How To Get Rid of Your Own Bullshit

You know that feeling when you talk to someone and suddenly you realize the person is bullshitting you? Do you feel someone is simply making stuff up and tries to convince you that white is black, or vice versa? What do you do in a situation like that? In most cases, you keep nodding ‘yes’ and then, after the meeting is over and you get to see a friend of yours, you say: “Christ, that guy is full of shit!” It’s very rare that you get to say into someone’s face: “You know what? I didn’t buy a single word of what you just said”. How many times did you find the courage to say: “You know what? You’re creating your own reality now and what’s worse, you started believing it yourself”. How many times did you say: “You are creating truths about yourself and, frankly speaking, I am sick and tired of that – get a grip on reality and face it, man!”. I can’t see too many hands up in the air, so I assume not many of you have done those things. I only did it about four times in my entire life. But now I promised myself to do it much more often. That goes for all the people I meet and/or am friends with, but most of all it goes for my relationship with myself.

Try doing the following exercise: before you finally end up telling people they’re full of shit, try pinching yourself in the arm every time you see some bullshit coming from them – or better, draw a small line on a piece of paper. Once you look at your arm (or at the piece of paper) after the conversation is over, you will get a pretty clear picture of what any given person is representing and whether they are trustworthy. As for me, I will probably go straight from making the line number one to saying “Bullshit!” aloud. If you do that task, I’ve got another one for you. Every time you start thinking you cannot do something, draw a similar line, or (even better) write that down. Do that for an entire month, or a week, or even a day. One day, take the list and write at the top of the page: “Bullshit!”. And then simply say: “Fuck! I say some really sick bullshit about myself!” Purification won’t come on its own, but that diagnosis is a necessary step to enable it.

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