Like millions of regular people, I have anxieties. I have a rough time sleeping, I stress, and I get depressed. Very typical behavior for many people.
Rather than pretending these issues were not real, I built an Android application and met them head on! I created Behavior Therapy Tracker and through its constant use I was able to overcome many of my anxieties.
Let me explain my story and I hope it can help you as much as it has helped me.
Just over three months ago, I posted a few memorable blogs (for me) in regards to a career change. The career change has been made and I thought I would share my retrospective on how it has affected me.
Following the format of the retrospectives I have been over the past 3 months, I’ll start with a check in word:
Rejuvenated
Making the move from an 85% managerial role to a 100% development role has completely rejuvenated me. In the past three months I have gained an incredible amount of knowledge and furthered myself as a person and a developer.
Moving along to the next items:
Since I’ve become an adult, I’ve had stresses, anxieties, compulsive behaviors. I’ve always had a hard time dealing with them. In fact, in looking back now, it dates back to even my childhood.
I created this Android app Behavior Therapy Tracker as a tool to help me; which it has immensely. It works by creating a list of behaviors. This list can contain anything that you wish to track. For example:
Along with behaviors, a list of refocusing activities are required. When you’re practicing behavior therapy, it’s important to first recognize your behavior (the list you created previously) and attempt to train your mind to ignore or avoid it. This is often accomplished with a refocusing activity. For example, when you are stressed, it’s often a good idea to turn the negative thoughts into positive thinking. Positive thinking is often a fantastic tool to overcome many anxieties and disorders.
After your behaviors and refocusing activities are created, you can now begin tracking your behaviors with this simple form:
For best results for tracking purposes, it’s advised to attempt and enter each occurrence immediately or on the same day. The reporting tools that have been created can hopefully help you detect patterns in your behavior, arming you with tools to help fight them in the future.
I’ve made this a paid application because I have a family to support and I invested a lot of time in creating this application. As a sign of support in return for what will hopefully help you, I’m asking for a small payment.
Yes. I already have a few ideas in mind to extend the functionality of this application.
I would be more than happy to hear your thoughts on the app. Don’t hesitate to email me at info at endyourif.com.
I’ve played sports my entire life and I find certain sports for me it’s easier to find that inner calm. When your head is clear and only exactly what you are about to do matters. This is always when I’m at my best. Everything around me slows down, if I’m aiming at something, the target becomes clearer – almost as if I’m pulling the target to me – and there is no way I can miss it.
I wish I could say this statement is true when I’m writing code like a CASE Statement in SQL. Oftentimes, my mind is racing with needing to get something done and having a thousand more things to do. At times it can take me a little while before I realize that I’m actual moving slower because my mind isn’t focused.
I’ve found a great technique that I’ve learned by playing golf that helps me focus better!
I really wish that I didn’t need to tell myself this 5 to 10 times a day, but unfortunately it’s always just too easy to not start.
If you don’t have kids, you truly have no understanding of how many toys they have and how much of a mess they make. If you only have 1 kid, it’s probably a lot, but I’ve been blessed with 3 – and let me tell you that each and every day there is at least 10 to 15 minutes of clean up in every room!
The honest truth of the matter is though, if I don’t start, it won’t get done – unlike the story about the Shoemaker and the Elves, they are not coming to clean my house each day!
This of course is a very simple example, but I find this reminder useful even at work.