Downward Arrow
Foundational CBTSo let's talk about this incident with your friends. So walk me through it now. You you're sitting down. You're having lunch with your friends. And what happens? So we're all just sitting there catching up. And like it always does, it comes down to, well, what are you doing for work?
Yeah. And I'm sitting there listening to these three guys who went to the same school that I did, talk about how much money they're making. They started their own partnership. And then it comes to me. Well, what are you doing, Jackson? And they're all sitting there with these smug looks on their face, smiling away without a care in the world. And I I'm just sitting there with a fake smile on my face, seething.
Because I have to sit there and tell a lie about how I do, you know, great work as a foreman at a, a construction site when I know I'm just low man on the totem pole. So... That's what you were thinking to yourself, that I'm, I'm low man on the totem pole. That is nowhere near as great as what they're doing. That's what you were thinking. Yeah. Okay. So they're they're talking about their great jobs, and you're thinking to yourself, I am nowhere near where they are.
No. I'm thinking I'm, I, I why did my life go in one direction, and why did theirs go in another direction? Okay. If that's true, that your life went in one direction and their life went in another direction, what would be so bad about that? What, what bugs you about it? It bothers me that they're doing so great in life, and they had all the same opportunities that I did. And I'm where I'm at, struggling from paycheck to paycheck, and they're making a ton of money.
Mhmm. And what's the worst part about that? The worst part about that is that I didn't I didn't fulfill my promise. I didn't fulfill what I have in me, what I'm capable of. If I would've tried a little bit harder, maybe. If I would've listened to the teachers, if I didn't cut classes, maybe I could've been one of the three looking at, you know, Dave on the other side of the table. If that were true. You know, if, if all if everything you're saying is true, what would this say about you?
It would say that I'm a loser. Like, I'm I'm a failure. So that's really the baggage that you're carrying into this conversation. They're talking about work, but you're thinking about being a loser and being a failure. And that's really what's got you upset. If you look at it that way, yeah, that makes sense.