AO: _3rd-f-leadership
Q: Posse
PAX: Dunkin, Fuse Box, Posse
FNGs: None
COUNT: 3
– Pax Essay: Slow Pitch – When Sobriety Isn’t Enough
– Recovering alcoholic & drug addict
– Halfway house & AA (using the 12 steps)
– In sobriety:
– Found a wife
– Started a family
– Gained a lot of weight
– Rationalized it was OK, since he gave up alcohol, tobacco & drugs
– Started going to the gym
– Still feeling hollow inside
– Younger brothers already in F3
– Finally accepted the invite
– At 1st workout
– Sees guys laughing & hugging
– Realizing :point_up_2: THAT’S what he was looking for
– Went from 2x per week → 3x → 7x
– Did Q Source
– Started doing 3rd F work
– Blood drive
– Became a Site Q
– High Honor
– Lots of cross pollination between AA & F3
– AA guys need workouts
– F3 guys need help with addiction
– The lives of those around SP have improved because F3 taught him to be a conduit
– Instead of a collector
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– 2/6: Sad Clown Syndrome (4)
– F3 is solving Sad Clown Syndrome
– Believe many men suffer
– Named for a Sopranos episode
– Tony lived a life of compartmentalization
– “I have to be the sad clown; laughing on the outside, crying on the inside.”
– Only pretending to be happy
– For self-preservation
– For those around him
– True condition was joyless inside
– Avoided prison, but his life was a prison
– Fat
– Friendless
– Self-medicating with booze & womanizing
– His job was to keep the job going
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– 2/7: Bowling Ball Grip (2)
– Sad Clown Syndrome has identifiable symptoms
– Grouped together as the Bowling Ball Grip
– 3 holes in a man’s life that render him as inert as a forgotten bowling ball
– Bowling balls are made for impact
– Supposed to be in motion
– Knock down the pins in front of it
– Can’t do this on it’s own
– Somebody has to fill those holes & set it into motion
– A man can’t see the holes of his own ball while they are unfilled
– Only has a vague feeling of nagging dissatisfaction
– SCS forces the man to hide this dissatisfaction from others & from himself
– Tries to fill his life with things that SHOULD bring him joy, but it doesn’t
– May be considered a mid-life crisis
– Concludes his wife & job are making him unhappy
– He is actually an unhappy man with a wife & job
– So he goes for the wrong solution
– Divorce
– Career change
– Self medication in all forms
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– 2/8: Pogo 40, The Sifter, & The Reacher (16)
– POGO 40
– Based on inconsistent physical fitness
– NOT a morbidly obese man who makes no effort to change
– Same 40ish pounds he keeps losing & gaining:arrows_clockwise:
– Always believing this is the last time & then he’ll be fine
– Plateau = fairy land where he can just play without worry of backsliding
– When he is losing weight, he is on a consistent regimen
– Calorie restriction
– Going to the gym regularly
– Makes friends with the Fern (a la Wilson in Cast Away)
– Pays Crystal to talk to him
– YMCA personal trainer
– When he stops paying, she stops talking
– Keeping records
– As he gets close to his goal, he experiences the most euphoria he ever gets
– Doesn’t realize that as soon as he stops climbing, he starts sliding
– If he hits his weight goal, he stops the routine
– Or at least cuts back slower (then faster) until he has no routine
– If he had an accountability partner who was more vocal than Fern, and didn’t have to pay, like Crystal, his decline could be stopped
– #FatPants
