Self Esteem, and why I can do without it

Who said self esteem was important? I always wondered why everyone needs to think positive and be happy 24-7... Sounds like hell to me. There are times in our life when we need to say "This is completely fucked" and be able to say it without some idiot going "That's not positive", if you want me to make my thoughts positive to make you feel better than I have a foot that I'd like to introduce to your ass.

Now I wasn't always this insane about Self esteem, I never really believed it but I didn’t think it was totally laughable till last Thursday. As I mentioned (I think) I am in the middle of a course on job seeking, it’s only 2 weeks long and ends tomorrow but believe me when I say it’s been the most pointless 2 weeks of my life. I’ve officially spent about 30 hours of my life doing something so pointless and stupid it’s hard to believe its government funded... OK so not that hard. The cherry on the cake of silliness came in a roleplay that we had to read through. Here it is, I haven’t changed a letter

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You are part of a space crew that has been sent on a mission to explore the universe. The space ship that you and your crew were piloting lost power and you have crash landed on the planet Kerrion. You know a little bit about this planet from previous expeditions and you know a rescue party will not be able to get to you for at least 20 days. You also know that you mst walk to the other side of Kerrion for the rescue ship to land. All your supplies floated off into the universe when you crashed. Your crew has been confined inside the craft for a long time and a lot of things have gone wrong on this mission. This has created a lot of negativity among the crew and many have low self-esteem due to name calling from others and the fact that they have made mistakes that have caused many problems on this mission.

Of all the planets in the universe to crash on, you crashed on the worse one. From previous reports about this planet you know that if anyone thinks a negative thought or says a negative thought out loud terrible things happen. One of your crew has already made a negative comment and a big ray of light appeared from nowhere and zapped him away, so you know that negative thoughts and statements can cause a loss of life. You have started to make your way to the rescue point and have been walking for days but every time someone in your group has a negative though tey are instantly zapped back to where they started and have to start all over again.

You cant possibly survive without food or water and the only thing edible on the planet is slinmy green worms. The only fluid you will have to drink is the orange blood inside the worms. Yuk!

How will you change the negative thoughts that each team member has to positive thoughts?

To get the remaining members of your team to the rescue site, they must turn all negative thoughts and comments into positive thoughts and comments.

- How can you boost the morale of all members so all thoughts are positive?
- How will you motivate yourself to remain positive?
- How will you encourage each other to get over the feeling of failure associated with the trip?
- What positive affirmations and thoughts could you use to help your team survive?
- What positive thoughts or actions could you use to help your team survive?
- What positive thoughts or actions can change the teams attitude to having to eat the slimy worms?

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How on earth is anyone meant to learn anything from eating slimy worms? Is this job seeking or a new version of survivor? How exactly will this hypothetical help me in gaining employment in any way? So far all it’s done is give me hope, the idiot that wrote this has a job... I expect 4 by the end of the month.

So how on earth was I meant to answer this? How could I have looked myself in the mirror and said I was honest to myself. yes I could've easily toed the company line and answered the way I know they wanted but damnit that's just not me. I have here my actual answers, the real things that I handed in and, best of all, got marked off.

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a) What steps will you as a team decide on to boost the morale of all team members so all thoughts are positive. Kill them all, then I only have to worry about myself

b) What steps will you as a team decide on to motivate each member of the team? Not applicable, all dead

c) What steps will you as a team decide on to encourage each other to get over the feeling of failure associated with the trip? What part of all dead don't you understand

d) What positive affirmations and thoughts could you use to help your team survive? Can't survive if you're dead

e) What positive thoughts or actions can change the teams attitude to having to eat the slimy worms? Corpses can't eat

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If you can't take something seriously, don't bother faking it.

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"I don't want any yes-men around me. I want everyboy to tell me the truth even if it costs them their jobs" ~ Samuel Goldwyn