What Isn’t Working? - Grasshopper

I’m not convinced we set aside enough time in life to evaluate what isn’t working. We go about executing our patterned routines and, too often, label our results as luck of the draw or fate. It’s neither. (Or is it neither)?

I was reminded of one of my routines when looking at a friend’s Facebook posting. It was a picture of a toddler shouting into a cell phone. The caption read, “Me yelling ‘REPRESENTITIVE!!!’ to the automated customer service.” I laughed. I was further reminded and amused when I read one of the comments on this post. She wrote, “That’s me but I add an adjective.”

 

I recognized that as my behavior and my adjective, and then got this gift of awareness: that practice doesn’t work.

 

I can continue to do it, but the outcome will always be the same: No result.

 

It got me to thinking, what other automated routines do we do that are a bit more serious but get the same result? Those are worthy of our notice and remedial action.

 

Take the time to inspect some of your routine reactions and determine which ones aren’t working. If you’re not sure, ask someone close to you. They’ll know.

 

Once you find a few, pick out one and go to work. Start noticing your penchant to launch that reaction and interrupt it. Just interrupt yourself. What you are doing by interrupting is putting a wedge between stimulus and reaction and creating a space for something new to come through.

 

It’s a results-based practice. You already know what result you’re going to get with your tried and true, so interrupt yourself and see what comes from out of the blue. It works!

 

All the best,