Recently, I realized I had not written up any description of the items in my personal “code of conduct” so here’s the first. Even though it is not the first this specific point is perhaps the most important to remember:
Don’t get mad, get busy …
💡 A good stream friend (rossim2i2) added the ellipsis (…) to the end and put this on their phone lock screen. I love that little change because it makes me wonder what specifically I could get busy doing that would counter the rage I’m feeling in the moment.
I’ve been attacked for different reasons all through my life. Some of them I deserved, but most I did not. Usually, the reason is because I am making someone look bad, which makes them afraid and do shallow things. They lash out at me by name and attempt to “cancel” me or personify me as “unhinged” in order to simply attack me.
But here’s the thing, every single time that has happened it has been for the best. It almost always means I’m on the right path and disrupting things as I go. People who follow the status quo get annoyed, even angry and hateful and lash out. Could be a peer, a manager, a church, even an (ex)wife. Almost always they do not want things to change and I’m pushing for them to change. People generally fear change most of all, even people you love. And Yoda taught us all what happens after that:
Fear leads to anger, anger leads to hate, and hate leads to suffering.
The solution in every single case (for me) was just to direct that adrenaline and passion — not into lashing out and defensively attacking back (in anger), which takes tremendous will-power that I often don’t have — but to just keep on working and focusing. Ignoring someone attacking you is the obvious best way to proceed. It’s also the hardest. But if you need motivation just remember that not only does it infuriate them by not acknowledging them, it also proves their impotence and lack of ability all by itself as you continue to succeed.
This technique works for everything in life. Try it in your next gaming session. When someone starts to talk shit, either on your team or the other team, just mute and ignore them and continue to play the best game you can. You might lose, but your stats will tell the story no amount of idiotic rage can. You were the best player, and if you weren’t who gives a shit, you learned a lot in the process. While that idiot was tapping out completely dumb-shit to say about you in the game (probably at 20 WPM with their index fingers), unprovoked, you just keep pushing and farming and getting that XP and gold. Your power increases while theirs diminishes because they have chosen to focus their energy on pointless, idiotic rage, even if you lose because you are focused on progress, not blame and drama. Easy to say, incredibly hard to do, which is why it took so fucking long for Luke to become a Jedi (if he ever actually did).
So next time someone attacks you, check for anything of substance in their attack, a kernel of truth that you can take and “be grateful” for (as the Buddhists say about our enemies) and then get busy making them even more angry by producing more value than they ever could. They’ve maxed out their value. That’s why they are angry with you. But you stay focused on improvement and growth, not out of cognitive dissonance, but objective measures of your success, personal measures that you don’t have to share with anyone — especially the small-minded, emotionally-stunted individuals who will continue to attack. It’s all they have. Their value is now tied to how much they can succeed in making you look or feel bad. The more you react, the more their fucking twisted, devolved brain thinks they have won. They will rage, and troll, and provoke, until they quit the game or die. Remember that.
And, by the way, there’s nothing wrong with taking a bit of pleasure from the tragedy of their hopeless, stunted existence provided it motivates you to do better and stay focused on the goal. After all, we didn’t create this fucking reality, but we’re gonna own it.
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#life #coc #enemies #gaming