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My question on viewing opportunities as finite vs ever abundant.

The controversial self help Yes Man Experiment based on the movie and the title of the same book.

My year long following of Jordan Peterson and his antidote to chaos by advising a person should exploit and capitalise on every opportunity life hands them.


I am feeling drawn towards an approach to life which is thus; giving myself the responsibility to accept and act on every opportunity that people in my life, or institutions, or life itself, offers me or beckons me towards.

Examples include:

  • A work colleague suggesting innocently that I should check out another specific company in my field of work. Will I just treat this as fickle work gossip or will I investigate this specific company and at least inquire for employment vacancies?
  • A friend suggesting to do a certain activity with him. Should I make the effort of organising the activity and engaging time to act on it?
  • There is a competition being held at my gym, will I enter it?

Here are guidelines I shall follow (at least ones I can think of at the moment):

  • I need to have the competency to act on something. If there is an activity which requires an enormous amount of money that I don't have, then I simply say no to it unless there is some way of negotiating on price or capitalising on the opportunity at a later date.
  • If my gut feeling feels intense bad sensations on the request, I will boldly decline. This happened to me a while back when a few friends invited me round for a social gathering, and I felt this funny/weird feeling about it that I trusted. I decided to go to the gathering anyways just purely out of curiosity in respect to my gut feeling. Turns out my friends were all using intense, poor illegal substances in a ghostly manner which was scary.
  • When acting on the opportunity, I will be acting on it with full commitment. No half in half out, no timid approach towards it. But a brash attitude of "bring it on."
  • Time being another form of competency.....Unless I am seriously devoid of time, I will do everything within my power to create the time for the opportunity as the expense of sacrificing my routine. I will be mindful to not use "I don't have time" as a deceitful excuse to turning down an opportunity.
  • Routine items will not be classified as opportunities. If there is a friend and every week he invites me out to a restaurant, I will be saying yes/no to those items based on how I feel in the moment. Brand new opportunities and suggestions, however, will be ranked as an opportunity to act upon
  • I will refuse all suggestions and opportunities offered within books/information material. I read profoundly as a hobby but still struggle to implement the thousands of bits of advise contained within books. See my question Too much information, too little time. All opportunities will have to be offered within 'the real world.'

I will post back after 2 weeks and inform of how this attitude makes me feel. Whilst I would like to say "I will report back in 3 months" I find it more appropriate to trial this out for a few weeks and tweak accordingly before attempting this experiment for a full year.

asked 17 Jan '18, 20:56

Nikulas's gravatar image

Nikulas
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edited 17 Jan '18, 21:01

So far so good. Troubleshooting this experiment because I am finding there are many circumstances where I have 2 conflicting items/appointments and it's bugging me I cannot do both of those items...The solution for this problem I have been using is to listen to my own guidance as to what feels more appropriate or what I fancy at the time.

I am also finding that some "opportunities" that I attempt to purse end up sizzling away. I will try enrol in a class and just find the class is totally...

(12 Feb '18, 18:15) Nikulas

booked out or it once again clashes with another appointment. Sort of in a seesaw of discernment about whether to push/force myself to go to the new event or if I just take it that Life doesn't require me at that event.

(12 Feb '18, 18:16) Nikulas

I haven't read the entire post but at first glance, I'm glad you posted it. Thank-you for sharing this great information.

(26 Feb '18, 03:23) The Traveller

@The Traveller- I successfully obeyed this way of operating for a bit of time and had many new experiences. In the end I learned most of this approach is just about making decisions (to enable flow of energy) and thus can feel very empowering as a way to get out of a rut as I did. But the choices life brings me through living passively are few, so I credit most of the effectiveness of this approach as a tweaked version of decisions = life .....

(08 Mar '18, 18:02) Nikulas
showing 0 of 5 show 5 more comments

by whose law be competent,
is your intuition
multidimensional,
Icarus went for a thrill

flying too close to the sun

link

answered 06 Mar '18, 19:39

fred's gravatar image

fred
19.7k176

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