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com/widgets/media.html?src=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fembed%2F82hkeJ7Q6Dc%3Ffeature%3Doembed&display_name=YouTube&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3D82hkeJ7Q6Dc&image=https%3A%2F%2Fi.ytimg.com%2Fvi%2F82hkeJ7Q6Dc%2Fhqdefault.jpg&key=a19fcc184b9711e1b4764040d3dc5c07&type=text%2Fhtml&schema=youtube" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="480" width="854"> </div> </div> </figure></iframe></div></div></figure>As part of my confidence coaching, I often recommend the ‘Talk To The Wall’ challenge, in which the goal is to talk to an inanimate object for two minutes without stopping.Give it a try. The video above includes a demonstration.This challenge should flip a switch in your mind, because it encourages you to focus on talking, rather than impressing someone. It’ll prove that you can talk without running out of things to say. All you have to do is let go. Normally, you’ll end up amusing yourself too. After all, when you have the choice of all the topics in the world, you’ll naturally pick something that tickles your interest.When you let go of impressing people, you have all the topics in the world at your disposal in the real world too.People with high self-confidence have no problems believing that everything they have to say is ‘good enough’. Most likely, they received plenty of positive feedback as a child and carried that into their adult life.These people believe everything they say has value purely because it comes from them. Indeed, everyone has a unique perspective on life and if it’s delivered in a passionate manner, it can interest others.To become one of these highly-confident people, see my list of <a href="https://readmedium.com/10-proven-self-confidence-tips-to-gain-unstoppable-charisma-78d2cdee68eb">10 tips to skyrocket your self-esteem</a>.<h1 id="c7de">But Seriously, What Should I Say?!</h1><figure id="36dc"><img src="https://cdn-images-1.readmedium.com/v2/resize:fit:800/0*oBP71_LwwdFZD3Ar"><figcaption>Photo by <a href="https://unsplash.com/@jarritos?utm_source=medium&utm_medium=referral">Jarritos Mexican Soda

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</a> on <a href="https://unsplash.com?utm_source=medium&utm_medium=referral">Unsplash</a></figcaption></figure>Some dating coaches will give their students examples of pick-up lines or conversation starters.However, this canned material typically only works because the students believe in it. If the lines were delivered with no enthusiasm or self-belief, they wouldn’t hook anyone’s interest.Without any core confidence to back them up, it’s also common that they’ll let the conversation die once the clever lines run out.With that said, it can help anxious people to go into conversations with some topics to fall back on if their mind goes blank.So, here are some topics you can slip into any conversation:<ul><li>What do you want? What is the reason you’re talking to this person? Take the next step to getting that thing.</li><li>Are they your type of person? What are the qualities you’re looking for in a friend/partner? Ask them a question where the answer will hint if they have these qualities.</li><li>Your surroundings. What can you see, hear or smell? Comment on it.</li><li>What happened to you recently? If you’ve been living a fun and active life, you should always have things to talk about. At the same time, you can also excite people by passionately sharing your opinion on the television show you’ve been watching.</li><li>What do you want to do later? Your future ambitions, whether it’s for that evening or next year, will always be a suitable conversation topic.</li></ul>When you let go of worrying about what to say, you’ll not only be able to generate endless conversation topics, you’ll also find yourself making clever jokes and witty comebacks. That’s what happens when you get out of your own way and stop filtering yourself.My book ‘<a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0811T9513">4 Weeks To Unstoppable Confidence</a>’ features 28 daily challenges to boost your assertiveness, bravery and charisma to unstoppable levels. The tasks start simple and get tougher with time, allowing even the shyest mice to build the momentum to skyrocket their confidence.</article></body>

Poem on Asterion. The Lord of Suffering

“Free verse” in two parts. Asterion (the Minotaur)

There you are Not yet grown up, your horns not yet developed Your head of even bigger proportions… You’ll never catch up like the other boys do Tied up in a premonition An omen of cotton, or breadcrumbs You learned to rest squatting, and it’s like Your body forcing a hug on you Years after When the walls were humid, and winter incumbent It still felt good, to wrap your human vest around itself And your beasty head just enough Hidden inside your knees Why do you know That it hurts more when no one is there To kiss your scar? Yet, it numbs quicker Your eyes, black of nature reflecting Years of suffering. You, the star, the start, The price of sorrow, of suffering. Which one was your beastly side anyway When if the ones you ate Ate

they did not receive this loathing What is the difference of being fed virgins and heroes Heroines and youth Or lamb, or beef… I get you, oh ancestral brother. I would too Eat my limbs and not my mind I would too Feed on stained consciousness And not on nature. But you didn’t Know better, or the difference between nature and nature All your wisdom was in sadness and rage Anger and hunger. And why not? Isn’t all the rest superfluous?

Like the lion was a lion made not To adorn fast feet I was not made by the abuser and the white beast For your crowning Me the horned and tailed bastard You the seed of legacy How dare you enter the premises of my Suffering. How dare you play with my mind Bastard. A mule of whore and beef You fucking crowned coward Coming to count my despair With tricks and fear of dark spaces How can he be a hero When he was never lost? My condemnation the vengeance of gods The betrayal of an adoptive bastard Zoophile couple of worms With whom I share my softest skins, crucible torso, sacred bones A mother’s milk Or the milk of my father’s daughters Legacy. Athens must burn If you were ever king Murderous hero. Raised by a father Star-written to be stone and words Washed in white by time deleting The veal’s blood Theseus. There is nothing else Of you I want to know Son of a father Not son of beast This is what your people see — Of me — just a body Trapped, yet misunderstood F*** you all really. And f*** you Theseus, Aegeus, Minos and my mother F*** you all

Minotaur bust, (National Archaeological Museum of Athens)

Theseus killing the Minotaur, via MadelineMiller.com