Fine tuning my life

unclehermit (54)in #life • 8 years ago

Fine tuning my life

If you read my blog you will have noticed the series on 'An exploration in becoming limitless', a series somewhat inspired by the movie Limitless but also driven my my own life long search for self improvement and human optimisation. Although related to the series this post is more about my journey and the reasons behind the series. It might add a bit of context to why I started writing about self improvement.

I left school with few qualifications and very low confidence, having been bullied by both fellow pupils and some very loathsome teachers. Why some people choose to become teachers when they clearly hate kids is beyond me, I guess it gives them a chance to exert their will over weaker children who aren't in a position to defend themselves effectively. It was no wonder I failed at my exams, schools was a fairly miserable existence, my only solace being music. I loved bands from the 1960's and 70's when everyone else was listening to 80's pop which, at the time, I hated (ironically I love 80's pop now!). So I was a bit different which is what will generally make any kid a target. I lost interest in the education system, I found most of what I was being taught pointless and meaningless at the time. In hindsight I should have put a bit more effort in, it would have made the subsequent years a bit easier. However, it led me to where I am now, so I have few regrets.

After the relief of leaving school and having an almost euphoric summer relaxing, free of the restrictions of the system and able to hang out with like minded friends listening to music, I took a job as a trainee chef. To begin with I wasn't much good, but I learned and I enjoyed cooking, although not the hours. A few years later I was entered into a national cookery competition and won and began to realise that there was more to me than the bullied useless kid that left school. I particularly remember one summers afternoon working 70 hour weeks in an exclusive restaurant. It was a beautiful summer afternoon and I was under immense pressure to prepare for a 150 cover wedding later in the day. I'd forgotten something from the large walk in fridge, on the other side of the car park and had to run, sweating and stressed, across the car park to fetch it. As I ran I noticed a group of young men, not much older than myself, lying on the grass dressed smartly, presumably attending the wedding, chatting with a couple of girls, glasses of champagne in hand and clearly somewhat amused at me running across the car park. At that moment I thought something had to change. Something rose up inside me, telling me that I was better than this.

It was a conversation with my mother shortly afterwards that gave me the confidence to go back to university. She clearly believed in me and it made all the difference. I packed in cheffing to do a university foundation course and passed with flying colours. During university I taught myself mind mapping, memory and focus techniques from Tony Buzan's series of books and passed with flying colours. This is really where my journey into self improvement really began and I have since completed a great many qualifications and courses including professional qualifications for my job, hypnosis, coaching, Neuro Linguistic master practitioner training, martial arts, languages and numerous other studies. I also commit to reading a number of books on self improvement each year, usually around 10 sometimes more, sometimes less.
In more recent years I've become aware of alternative education and taught myself about the markets, health and fitness and learned about a higher more spiritual way of thinking (or rather not thinking). The movie 'Limitless' really woke me up and made me realise that my whole life I've been striving to gain that high functioning pinnacle that Eddie Morra achieves in the film, but the realisation is that it isn't a pinnacle after all, it's an ongoing journey that's hopefully far from over.

We all have our own approaches and preferences, and I don't ever consider myself an expert in anything as there is always more to learn. I wouldn't, however, have got to where I am today without continually and consciously improving myself and I hope that some of the posts that I share will be of value in some small way so that my readers may gain something.