Pulling yourself out of a deep, dark place.

Hey everyone, first time poster here. This section of the forum really stood out to me. Over the last couple of years I've been doing a little research, investigation and studying into the mindset and how it effects what you do and generally how you perform in whatever task it is you're trying to accomplish. Anyway, I'd like to tell a little story about myself and how my mindset and general outlook on life has changed drastically over the last couple of years and how it's affected my life.

About a year ago I was in a very deep, dark hole called clinical depression. I refused to speak to anyone about it (especially my friends, family and doctor) I viewed it as a weakness and I believed in my heart, 100%, that I would be viewed as inferior to other people if I told them that I was depressed. It was actually so bad that I constantly thought of suicide and would hope and pray that I had a brain aneurysm in the middle of the night. In other words, I was a complete and utter wreck.

I had no motivation to do anything (It would take me about an hour just to get out of bed in the mornings) I couldn't see a point in anything what so ever. Everything seemed trivial. "Well whats the point of doing X if Y and Z are just going to happen" ran through my head constantly.

All that changed one day when I was forcefully dragged to the local library by a cousin of mine (I hadn't been outside of the house in weeks) While I was moping around the aisles something caught my eye. It was The Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy. It was partly sticking out of the shelf and in the complete wrong section of the library all together. I had remembered the movie wasn't bad and my cousin had said that if I didn't borrow a book I would be left behind and have to walk home myself.

"Eh, this will do..."

Now, before this point I had never been a huge reader. In fact, I always thought reading was stupid" Hahaha who the hell reads? What's the point?! It's boring and trivial. Those complete and utter nerds wasting their time!"
I started reading it and I was pretty much hooked from the first chapter. I couldn’t put it down, it was fantastic to be so interested in something for once. I didn’t know it then but this would later form my “Reading Approach” (I’ll get to that in a bit)

Every single word I read felt like a milestone to me. That gradually evolved onto every single sentence, every paragraph, every chapter, every book. It really was like learning to walk. Small steps at first, tiny little goals to get you started, something you can easily accomplish, like a paragraph or a chapter. Just a couple of months after I finished reading the Hitchhikers series, I was devouring books by the truck load and every book that I finished felt like I had reached a goal, like it was an achievement.

Then this idea formed in my head. What if I applied this to something else? Something I had never done before. So I started walking for fitness. Just a kilometre at first. Day by day I would increase the distance by 100m. When distance no longer was a struggle for me I increased my pace up until I was running 20, 30 kilometres.

I ended up calling this strategy of mine the Reading Approach. I use it for everything now. Since then I’ve run marathons, I’ve read thousands of books, I’ve learned Russian and applied it to internet marketing and through this method I’ve increased my outlook on life. I’m now the happiest I’ve ever been!

I can honestly say that the Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy saved my life.

So I guess, in general, if you’re feeling down in the dumps or like you can’t do something, start small. Really small, even if it’s a word at a time, just start and you’ll achieve AMAZING things. We all have the ability to do so. The Human body and brain is the most amazing thing in this universe and you can do anything with them.