If you seriously want to be in control of yourself, then here are 3 mistakes – with solutions – every Survivor fan needs to know.
Mistake #1: Not Listening To Your Own Gut
Understand this – listening to and trusting your Gut is important, as it can easily lead you in the wrong direction if you haven’t learned to trust it.
The most important thing to understand with this mistake is most people think that only listening to your Gut can get you in trouble, but if you ignore what your Gut is telling you and pass on whatever controversial topic you’ve found yourself arguing with your Gut about, you could end up in just as much trouble as if you agreed with your Gut on a different topic that led down a dark alley to a beat down. Confused yet? Learning to trust your Gut and listen to it properly isn’t hard, but it is vital to your growth and maturity as a human being.
Avoiding this mistake is critical to every Survivor fan’s success with stopping other people trying to control you because your Gut is your second Brain. It is wise and instinctual and it wants what is most important to you in your life..
So now you should Pay attention to the sensations in your Gut, just below your navel, along with the thoughts you are having on a particular subject. Are they in tune with each other? Doing this regularly will help you read your Gut better.
Mistake #2: Letting People Walk All Over You
This is actually a simple mistake that so many miss. Here’s what I mean: when you show weakness to certain types of people, the kind who would gladly take control of your life, they will slip into the driver’s seat without you even realizing it. That’s one way blindsides work in Survivor..
As a Survivor fan, here’s what this means if you make this mistake: when you hand your life over to someone because you fear them, what they can do to you–either in the game of Survivor, or in real life–you give them control of more than you realize. As one philosopher put it in Psychology Today, “Control can be ever so subtle, hidden behind the pretense of help, advice, a suggestion, or a joke. But it is none of those things–it is a conscious or subconscious attempt to rip out your soul and put in a new one: The one they created.” (Berit Brogaard, DMSci, PhD. Mar 26, 201
Survivor fans need to understand steering clear of this mistake is key because if you don’t, low self-esteem, or fear is the perfect reason for someone to step in and take control of the situation…and you. For example, Adam showed this on Survivor: Winners at War, episode 3 when he went directly to Boston Rob and told him about the plan to vote out Parvati. He was afraid of leaving a bad taste in Boston Rob’s mouth, which everyone knows, once you get on Boston Rob’s bad side, he’ll come back at you in spades. Adam let this fear control his actions, it blew up the entire vote, and Ethan got voted out instead..
Bottom line? You should stand tall in your decision making and don’t show weakness. You are worthy of your opinion, no matter what it is. Be confident. In Adam’s case on Survivor: Winners at War, he should have just kept the secret and let it be a blindside. He had the rest of the tribe voting the same way, so he wasn’t alone in this backstabbing, resume making move. Boston Rob is NOT the Robfather, or else he would have made sure his wife was taken care of on the Dakal tribe, or at least avenged her vote out to Edge of Extinction as quickly as possible.
Mistake #3: You Go It Alone.
Understand this – everyone needs someone to confide in, someone who has your back. That’s what alliances are all about. A good alliance will get you far in the game of Survivor, and in the game of Life.
What’s most important about this mistake is that on Survivor, you might get away with it. They may need you as a swing vote, but they may vote you off, too. Life is a bit more dramatic than Survivor usually. There is one season of Survivor that was similar to Life in this way, though. Remember Survivor: Palau, season 10? One tribe, Ulong, had the worst luck, and they lost every single Immunity Challenge. It came down to two tribe members, Stephanie and Bobby Jon. Instead of merging the tribes, like they do now, they put them to a fire making contest to see who would go home.
Stephanie went back to camp by herself that night. She had to go it alone, with no alliance to have her back. No one to talk to when she got scared, and do you know how scary it is alone in the jungle… on an island… somewhere in the middle of the ocean? Imagine it. She left Tribal all alone, in the dark. They aren’t allowed to take their torches lit. The fire at camp had gone out. The only way to keep wild animals at bay is with a fire. She had to get it going quickly, and keep it going. She said herself that she was afraid and probably wouldn’t sleep for fear the fire would go out, thus allowing animals to creep in on her. Just like her, when we are forced to go it alone, we buck up and put on a brave face. We tell ourselves it’s all worth it. We can do this. We don’t need anyone else. But, when Stephanie got that Tree-mail telling her it was time to pack up and move to the other camp, she got excited, because she knew having others around makes it easier to survive in the wild…in this world.
Steering clear of this will help you, because if you don’t, you could be alone in a world surrounded by people. What’s worse than being surrounded by people and none of them are on your side? Look at Survivor: Panama–Exile Island, season 12. At the merge, the La Mina tribe joined the Casaya tribe and La Mina was picked off one by one until only Terry Dietz remained. He had to fight for his survival, winning five individual Immunity Challenges, back to back, and four Reward Challenges. The good thing about winning Reward Challenges is you get to choose others to go with you, but Terry was basically a Lone Wolf. He had no one on his side, but he could have, if he had played it differently.
See, Terry had the SPECIAL immunity Idol from Exile Island. No one knew he had it, either. This immunity Idol could be played AFTER the vote, so he could have saved any one of those alliance members he waved good-bye to after the merge. It would have changed everything. The two of them could have gotten out the biggest threat in the game, which arguably was Cirie Fields, who came in fourth place, and was superb at keeping her Casaya Tribemates calm and loyal. If Terry and Sally had voted Cirie out 9th instead of Sally going home that night, who knows exactly how many people had actually been talked into staying loyal by her. She is well known for being able to talk people into doing things her way, and I’d almost dare say she was the queen before Sandra Diaz-Twine was.
So instead of making this mistake, you should make an alliance. Make a friend or two. Figure out who you want on your Reward Challenges, and go on Reward Challenges of your own! Not going it alone is a huge way of fighting off depression and anxiety.
Your efforts with other people trying to control you will get much easier and faster when you use the knowledge from these 3 mistakes to avoid problems and become a successful Survivor fan who leaves other people behind in your dust.
Hey, one more thing before I forget, here’s a book involving mystery, demons, and psychology entitled “Demontown: a Novel by LW Clay” – you can grab it here: bit.ly/demontown