Self Improvement – Get The Funk Out!

"Gordon Bryan" "The Great Gordino"I wrote in an article recently that I had taken a bit of time to ease off on online interaction, as I had slipped into a bit of a funk. I thought I’d go further into that in this article…

In that previous article I had written that I did occasionally slip into these funks due to ‘things’ in my past. It’s easy to package up our past with labels, and ‘things’ is about as simple a label as you can get!

In my case, those ‘things’ were a relationship breakdown and slipping into depression.
When it first started, I found myself feeling nervous all the time. I don’t mean nervous with thoughts of worry, but a nervous feeling around my body. I tried to talk myself out of it, and I tried to think myself out of it, trying to convince myself I could sort myself out by myself.

I couldn’t.

I had got myself into a pretty bad state, genuinely worried about my mental health, when someone who knows what they are talking about told me I needed to go to my doctor. I didn’t want to, but went along, and it didn’t take him long to diagnose the depression.

Once I knew what it was, I could step back and look at the situation in a different light. It was the chemical imbalances in my body that were causing the depression, and were causing the adrenaline surges, and the adrenaline surges were causing worry which was causing more adrenaline.

I could then move forward on a road to recovery, through chemical and talk therapy, and when I had setbacks, I could deal with them armed with knowledge.

That’s the key.

Because I now had more knowledge, I was far better equipped to deal with that situation. That’s something which carries on up to today. When I slip into a funk, I am able to recognise it for what it is, and then just step back and let it pass without giving it any more concern than that.

Setbacks can happen when you set out towards your goals.
Setbacks can happen when you choose to improve yourself.

In fact it’s probably better say that setbacks *will* happen, and it’s how you deal with them that’s important. You can tell yourself that the setback is the end of the road, or you can look at the setback, gain the knowledge to understand it, and then gain the knowledge to move forwards.

When I had the relationship breakdown and depression, I had already been a believer in self talk, and in goal achievement theory. That’s why I had been expecting to be able to deal with it myself.
It turned out though, that I just didn’t have the knowledge I needed at the time. I went and got the knowledge, and it took me listening to someone else to persuade me to take that step.

If I make depression sound like it was easily solved, believe me it wasn’t. It was a long haul and massive setback for my ambitions, particularly my entertainment ambitions.

Look to your goals – do you have setbacks which seem like terminal roadblocks? Let me know because it could be that you are just missing some knowledge. Do you have a depression situation? Let me know, because talking about it to someone who has experienced it can be hugely beneficial.

If you slip into a funk, make a decision and take action to get the funk out!

Do let me know what you think, leave a comment below or share on facebook, etc.

‘Til Next Time,
Health & happiness,
Gordon
P.S. Don’t forget you can grab my motivational book ‘Transform Your Life in 21 Days!’ at rock bottom kindle pricing!
P.P.S. Here’s that other article I mentioned – Why I’m Getting Back On It..!

Do leave a comment!

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10 Comments

  • When I was in my teens and early 20s, I battled depression every day. And an eating disorder (bulimia). One of the greatest pieces of advice a therapist gave me was to start a journal to record when and where I had episodes and what the triggers were (or what I thought they were), and find positive ways to alleviate what was going on with me. Doing this has helped me dramatically reduce episodes with depression and feeling overwhelmed. I suggest it to everybody who needs help because it helped me through a terrible time.

    • Yes Ang,
      This kind of acceptance and understanding is a key element to making progress.
      Thanks for stopping by!
      Cheers,
      Gordon

  • Such a great post! Setbacks ALWAYS happen! Life is actually chaos, with occasional moments of peace, not the other way around! It is damn hard to get through some of these things, and we beat ourselves up too much. Learning to let go, accept and understand, rather than bash ourselves into some kind of submission is SO important! Thank you for sharing! Walking that path with you….

    • I love the concept of chaos with occasional moments of peace! That’s a great summary and accepting it can help to empower us to deal with the inevitable chaotic moments. I like it!
      Cheers,
      Gordon

  • GG—great courage in your article telling of your depression and how you were determined to conquer it! Bravo my friend for getting the help! Just I got help for my alcoholism and drug addiction almost 27 years ago, I felt total acceptance like you did when you realized what was wrong. Also, always remember you are NEVER alone. Think of how many people you have helped or will help with this article! 🙂

    • Thanks Liz,
      When I found myself in the world of depression, I became very aware of the stigma surrounding it.
      Since I had already been writing a lot about goal achievement by then, it made sense for me to write about it so it could help others.
      I cover it in my book, and cover it in many of my articles, because someone who is suffering depression or knows someone who is, might see a spark of being able to relate, which in turn can give something to hold onto at a time when you feel you have nothing to hold onto! It’s one the massive benefits of the internet age.
      Cheers,
      Gordon

  • Hey Gordon,

    So sorry to hear about your difficulties, buddy. I’ve suffered from depression myself so I know only to well what it can be like. Having said that, as I’m sure you well know, it varies from person to person because each of us is an individual with our own feelings, set of circumstances and ways of reacting to and dealing with things, so depression is a very individual thing for each person.

    I, like you, found that knowledge was the key. I battled with it for years and found that, for me at least, no help from the doctors or even therapy with a psychologist did one scrap of good. It was only doing some research myself and actually learning a bit about how our brains, emotions, etc work that I found that I was actually able to climb out of that very deep, very dark hole.

    This is just the same with an online business. Knowledge is power and, armed with the right knowledge, you can build a firm foundation for your business, avoid certian pitfalls and deal with certain problems when they come up. I like John Chow’s philosophy about problems – he doesn’t view them as problems, rather as opportunities to learn.

    While going through years of depression wasn’t a good thing in itself, I now look back on it and use it as a learning experience which I find can help me now and, in some cases, has equipped me to be able to help others

    • You’ve hit the nail on the head Glenn,
      Both in understanding depression and then applying the principles to goal achievement, including online business.
      I would rather not have had it in the first place though! Ha!
      Cheers,
      Gordon

  • Totally with you on that one, buddy! But better to be able to do something good with something that we can’t change.

    Keep going and keep on doing the good stuff you’re doing. You’re doing great 🙂