 minutes every day, but if you're starting from zero, meditating for five minutes once a week is still doing better. The trick is not to get too comfortable with the incremental steps, but not beat yourself up for staying with them for as long as you need to. Easier said than done, I know.
3) Find a Community that Supports You: Different folks respond differently to peer expectations - for some, its' the make-or-break between success and failure, for others it's a non-factor. But for most folks, it's at least a little helpful for motivation, and if nothing else, it can be practically helpful. That's one thing I've found so helpful about these Magic Mondays - reading about what other folks are doing, asking questions, sharing milestones, and the like have certainly helped me stay on track, so maybe it could help you as well.
Whatever you end up doing, good luck, and hope some of this helps!
Jeff