The Dark Side: Pros and Cons

I will approach this in two ways, Positive Dark Side and Negative Dark Side—positive meaning beneficial and negative meaning detrimental. Each positive number is counter-pointed by a negative number that happens occasionally. For example, positive number 1 may result in negative number 1.

Positive Dark Side
1. I am more in tune with myself and my wants and needs.
2. I am in control of my emotions.
3. By trusting only myself, I have become more confident in my abilities.
4. By counting only on myself, I have become more competent in all that I do.
5. I have become a skilled manipulator at engineering events to a desirable outcome, using both lies and truth to sway subjects.

Negative Dark Side
1. I can become so in tune with myself that I exclude understanding of others, and therefore, am at a loss when dealing with others. I can also exclude any action that does not benefit me more than anyone other party involved.
2. I can be so in control of my emotions that I am emotionally devoid and do not feel as if I am alive. I can be so in control that I cannot feel love or passion.
3. I can be so trusting of myself that I do not believe anyone else reliable enough to do a job competently.
4. I can count on myself so much that I can be arrogant and disappointed when I do not measure up to my own satisfaction.
5. I can manipulate others to avoid doing things myself or to allow myself to become lazy.

The first step to conquering it is to consciously detail all of the positive and negative attributes that you possess all the time, sometimes, or rarely at all. Then you use mindfulness to be aware of when you are doing such a negative action and then choose to eliminate that action from your life. Keep the positives and remold the way they are used to a better stance; for example, focus only on manipulating through truth, such as convincing others to quit smoking through the use of medically proven facts.

-Curtis V.