Bangkok Klong of Consciousness

When I was a child we had this game made of chunky plastic called ‘Screwball Scramble’, where you had to navigate a metal ball through various obstacles.

Whenever I think of the game I vividly remember the parallel bars obstacle. It comprised of two metal rods on which the ball sits and by moving the rods apart with a lever, the ball could be made to roll forward onto the next stage of the game. However if the rods opened too far, the ball would fall through and you’d have to start all over again.

Last week I dreamed I was playing this game, but every time I tried to open the rods I’d panic and quickly close them again, forcing the ball to roll back. Then, in some sort of pretentious midnight epiphany, I realised that it wasn’t just a ball I was trying to move forward, it was my life.

A few days later, around the time of my recent attempt to enhance my social skills by initiating conversations with strangers in Bangkok, I was reminded of a book I read last year by British journalist and BBC TV producer Danny Wallace, called ‘Yes Man’.

The autobiographical novel tells the story of Danny, a tired and disillusioned twenty-something living in London who realises that his life is passing him by, wasted on nights on the sofa watching crap TV and eating Pot-Noodles.

Determined to make his life more interesting and positive, he vows to spend a year, “saying yes when once I would have said no”, paving the way for a detailed account of what happens when you say yes to everything, be it invitations from friends, requests from strangers, or even advertisments, drugs and Nigerian spam emails.

I first heard about ‘Yes Man’ after reading a review which described it as, ‘one of those rare books that actually has the potential to change your life’. Well, a literary masterpiece it isn’t, but I think the idea and message alone strikes a chord with a lot of people - so much so in fact, that it has already been picked up by Warner Bro’s to be made into a film starring Jim Carrey in 2009.

Anyway, I digress. The underlying message of the book, my lame Screwball Scramble metaphor (and I suppose of this post), is that in order to acheive any sort of self-improvement you must first force yourself out of your comfort zone. Put on your best Paul McKenna voice and tell yourself that you are willing to risk rejection, humiliation and failure. Step out of your old self. Resist every voice in your brain that has been hardwired since childhood to tell you, ‘no, that’s not me’. Sure, the ball might fall through and you’ll have to start over, but you’ll be better prepared for success the next time around.

So if you’re ever faced with an unnerving situation and you find yourself tempted to slip into somewhere more comfortable, why not join me in repeating this little mantra first: Whatever’s in the way, is the way.

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dropped in the klong(s) of books, life |
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