/alpha/ - Self-Improvement and Motivation

There still isn't enough controversy so I'll throw Stefan Molyneaux's annotated summary of his autobiography in the mix.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oybAUKZhaMA

(I'm not much of a fan. He could be an interesting libertarian commentator, perhaps, if some personal issues didn't get in the way and he didn't have to ask for money.)

>>116
>implying that's not the fucking life right there
>gets everything handed to him
That's an easy life. One that promotes sloth and want. He talked like an entitled bitch, he thought too highly of himself and he wasn't honest with himself about who he was.

There are a few things I'd like to address:
>humility =/= modesty
When people think of humility, they think of the bashful boy who goes "aww shucks, it was nothing special really", one who does not take any credit for their actions (if positive) and accepts all blame (even if it wasn't his). That is false humility.
Humility is total honesty with yourself. You have to be able to look at yourself and your actions and be truthful about them. If you fucked up, you don't lie to yourself or provide yourself bullshit excuses, you realize your wrong and make right the wrong (if you can).
Same goes with how smart or strong you may be. You get complimented on your intelligence a lot? Pretty good grades? Intelligent opinions? You may be pretty smart, there is nothing wrong with saying: "hey, I'm a pretty smart guy" and having pride in that.
Does that make you arrogant?
No.
Arrogance dictates that you have to have excessive pride in things half true or downright wrong. If you realize you are intelligent and start swinging it around like a dick, that would be pretty egotistical. However, if you aren't actually that intelligent and you do that anyway, that makes you arrogant.

Humility is about knowing what you are capable of and being totally honest with yourself about it. It's also about taking criticism.
Take into consideration the things people say about you. Take credit where credit is due.

Moving on though.
Elliot cared too much about getting a girlfriend, he felt he was nothing for it and he felt entitled to it. That does not make him alpha, but a whiny bitch.

>>146
Fantastic explanation of humility. We might need a virtues general thread.

>>169

Notice, though, that he categorizes "false humility" with absolutes ("one who does not take any credit for their actions (if positive) and accepts all blame (even if it wasn't his)"). Taken to that level, it's not realistic and the fact that it's an artificial assessment suggests that something artificial is being done with it. I get what you're saying, but I think it's still different than the thing he's pointing out.

I'll add something about self-doubt: it's really frustrating when non-alphas don't get when you think it's healthy! Sometimes I explain to my father that I get angry at myself for not doing what I need to and people like him say "oh, don't beat yourself up" and I'll be like "I'm not doing it to the point that I give up; I'm doing it to motivate me to do better". And then he'll just be like "well, don't beat yourself up" as if he's not even hearing the distinction (and he'll scarcely even try to make one). This gives me this impression that most people don't even think of any "negative" feeling as something useful if you use it the right way, but just something to be avoided, and it's somewhat sickening, but it explains a lot.

Back when I read Think and Grow Rich, I got to this passage:

Self-satisfaction. There is but little remedy for this affliction, and no hope for those who suffer from it.

The difference between us and them is that even if we found this a little disturbing, we might try to find out why someone would think this way, while most of the people would just go "that sounds crazy" and not even question why someone who interviewed dozens of successful people would bother telling it to anyone else. I told it to someone once and they weren't even interested in hearing my take on it.