EP 14 - Podcast - The Badass Challenge - Scrub Your Devices of Monsties

Listen to the podcast

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Read the blog

Monsties

Last Week’s Tools:

• Try a Nice Fast: Try to catch yourself before you automatically acquiesce, agree, give in, or stay quiet. Share your thoughts or ideas, and go to bat for them.

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​Hey You!

Thanks for joining me for episode 14 in the 2019 badass challenge.
Last’s week’s homework was trying the Nice Fast.

How’d it go?
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I was surprised to find that I never did slip back into my old nicey-nice and so took the week off. OK, that’s not true.
I stayed in badass training by doing two entirely new things and one not-so-new thing that I haven’t yet made an official part of the tool set but will today.

First, I’ve stopped reading and listening to the “news.” Cold turkey.  
 
I’ve unplugged for this one reason: Because all the bad news has a way of making you feel a combination of helplessness, hopelessness and rage and that interferes with your badass training.

The solution has been to subscribe to a number of motivational YouTube channels. There’s a list of my Top 3 at the bottom (There’s a list of my Top 10 on the blog version of today’s podcast.)  

These videos are kind of like an alcohol spritz for the mold of negativity that wants to form around the edges of my mind like the pink slime that grows in the crevices of your filtered water jug . Rows and rows of little spores, holding each other’s little spore hands, sway and whine, “This is so hard.” “What if nobody will hire my services?” “What if they move my emails straight to the trash folder?” “What if I can’t get past the gate keepers and my calls won’t be returned.” It’s a chorus of persistent voices.
I find that the motivational videos are great at drowning them out! And I need that because I wake up in the morning and everything is already too much. Where to even start?! Now I know where! I grab my phone, open my YouTube app, type in “motivation” and start scrolling. One video that talks about strength of mind I like especially. It suggests that all the little moments of negativity will add up real quick and slime me. Just like the pink spores. You can’t see them, can’t see them, can’t see them and then, having reached critical mass, all of a sudden, there they are! Individually, these tiny little spore bodies don’t have any impact; they’re unimportant. But when enough have accumulated, they’re disgusting and you know you’ll have to get out the scrubby right then and there and follow up with the alcohol spritz from good measure! Which is going to be part of this week’s tools as follows:

This week’s badass challenge is to take your devices and scrub them of apps and notifications, podcasts, newsletters, and what not, that tell you in smart prose why and how the world is going to hell in a handbasket. Replace them with some of the thousands of motivational, educational, uplifting and inspiring contents, such as videos, podcasts, newsletters, etc., that can fill your heart with hope and encouragement, ideas, suggestions, stories and data that fire your imagination and build your confidence. Interestingly, I bet you’ll find that they’ll equipped you so you can go out into the world and more easily do things that help make it better than it is now.
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Now to the tool I’m officially adding to the tools set: It’s a habit that just came about by itself. In certain situations (you’ll know them when you’re in them) ask, “What is the badass move here?” Additionally, make it a habit to identify and call out when something isn’t. For example, “It’s already Friday afternoon. I’ll put this call off till Monday,” is not badass and I would call that out as such. Then I’ll ask, “What is the badass move?” If it’s going on 5 o’clock and it’s actually too late to get that call in, I would set an alarm for Monday, and include the number to dial to remove even the smallest obstacle. Identifying and removing the obstacles you can do something about it always badass! And I know you can do it because I know we were all born as badasses. We had the world by the tail (before they snipped it off). Now, we just have to build our own tails and plug straight into the juice of life!

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To do so, here are this week’s work in bullets:

• Mute as many elements as possible that bring you down
• Watch some motivating, inspirational, educational videos, listen to some great podcasts
• Ask, “What is the badass move here?”
• Identify and call out when you go off the rails with like whining, negative self-talk, or self-pity. Not to be confused with self-care and self-compassion. Keep those!​

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Thank you so much for listening. I love you. Wherever you are on your badass journey, I know you are whole and wise and divine, perfect as you are and as you are not this very minute. Bye for now.

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