The Minds of Deadpool

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Hey there!  Before we get going on today’s Deadpool post, I have TWO announcements to make!

First off, if you are anywhere near the northern New Jersey area, we’re having a little impromptu BaGC get together on Thursday the 31st (a week from today!)  We’re either going to be going for a hike, or, if the weather isn’t great, hitting up an indoor rock climbing gym!  We’ll probably get food as well!  If you’re interested in coming (the more the merrier,) RSVP in the official Facebook event by clicking here!  This is a little last minute and the first ever attempt to get BaGC folks together, so I have NO idea how things will go, but we’ve got out own MedicTWO from the forums coming down from Canada, so we’re gonna have a blast!

Secondly, RPG Fitness will be going live on Monday, March 28th!  There will also be a webinar about the eBook, and the upcoming online coaching group RPG FitGroup shortly after (date TBD!)  So, MAKE SURE YOU COME BACK HERE ON MONDAY because we’ve got some awesome stuff for ya!

Now then.  Where were we?   Oh yeah…

So Deadpool is crazy.  Like, seriously.  He’s loved for being wacky and off-the wall with dark humor, but he’s also a ruthless murderer who regularly does stuff like stick his blind roommate/sidekick in a torture chamber and/or kill everyone she loves so she can never leave him.

Yeah.

Obviously not someone we’re interested in emulating, really.  I mean, the wacky, off-the-wall stuff is all good, but obviously copying the whole character is a recipe for disaster.  No one really wants dissociative identity disorder.  However, we do have a lot to learn from Deadpool’s “minds,” as well as how his obtuse, 4th-wall-breaking way of thinking can help him (and you) in many situations.  So, let’s jump into The Minds of Deadpool (oh god that’s a scary thought.)

Separate to Survive

So Deadpool went through some pretty hellish stuff to activate his powers, regardless of what origin story/medium you’re looking at (movie, comics, whatever.)  Part of what causes his mind to be so fractured is the psychological damage inflicted during this process.  An important characteristic of Deadpool, however, is that Wade Wilson kept his flippant sense of humor throughout all of it.  A good part of this was probably through the power of mental separation and compartmentalization.

Now, we talked about this back when we covered Alex Mason from the Call of Duty series, and it’s a double-edged sword.  Separating and compartmentalizing stressors in the heat of the moment can be a powerful survival technique.  Repress this stress for too long, however, and you can end up doing serious damage (I mean, just look at Deadpool!)  Make no mistake, by the way, compartmentalizing for any amount of time longer than “the heat of the moment,” is probably too long.

Separating your mental processes from your immediate emotional and physical situation can definitely be handy in an emergency, however.  Some people develop this ability innately through experiencing various forms of trauma, but it is a skill that can be partially developed through meditation, as well.  Meditation, in teaching you how to quiet your mind and become mindful of your surroundings, can also train your brain to react in a similar manner on command, separating yourself from the immediacy of a bad moment.  Check out this post on meditation for an idea of how to get started.

Thinking Outside the Box

Waaaaaay outside the box.  Breaking the fourth wall, outside the box.  The “fourth wall” is basically the imaginary, invisible barrier that stands between you, the viewer, and whatever you’re reading/watching/seeing in a fictional world.  Breaking the fourth wall is definitely one of Deadpool’s defining characteristics, and he regularly addresses the viewer/reader as both an individual, and as a collective omnipotent power.  There’s even a one-off series about this, with Deadpool killing all of the Marvel universe as his way of dealing with the fact that they’re all basically puppets telling stories.

Now, how can we adapt this to help ourselves?  Well, for starters, you can work on developing more creative thinking processes.  A great way to do this is to just look at everyday objects, problems, and systems that you encounter every day, and try to think up your own way to design, solve, or set them up.  Basically turn the idea of “building a better mousetrap” into a creative thinking exercise.  This can work for both physical objects, and theoretical systems, so you can find material to work with in basically any given situation in life.

The key here is to begin training your brain to use your own unique skills, knowledge, and experiences to approach things in a different way.  We all come from different backgrounds, with different stuff in our heads.  What we’re trying to do here is get your brain to use that stuff in your head to interact with situations in a different manner from how you may be used to thinking.  We take a whole lot of stuff for granted in life, because as we’re growing up, we’re taught “this is the way things are.”  If you’re reading this, you’re old enough to start asking “why?”

Conversing with Yourself

Deadpool talks to himself.  A lot.  Sometimes this dialogue is internal, sometimes it’s external.  Usually it’s some combination of both (as seen in the photo we lead with, here.)  Beyond just illustrating his craziness, Deadpool’s conversations with “himself” can serve as a significant plot point, and it’s often how he solves some of his biggest problems.  This is because one of Deadpool’s several personalities is usually a more lateral, creative thinker (see above) than whichever personality is currently “steering the ‘Pool,” so to speak.

This is probably the easiest thing to adapt to our own benefit.  Now, granted, you don’t want to develop multiple personalities, or walk around talking to yourself in public.  Generally those things create poor situations for everyone involved.  However,  taking some quiet time to yourself can be super useful.  This is something different from meditating, which we talked about a bit above, because instead of trying to quiet your mind, you’re basically trying to talk things out with yourself.

For some people, just sitting down in a quiet place and thinking for a while is enough.  Others actually literally talk out loud.  This also can apply to techniques like Rubber Duck Debugging.  Personally, I like to write (if that hasn’t become obvious across 250,000+ words worth of blog posts,) so I like to keep a daily journal, just to get my thought processes out of my head, and kind of “write through them.”  The great thing about a journal is that I can also go back and take a look at past stuff I’ve wrestled with, or make little reminders and schedules for myself.

The bottom line is, take some time with your own inner voice every now and then, and let it out.  Frequently in our instant-gratification world, we silence our own internal dialogue in order to better absorb what’s going on outside of our heads.  I think this is something we, as a society, should really work on.

That’s it!

That’s the end of our time with Deadpool, at least for now!  I hope you enjoyed it, I know I sure did.  He’s been one of the more commonly requested characters on the blog, so I’m glad I finally got to cover him!  We’ll be back on Monday with a SUPER IMPORTANT POST so make sure you’re here!  Until then, remember to live boldly, change the world, and continue to be awesome!

Dan “DaRatmastah” Wallace