Congratulations! You're no longer a recruit, but a novice. I see you're really taking this seriously, don't you? Very good. I like working with people like you, but don't even think about taking a break. The next 10 tasks will determine if you have what it takes to live a fulfilled and healthy lifestyle. We're just getting started! Personally, I don't believe in strict diets; either you eat healthy because you want to fuel your body with the best foods or not. This is the topic on which the next 10 tasks are based. Open your fridge and take a look inside. Take all the unhealthy foods you've got at home and put them all in one spot. Now think to yourself: Are they really worth eating just because they taste good? The answer is NO! The companies that sell these foods know exactly how the human body works and how these types of foods affect your brain in a very negative way. They don't care about you; they care about what sells well and destroys your looks. By destroying your looks, you also destroy your self-esteem and confidence, and these companies know that they don't want smart people who actually think about what they eat. They want mindless consumers that generate them money. So, what I want you to do is take those foods and put them away, so you don't have access to them.
Healthy food does not only determine how you look and how other people view you, but it also has a big influence on your mental state. It keeps your skin, teeth, and eyes healthy, supports your muscles, boosts immunity, strengthens your bones, and lowers the risk of type 2 diabetes and heart disease. Fast food impacts all the things I've just listed in the exact opposite way. That's why it's important to not only eat a lot of fat- or sugar-based foods but also vitamins, proteins, etc. Too much of one thing is never good. That's because it's important to have balanced meals throughout the day, so your brain gets all the nutrients it needs and your mood doesn't get stirred in one direction or the other. I now need you to create a meal plan with various healthy foods you want to eat throughout the day. Make sure it contains the following: proteins, fats, non-refined sugar, carbohydrates, vitamins, and last but not least, minerals. The internet will be your best friend if you want to know which foods contain what substances.
Very good! You might not have too much left to eat, so get up, go to the grocery store, and only buy unprocessed foods. Food that didn't get altered by humans. In plain foods, you can pick whatever you desire from all the various foods you've written down. Just make sure you will actually be able to make recipes out of them.
So far, so good. You're doing great. Feeling hungry from all the delicious food you've now got at home? If you do, great; if not, come back to this task when you do, because the next step is to cook something. Take a look at what you're working with and think about what you want to eat. If you know what you want to eat, look up recipes on Google or YouTube on how to actually cook your food in a delicious way that best suits your appetite. Bon Appétit!
How was the food? I bet it was delicious. Now you know why you should eat healthy, what to eat, and, most importantly, what you're actually eating. What is at least as important as eating is drinking. This task will be fairly simple in comparison. Drink enough water throughout the day, NO SOFTDRINKS at all! These sugar-refined drinks are at least as bad for your body as fast food. If you drink coffee, drink black coffee; it's rich in antioxidants, which can fight cell damage and reduce the risk of serious health conditions like cancer and heart disease. Black coffee also contains moderate amounts of vitamin B2 and magnesium. As a man, you should drink about 3 liters of water a day and as a woman about 1,5 liters of water a day.
The first five tasks focused on healthy food and how it affects your brain positively. The next five tasks will be centered around being more social. We all have friends; start by meeting your friends more often. From my experience, this is the easiest thing you can do to improve your social skills. Having friends is one of the most important things in life, but if you don't treat your relationships with your friends well, they're worth nothing. Take out your phone to call a friend, and ask him or her if the two of you could meet in the next few days. If he or she isn't available, ask another one. Start developing the habit of being the initiator; doing that will put you in the center position.
Build up curiosity if the other person talks about a specific topic. Dig deeper into the topic the person is talking about by asking them questions in return. So instead of following up on the conversations with answers like yes or "no," "go and ask questions in return." This not only creates suspense and excitement, but also makes it easier for you to understand the other person. Build up curiosity in your next conversation.
If you run out of things to say, don't worry; a very good tip for conversation fillers is to look for similarities. Think about what the two of you could have in common. There are literally so many conversation fillers; I'm going to list a few, so you'll get an idea. "What are you going to do this weekend?" Maybe the two of you have similar plans, or "Do you have any plans for the next holidays?" You can then go on by sharing memories from your last holidays; you could ask "What do you do for fun?". All of these questions lead to either one of you saying "me too". You are establishing a bond every time the two of you share something in common. For your next conversation, use conversation fillers.
We're approaching the end of rank 2. You're doing great so far. Keep on improving. If you want to be more social, you have to be strategically more outgoing, with low-pressure practice. What I mean by that is to set yourself a social goal. I want you to do the following: go to the barber or hairdresser regularly if you don't already, and start talking with the barber or hairdresser; those are people who talk to hundreds of customers a week or maybe even a day. So, by talking to them, you can practice conversations, plus you get a nice haircut, which also boosts your confidence. Make an appointment regularly and establish a healthy relationship.
The following task could’ve been done with task 3, but I intentionally put it in 10th place because it might be the hardest one yet for a lot of people, and so you could analyze your social skills and behavior so far. If you're like me, you probably have introverted tendencies, or you might even be an introvert and don't really feel comfortable talking to a lot of people, especially people you don't know. This was something I struggled with most of my life, but eventually I overcame those feelings, and the results are that I'm now more confident than ever before. I achieved that by combining everything you have learned so far in the novice and recruit ranks, but most importantly, I overcame my anxiety by talking to people, as hard as it sounds. For example, if you were grocery shopping earlier, you could’ve had a little chat with the cashier about how fast she scans the food or how expensive everything got due to inflation. Don't think too much about what to say or the response. At first, it sounds scary, I know, but when you get used to it, you will eventually overcome your anxiety. People who are more talkative, outgoing, and socially adaptable are also more attractive and often more successful than people who are home all the time. We as humans need social interactions, and anxiety and depression can be the results of too little human contact. What I want you to do is talk to people more often—friends, family, or even strangers. This might be the hardest task so far for a lot of people, but if you're going to be able to master this step, you will witness yourself flourishing in no time! Very well, this is going to be the last task of the novice rank. Good luck, and we shall meet again in the next rank!