Costanza Theory


I'm a big Seinfeld fan. The whole concept of the show is amazing. Sometime in the past while going through a rerun, I came across an episode named "THE OPPOSITE". The one where George Costanza realizes that life is filled with choices, and he always foolishly chooses the wrong one. It occurs to him that the answer to his problems, therefore, is to make a decision — then DO the opposite. As George's friend Jerry tells him, “If every instinct you have is wrong, then the opposite would have to be right.”

It’s surprisingly effective. George even comes up with a counterintuitive pick-up line — “My name is George. I’m unemployed and I live with my parents.” — which works! Now we do have to remember that this is a fictional sitcom and the situations mentioned can be a little over the top. But just think about it..

George breaches the most fundamental laws in his universe – for example, the age-old principle that “bald men with no jobs and no money, who live with their parents, don’t approach pretty women”.

So I decided to give it a go.. Not that my life was as bad as George's, but there were a few problems that I wanted to fix. I started the opposite approach to a lot of things. Guess what.. the results were actually pretty impressive. It was like bending my own reality by doing exactly the opposite of anything I would normally instinctively do. I was a late sleeper, I started sleeping early.. I was a heavy drinker, I gave up drinking instantly.. I never took interest in any household chores, I started taking more responsibility and attending to them.

A lot of my problems were actually fixed by me cause I decided to do THE OPPOSITE of what I normally do in a given situation. Of course there were limits to this experiment. I wouldn't go driving at 100 km/s per hour in the opposite lane just cause I was facing traffic in my own...lol.. that would have been .."unsafe".

But yes.. sometimes we do face problems that if we "Decide" to fix, we would be able to by simply doing the Opposite of what we are normally programmed to do. Try it out.. it's fun and you just might surprise yourself.. :)

3 comments:

I remember the one you're talking about. It REALLY cracked me up.

I was so inspired that I, too, gave it a shot. Much hilarity ensued. It was fun :)

March 5, 2008 at 10:07 PM  

Hhmmm..I think I might just try this out.. :)

March 8, 2008 at 11:38 AM  

That's highly absurd....how can u go around 'fixing' ur life by doing the opposite of what you actually want to do???
I could never beleive such a theory which disconnects u from ur instincts!!
Don't try so hard to do what you doing.Just let things take their course....we never know what awaits us at the end of the road&only when we reach there will we know...

September 9, 2008 at 1:20 PM  

Newer Post Older Post Home