Music Banter - View Single Post - Give one piece of life advice you're glad to know and share it.

Thom Yorke · 11-27-2011, 02:00 AM

Growing up I tried to find my niche by being the kid who you knew had a ton of potential, but never cared enough to show you it. This applied socailly, to academics, sports, pretty much everything. I was purposely enigmatic with people by showing elements of my personality, but never fully developing proper relationships (ie. "Why does he not come out more?"). I left everything to the last minute for school and let people know I did. I never tried out for any teams and instead chose to show off in pick-up games.

I have always been an analytical person and I thought that I was so self-aware that I couldn't possibly trick myself into holding myself back, and thought that being someone who lacked drive and motivation just had to be my natural disposition. People gave me advice on how to overcome these motivation issues, which I thought was stupid because, if I heeded their advice, it would just be me trying to trick myself, which I didn't think possible because of how self-aware I was, or, rather, how self-aware I wanted to view myself as.

Well, turns out I was tricking myself. By dangling that potential out there I created something that would make me recognizable among people, while at the same time hiding my fear that I wouldn't be as good as I thought I could be. And the reason I did that was to provide myself with more self-worth, mainly due to social problems. By giving myself the idea that I had more to offer, it helped boost my confidence. What if I tried my hardest and wasn't as good as I thought I could be? Then I'd just be some kid with social anxiety.

Funny thing was that once I came to this "realization" it opened up alot of new potential. By opening myself up to taking advice from others, and doing things that I sluffed off before because I thought they insulted my intelligence by even considering it, I was able to improve in all facets of life. As for social anxiety, I was able to work on it. I was always aware of my social anxiety, but again, going by potential, I just attributed it to not putting myself in enough social situations. But now that I had decided to listen to others' advice, I decided the best route was shock therapy. It was as simple as that. Forcing myself out and forcing myself to build meaningful relationships did wonders.

At the end of the day I'm happy that this whole self-realization thing happened early in my life. I actually still catch myself doing this though. I think I'll know everything about something, and I have to remind myself that I really don't. It's sort of like that Aristotle quote, "All I know is that I know nothing." And in a way, this kind of acts as a barometer for my self-confidence...

All right, this is starting to sound nuts. Let's finish this up.

So basically, this is my advice: if you are constantly turning down other people's advice because you think you're above it, you probably need to work on something in your life that you're trying to ignore, no matter how self-aware and in control of yourself you think you are.

11-27-2011, 02:00 AM	#2 (permalink)
Thom Yorke Music Addict Join Date: Jan 2011 Posts: 1,848	Growing up I tried to find my niche by being the kid who you knew had a ton of potential, but never cared enough to show you it. This applied socailly, to academics, sports, pretty much everything. I was purposely enigmatic with people by showing elements of my personality, but never fully developing proper relationships (ie. "Why does he not come out more?"). I left everything to the last minute for school and let people know I did. I never tried out for any teams and instead chose to show off in pick-up games. I have always been an analytical person and I thought that I was so self-aware that I couldn't possibly trick myself into holding myself back, and thought that being someone who lacked drive and motivation just had to be my natural disposition. People gave me advice on how to overcome these motivation issues, which I thought was stupid because, if I heeded their advice, it would just be me trying to trick myself, which I didn't think possible because of how self-aware I was, or, rather, how self-aware I wanted to view myself as. Well, turns out I was tricking myself. By dangling that potential out there I created something that would make me recognizable among people, while at the same time hiding my fear that I wouldn't be as good as I thought I could be. And the reason I did that was to provide myself with more self-worth, mainly due to social problems. By giving myself the idea that I had more to offer, it helped boost my confidence. What if I tried my hardest and wasn't as good as I thought I could be? Then I'd just be some kid with social anxiety. Funny thing was that once I came to this "realization" it opened up alot of new potential. By opening myself up to taking advice from others, and doing things that I sluffed off before because I thought they insulted my intelligence by even considering it, I was able to improve in all facets of life. As for social anxiety, I was able to work on it. I was always aware of my social anxiety, but again, going by potential, I just attributed it to not putting myself in enough social situations. But now that I had decided to listen to others' advice, I decided the best route was shock therapy. It was as simple as that. Forcing myself out and forcing myself to build meaningful relationships did wonders. At the end of the day I'm happy that this whole self-realization thing happened early in my life. I actually still catch myself doing this though. I think I'll know everything about something, and I have to remind myself that I really don't. It's sort of like that Aristotle quote, "All I know is that I know nothing." And in a way, this kind of acts as a barometer for my self-confidence... All right, this is starting to sound nuts. Let's finish this up. So basically, this is my advice: if you are constantly turning down other people's advice because you think you're above it, you probably need to work on something in your life that you're trying to ignore, no matter how self-aware and in control of yourself you think you are. Last edited by Thom Yorke; 11-27-2011 at 02:15 AM.