/SIG/ - Self Improvement General

You should try the A_ATT thing, which stands for All _language you wanna learn_ All The Time. It's basically about immersion, all the time.
You should found LOTS of material in the /lang/ thread, which is also great for training and all. Feel free to take part, it's really great : Have a nice journey learning that my friend.

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Just beginning my journey to improve my overall health. I've stopped drinking alcohol, stopped smoking weed, just now starting NF. Started exercising regularly and trying to eat smaller portions and drink only water/never eat fast food. Wish me luck fellas I'm 5'10" and 222 lbs. I want to try and lose those 22 lbs by the end of the year. I figure if I don't absolutely drive myself crazy it'll allow me to slowly but progressively make it to my goal.

I know that motivation is only a brief state of mind and that it all come down to discipline.
How the fuck am I supposed to discipline myself ? And how do I stick to that disciplie ?

You just start and go. That's it.
When you don't feel like doing it, get off your ass and do it.

week 1 of gym done

currently deadlifting 155, benching 105, and squatting 115

heres to feeling good all the time

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Nice what routine do you follow?

I've hit one plate on bench press.

I know its not crazy but Im happy for myself. This is the first time in my life going to the gym were Im not actually fucking around and going to get physically stronger.

>Wake up 0530
>meditate 25 minutes
>gym
>Breakfast
>Work
>read positive book during lunch
>Brazilian Jiu Jitsu after work 1:30-3:00 hours
>Clean dinner/read
>Meditation at 2130
>Sleep

I get to travel, don't drink, hunt and off road. Life is good when you're not a trash can man.

People think getting smashed, promiscuity and degeneracy is "fun" when its literally killing you.

Glad to see a positive Jow Forums thread.

Keep it up gents!

Well, easier said than done. I get the point, and I try to do it, I got the determination, and then boom, discipline fells apart.

I have a terrible fear of being a bugman and soulless.
I fear that at the end it just comes down to "impressing others" and consuming, that my interests don't feel genuine.

How do I explore things without immediately seeking a group/subculture I can find validation in?
What are some ways to find things that genuily appeal to you?
How do I things for myself and not for others?
This takes into account not giving a shit if someone doesn't accept it.

Sorry if this is a very abstract or whiny question.

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That's great work man, keep at it.

Been really skinny my whole life, recently began to try and sort my diet out and now ive gained a lot weight for the first time. Gonna start exercising at home and using some weights I have in the house for a few months and try and get a routine going before I start the gym. Any tips on good home exercises?

Keep trying until you succeed friend.

pretentious as fuck. focus on yourself and not tearing others down

Tearing others down?

Projecting much?

If you put trash into your body you're nothing more than a living trash can. i.e. a trash can man.

Toughen up, faggot,

Everything has a group behind it. There is no thing that you would do only individually. In every case, there will be a group of people with similar interests where you can seek validation.

If you want to go forward strictly and individually, it will require you to seek out sources of education on your own and reading them without looking for reviews, appraisals, and other non-sense. Even if you were a neo-nazi, you would still be able to socialise within the group of like-minded individuals and seek approval on things from them.

If you want to do things mainly for yourself, realise how many things you already are doing for yourself. People who claim they do things mostly for others need to first see through their own bullshit to further develop.

I don't know you, but I could realisitically guess that you don't work because society is in a dire need of your qualification. You don't study to increase the amount of knowledge in our society and pass it onto next generation. You don't socialise to let other people have more fun than you. There's always an egotistical aspect to things.

Other user. When did you start with Brazilian Jiu Jitsu? I plan to start in September, I'm 22. I haven't got a very sporty background, but have been doing boxing for two years when I was 13 - 15. I don't plan on becoming a world champion, but I'd like to do for the competitive and martial aspect. Cheers.

I started at 28. Im 32 now. Purple belt. Best thing I ever did. You don't really need to be in great shape for it, it helps but technique is the most important.

I'f I were you I'd grab this book off amazon or a used store just to kind of get an idea.

best of luck!
goodreads.com/book/show/5055380-jiu-jitsu-university

>How do I explore things without immediately seeking a group/subculture I can find validation in?
You don't. It's about finding the like minded individuals within those communities. I used to play a lot of Magic at game stores and there was the cool crowd and the dorks. The dorks were people who pretended to know more than they did, got mad at variance, or had generally repulsive personalities. The cool crowd understood the importance of practice, knowledge, and discipline. They were the ones who found humor when their opponent got super lucky, and they tended to be more fit than the dorks.

Any hobby will be similar— you just gotta find your people.

Define "positive book"

Liked the other anons said, you can explore any hobby, interest or niche on your own easily, just research it on the net, but eventually you will want others to talk to about it, not to seek validation, but to learn more about the subject, new techniques or subdisciplines, other people's perspectives, etc.

You find out what you like by just trying everything, write down 15 things you find interest in, and find out how to make a hobby or passion project out of them. The ones you gravitate to the most, eventually about 1-3 or them, you should stick with, because those will make you the most happy. Granted, these interests may change with age, take that into account.

If you're planning on going to the gym, make the commitment and get in there. go today faggot. You sound like a fatty wanting to start her diet on Monday

Down 20 kg from the start of the year but still got another 30 I want to lose.
>Starting a fast today for a few days because I have an addiction to food and need to break it
I've got 5 gallons of distilled water in the fridge and chugging tap water as I go.
Only going for 3 days and then I hope to start up 2 days no food, 1 day food and cycle that until i'm closer to my goal weight.
Is snake juice a meme or would it benefit me during these short fasting periods?

Not the same user here.
Just wanted to say that I like this "write down 15things" list, thank you for the inspiration buddy.

Hey bros, how do I deal with the pain of hugely wasted potential?

I grew up with good genetics (6'2 since the age of 12, handsome face and blue eyes) in a wealthy family, and I went to a very prestigious private high school and now am close to graduating with an engineering degree from a good public university, but the thing is I have pretty much wasted every single opportunity I've ever had and have barely scraped by in everything.

Despite my good genetics and going to a great high school full of cool and friendly high class people, I was very shy and didn't make any friends or connections in highschool or in my hometown and wasted my time browsing the internet and playing videogames instead of playing sports and meeting people. Because of this, I am very socially awkward and bad at conversation and basically just a beta pussy, and I feel like I have noone in my life.

I came into university a morbidly obese neckbeard who didn’t give a fuck about life and had no social skills. In the first two years, I got shitty grades because I didn’t care and just sat around in my room on my computer. I ended up losing 100 lbs and becoming good looking and getting a girlfriend which is probably the only good thing I have going on in my life right now, but dating her makes me even more depressed about my situation and gives me a shit ton of anxiety because she comes from a very well connected family and every male in her family is a hyper chad and I am a socially awkward beta pussy with few friends and no good connections and I constantly stress about the fact that I am not good enough to date someone from her background (though I am more attractive than her, that's really all I have going for me).

Check this out

>Hey bros, how do I deal with the pain of hugely wasted potential?
at this point it's just spilled milk. the best you can hope for is to learn from your past but accept the path you've put yourself on

anyone able to identify this statue? also anyone know and SIG related movies? documentary or fiction?

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Asked a 25 yo out, she clearly said yes, she was practically drooling. She is a VERY good and conscientious girl.

Wrote 55k words of my novel.

Learnt the piano sheet for "Me and Julio down at the schoolyard". Now it's time to learn to sing it along.

Handled the city council for 5 hours.

Finally talked to my investor. Long due shit.

Hit 170Kg didly this morning.

On the bad side:
Haven't slept 7 hours straight for 1 week.

fuck this is good

>anyone able to identify this statue?
Hercules and Cerberus statue, by Antonin Pavel Wagner, Michaelertor, Hofburg palace, Vienna, Austria.

i hope you were just being lazy and not enough of a brainlet that you couldn't crack that case

>also anyone know and SIG related movies?
American Beauty

Posting a cap

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time traveller
the actual thread is here

I guess that's all I can do but fuck me it's a lonely and miserable path I've put myself on.

How do I become more of an expressive person? I can't be as comfortable as I want to be around people, and it affects how I speak and act. I can't smile that well because it feels forced and fake a lot of the time, and I can't speak with the proper emotions I want to portray if that makes sense. It just comes out monotone most of the time. I feel that this might hurt my first impressions with people, and that definitely won't help with job interviews or talking to women. When I spend more time with people it get's better, but I still feel restrained. I just want to be more open and friendly, like my Dad or some of my friends.

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I know your pain, user. I've wasted more opportunities than most people get
>tested high IQ
>gifted/private schools K-12
>college (incl. room/board) fully paid by parents
>Math/Comp Sci degree
i graduated 5 years ago and i've been working part time retail and smoking weed daily since then. i'm just starting to get my shit together, but i spent a long time coming to terms with my past choices and wasted potential

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I know that feel brother, my college was paid for and my dad offered to pay for me to join a fraternity and make friends which probably would have fixed my life by finally having friends and a good network but I was too lazy and autistic to do that and coped by saying I didn't want to and that's my biggest regret.

Anyway I'm working hard at unfucking my life but its hard and I feel like sometimes that the amount of work I need to do to get to the point of a normal person is so daunting, even though I could have easily been 100x better than a normal person is so demotivating that it depresses me so much.

Any tips on coping and accepting what i've done to myself?

Just get back on the horse man, it's in the past, you can only go forward from here so just work as best you can, that doesn't necessarily mean as hard as you can, work smart. You got this man.

Thanks man, no use crying over the past just keep on keepin on

>Any tips on coping and accepting what i've done to myself?
The struggle of getting your shit back on track is something a lot of people never do. Use the memory of your own failures as warning to not repeat them. You can't change your past but you can learn from it. That and practice forgiveness, especially toward yourself.

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Any tips on creating a good and effective discipline routine ?

How can I genuinely work on my self esteem?

I'm productive and reasonably successful, and I come off as charming. However, everything I percieve negatively has a crushing impact on my mood and opinion of myself and I find it hard to believe I'm worth anything. On the other hand, my friends seem to be very comfortable with what they are, even if they don't seem to be as hardworking.

Btw what are often called blabkheads might also be sebaceous filaments. A creme with a high percentage of urea helped a lot and reduced them for me. I use 10%

It's literally as easy as scheduling out your week on your phone's calendar. From the time you wake up to the time you go to bed. Here's a typical "gym day" example of my own setup

>8 am wakeup and work on art commissions
>12 pm go to gym
>2pm eat
>3pm work more on commissions or at job
>5pm eat again
>6pm workout abs then work more on commissions
>8pm read/study from a pdf
>9pm read/study from a book
>10pm meditate then listen to a youtube lecture as I fall asleep

Then I do basically the same thing the next day. Discipline eventually becomes habit, which is the sweet spot where you feel dumb if you don;t do the thing that's on your schedule. And don't worry, you'll need a break to truly relax every once in a while and tell your schedule to fuck off, but as long as you keep at it, you'll be in the clear. Best of luck man.

This is really helpful. Thanks a lot bro

How do I keep to my diet ? I mean, I want to follow it strictly but way too often I just can't and fall for all those shitty product that harm me but damn, they are delicious.
How can I follow a diet without falling every two days or so ?

I'm struggling to work, lift and continue side projects, timing is a big factor. Can you guys offer any advice? I'm considering lifting at 6am before work and getting to bed earlier to see if that helps.

Also, I'd love a simple strength routine that wont leave my arms as noodles

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To all the wasted potential bros. I feel you, im probably doing way worse than any of you, but something Peterson said really helped me out.
>Treat yourself like you would treat someone you were responsible for

Obviously its not an insta fix or anything, but if i see some of my friends or family and theyre just... average, unremarkable or even stupid. I still dont look down at them at all.
I think the way i treat myself and you guys treat yourselfs would be considered absolutely disgusting if it was an actual interaction between 2 different people.
Like if you guys treated your sons the same as you treat yourself right now, it wouldnt be fucking good. It would be completely unacceptable.

I'd be letting him down I guess.

By the way is there a goodreads group for Jow Forums?

Thanks homie
>movie
The detachment is nice
Doing awesome man
You can work on your fake smile in front of the mirror I'm sure of that. I'm struggling with the rest too, and on top of that I have a foreigner's accent speaking the language in the country I grew up in :(

There was, around 2013 or so, dunno if it's still active yet

Been doing intermittent fasting, also with a 7000 step walk and yoga every morning for the last couple of days and been enjoying it. Thinking about giving veganism a try, but not trying to do too much all at once.

kek Im reading that book right now

That sounds like me a few years back. Never got diagnosed or took medication but managed to clear things up with willpower alone.

Anyone here successfully get over alcoholism?

I'm on day 3 without a drink and getting worried I'll never poo again.

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Please recommend some .pdfs. Also, sources of them as well. Thanks.

To the wasted opportunity bros like myself... Here's a parable:

1 For the kingdom of heaven is like unto a man that is an householder, which went out early in the morning to hire labourers into his vineyard.
2 And when he had agreed with the labourers for a penny a day, he sent them into his vineyard.
3 And he went out about the third hour, and saw others standing idle in the marketplace,
4 And said unto them; Go ye also into the vineyard, and whatsoever is right I will give you. And they went their way.
5 Again he went out about the sixth and ninth hour, and did likewise.
6 And about the eleventh hour he went out, and found others standing idle, and saith unto them, Why stand ye here all the day idle?

7 They say unto him, Because no man hath hired us. He saith unto them, Go ye also into the vineyard; and whatsoever is right, that shall ye receive.
8 So when even was come, the lord of the vineyard saith unto his steward, Call the labourers, and give them their hire, beginning from the last unto the first.
9 And when they came that were hired about the eleventh hour, they received every man a penny.
10 But when the first came, they supposed that they should have received more; and they likewise received every man a penny.
11 And when they had received it, they murmured against the goodman of the house,
12 Saying, These last have wrought but one hour, and thou hast made them equal unto us, which have borne the burden and heat of the day.
13 But he answered one of them, and said, Friend, I do thee no wrong: didst not thou agree with me for a penny?
14 Take that thine is, and go thy way: I will give unto this last, even as unto thee.
15 Is it not lawful for me to do what I will with mine own? Is thine eye evil, because I am good?
16 So the last shall be first, and the first last: for many be called, but few chosen.

>OCD
I suggest you leave caffeine as much as you can and start drinking water. As for book recommendations I think the most general introduction are the best:

1. A Short Course in Intellectual Self-Defense by Normand Baillargeon.
2. The Memory Palace by Lewis Smile.
3. Speed Math for Kids by Bill Handley.
4. The New Psychology by William Walker Atkinson.
5. The Art of the Feel by Thor s000.tinyupload.com/index.php?file_id=02068535343618862689

A larger list is here pastebin.com/raw/fSYEXEFb

>What are you working on this week to self improve?
Playing with some CTFs and some boot2roots so I can get my penetration testing skills up. I aim to get my OSCP this year.

I also like to speed read self help books and put summaries of them into my private wiki, so if I ever need a shot of motivation I can read my summary, rather than the whole book again.
>What methods have worked for you?
Grinding. Just sitting and doing the work, and taking obscene amounts of notes. Like seriously, I have filled more notepads than I know what to do with. But it helps the info stick.
>Are there any obstacles you need to get over?
I asked my employer to change my title to sysadmin. He said no, and this had been a real big hurdle for me to cross. Motherfucker I am spending my time today decommissioning three different servers; I DO SYSADMIN WORK!

I was in a bad mood when he said no so I read all of goodnight Punpun in about three days. It gave me lots of bad, bad feels and sapped motivation. This is a hurdle I need to cross.

Read The Art of The Feel, Thor had valuable advice for you. A link is in the post above.

You need motivation in the first instance.

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I'm not familiar with Jow Forums, so this had a ton of great resources (I'm interested in learning Chinese). Thanks user.

If you don’t have enough time, make more time. Move things around. Go gym after work and work on your projects in the morning.

If you want big arms then work on your arms.

Can I get more info on the personal wiki? What do you put in there , what does it look like? How did you make it? Could we see some screenshots?

Depends what you want, I really only have anthropology, ancient myths and some classic fiction and sci-fi. Oh, and like an dickload of tabletop rpgs.

>Can I get more info on the personal wiki?
It sounds more exciting than it really is.
>What do you put in there ,
I have a few different themes. Infosec shit, Linux, my rants and musings, book summaries, write ups of CTFs I’ve done, posts on some personal projects I’ve made, old school meme dump folder, holiday photo dumps, a treasure chest of some nudes I’ve been sent
>what does it look like?
They are just Wordpress blogs that I make new entries for.
>How did you make it?
Using the Wordpress app
>Could we see some screenshots?
Negative ghost rider, i don’t want to get doxx.

Wordpress’s internal search is so fucking good that I can put any keyword I’m looking for into the main forest and it’ll search all my sites for what I’m after. Bloody good shit if you need a way to collate your notes.

appreciate it user, i keep a diary of notes and stuff, but having one place for all my notes and thoughts collected would be nice, maybe ill make my own

focus on your goals until what you want to be disciplined in is a solid part of your routine. IE if you want to run a six minute mile focus on how great it would be to know you can run a six minute mile, do that until running every day is automatic. Even if you feel like trash you know your will do it anyway. Once its habit you just need to make sure you don't slip up and make it not habit.

The reason I've been able to maintain motivation, albeit at a slower than optimal pace, is with the idea that I can achieve more than my parents think I can. They're wonderful parents but I don't want to live my life working for some guy, making money for them when I could be my own boss, pay my own workers, bills, insurance and buy my own supplies/sell my goods/do my thing. It feels like it's killing me slowly to know I'm working to make a profit for someone else when I'm more than capable of doing just that for myself.

>i keep a diary of notes and stuff,
I found i more often have my phone on me than my diary, so if I was having a sit and a shit on the dunny id fill in a diary entry there rather than having to schedule time for writing in my book

Hey y'all, I'm new. Hoping to become a regular, because I need help. I'll fill this out for now.

>What are you working on this week to self improve?
I'm starting small, after more than a few bad months. Was drinking heavily, then lost my mom, then got a dui and was arrested. I have since quit drinking (just over 3 months now) and am making small improvements. To finally answer, this week I hope to:
~start doing yoga again (aiming for 3 times this week)
~getting back into a more regular swim routine (3 sessions of at least an hour each)
~journaling and scheduling more this week
>What methods have worked for you?
I know it's pathetic to say, but my main motivation has always been the idea of being the best version of myself in service of my dream/ideal (read: imaginary) master/daddy. I just want to be worth
>Are there any obstacles you need to get over?
lol probably that motivation actually
Also, I get crushing depression that makes it hard to leave bed. I have body dysmorphia, and struggle with both overeating/binges as well as starving myself/extended fasts. I am trying to watch both.

I've read the sticky and am currently aiming to use available resources daily.

I'd love to help others feel motivated. Encouraging and supporting others is much easier for me than being kind to myself. I hope it's okay to come here in hopes of moving from baby steps to actual progress.

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Drinking: Keep it up mate, I'm reminded of that scene in Bojack Horseman: "It gets easier, the hard part is doing it every day. But it does get easier"

Poo: Eat more fiber, especially lentils/beans.

This is some good shit. Thanks man.

>my main motivation has always been the idea of being the best version of myself in service of my dream/ideal master/daddy

You’re a fucking faggot

Anyone else notice that they get stronger erections when they are succeeding in things other than fitness?
In particular, I did excellently in my exams this semester.

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Is the contents of that pastebin in an FTP or something?

Started nicotine and i feel less adhd now

Does anyone have the copypasta of avoiding estrogens?

I am supposed to do so fucking much for the finals because was slacking off the whole semester. I can’t force myself to do an allnighter anymore. I was able to do it in the past but I just can’t think anymore

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Nice mate. I sawed off my foot, toe stopped hurting.

Props to you, especially for quitting booze and weed! What has nf done for you? What do you expect it to do? Out of curiosity

I’m currently doing kickboxing/muay thai/cross fit 3 times a week, and while I feel better than I ever have I want more way more muscle and less fat. I took a break from lifting heavily because of all the cardio but I miss it dearly.

Currently 5’8, 180 solid

How do I incorporate lifting back into things and build muscle while reaping the benefits of my mma training? Hard mode: How do I do this while on a 16:8 IF fasting regiment?

Schedule goes like this

Fast until 3 pm, have first meal, have something that will give me energy like a snack or black/green tea, workout from 8-9 (7-9 if I’m feeling up to a cross fit class before muay thai/kickboxing), eating a final meal, then begin fasting at 11

This is every monday, wednesday and thursday. Every other day outside of that I treat as a rest day. Not really sure how to merge my love of fighting with lifting while also fasting and its bumming me out

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Take out crossfit and replace it with weightlifting regime.

I already paid for the year, I can nix crossfit unfortunately. Im not quite sure what to do

Cant**

Should I maybe utilize some rest days?

Can one even build muscle on IF? I have so many questions

IF is literally just meal timing. It's not a magical diet. You should be able to build muscle on it.
Personally I'd cut if I were you. You should find out your TDEE with all that cardio you're doing.
I've heard great things of Upper/Lower routines you do 2x a week from some anons