The Nerdist Way_ How to Reach the Next Level (In Real Life) - Chris Hardwick [34]
CHARACTERCIZE
Write down something you’re afraid of.
Write something good or beneficial about that thing.
To go one step further, draw your worst-case scenario.
Now change the drawing to give it pleasant imagery.
LOOK FOR GOOD NEWS
Do you have that one poisonous friend who seems to THRIVE on delivering bad news? Just like the very first Debbie Downer sketch on SNL (ONLY the first one—you can delete the subsequent ones from your mental file tree). People LOVE giving bad news. They love it. This is because negative information GREATLY empowers the giver and makes them feel important. Why? Because we listen. It affects us. Also it’s rude to respond to someone who’s just told you about something terrible in the following manner:
A Veterinarian: Your cat, Mr. Boots, has feline AIDS.
You: . . . Aaaaaaaaaaaand?
This is what the news media has become. Something that tells us daily that our cat has AIDS. Or that murders are up. Or that a common household item could possibly kill you. Bad news always gets more weight. We pay more attention to it because it feels more real for some reason. So then what starts to happen? We expect more bad news. When we do that we start to see more bad news. Once we get used to seeing more bad news we begin to actively seek it out. Sunshine is boring to us. You know how younger girls tend to screw the grease-enhanced jerkwads who blow them off rather than the nice guys who show up on time with flowers and mix tapes? We are exactly like those young girls but with news instead of jerkwads: The more awful it is, the more we want to get it inside us. And when we build our worldview around the idea that we live in this fucked-up vortex of despair, it weighs on us even when we don’t realize it. The response to my recent panic attack post was overwhelming. As I sifted through the comments and emails I received, I felt like I noticed a recurring theme of “I don’t know why but I’ve been getting more panic attacks lately.” Naturally, I have an unsolicited theory: I think the present mondo-Apocalypto POV in our country is largely to blame, and it’s fired into our faces EVERY DAMN DAY by the tragedy whores of the news media.
WE GET IT. THERE’S AN ECONOMIC CRISIS. WE’RE IN A DEPRESSION. They even went as far as to inform us, “Hey, remember 2007? We didn’t know it then, but that was a depression, too!” just to make sure that any recent memories were also charred in the magma of despondency. WAR, DEATH, NATURAL DISASTERS: the manna of the media. You think all of that blackness running in the background of our emotional desktop isn’t going to have a profound effect on our mental state? OF COURSE IT IS. Yes, it’s important to be informed about the world, but it’s ALSO important to keep in mind that it’s not all horrifying. NEVER forget that news shows and newspapers are run by companies that survive on ad sales driven by ratings, and the best way to achieve that is to keep you crapping in your Dockers so you’ll tune in. (That part’s actually OK. You should’ve gotten rid of the Dockers in ’99.)
It is therefore entirely your responsibility to make yourself feel better. No one’s going to do it for you. That sucks but sometimes you gotta work for things worth having. That is why it is imperative that you do the following: LOOK FOR GOOD NEWS. I know it’s campy and hokey, but I believe it to be vital to your emotional survival. You don’t have to go on some kind of doe-eyed Pollyanna bender; just start out by taking five minutes a day to find something about the world to feel good and/or hopeful about. I googled “happy” and found HappyNews.com, a site devoted solely to positive news stories (but if you Google “good news” you may accidentally enroll in Bible college). As I tooled around the site, I swear to you I felt better inside—and I’m normally one of those cynical comedian types.
Read good news.