What’s the difference between an “Aha” and “That idea has possibilities”?

Sometimes we confuse the two, or at least I have.

What I’ve come to find is that a good idea does not come as a complete package. It’s loaded with possibility but there are a lot of moving parts that need to fall into place.

Intuition comes with a bow. It’s a gift – a complete one at that. That doesn’t mean that it doesn’t take work to take intuition to fruition. It does, but it’s not complicated.

Possibilities are like pieces of furniture from Ikea. They need to be assembled. Intuition comes with a pre-built shelf ready to display your creation.

This “Intuition or Possibility” notion may have always been common sense to you, but it was a real “Aha” moment for me.

So, I guess you could say the complete message my intuition is sending me is that I will have to roll up my sleeves to make more possibilities happen.

All the best,

John

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I don’t know about you but, in the past, I have lived under the umbrella of one of life’s biggest myths: Until it happens to me, it doesn’t exist.

Oh yes, I acknowledged that IT happened to other people, but blindly held the notion that it would never happen to me. Those people were just mishandling their lives and got what they got as a result. At least that’s how it computed in my mind . . . until it happened to me.

I’m not going to describe any specific “IT” here, only point out the limiting, and may I add, “holier than thou” mindset that fertilizes that myth.

Some telltale signs of the “it’ll never happen to me” crowd are vociferous, dogmatic assertions that the “IT” people are weaker, stupider, unsophisticated, lazy, etc. In short, inferior.

It’s both sad and entertaining when you hear an anointed one start singing out of a different hymn book. Entertaining because you get to see them bucked off their high horse; sad because they could have been aware of others plight in a more compassionate way, a lot sooner.

Their new mantra is similar to a quote attributed to English reformer John Bradford: “There but for the grace of God go I.” If you don’t believe in God, substitute the words “good fortune” in your mantra. Which reminds me of something President Dwight Eisenhower said in a speech: “There are no atheists in foxholes.”

I don’t wish anything ‘bad’ on anybody; My only hope is that their belief that bad things only happen to bad people will stop being their headline, long before we read their obituary.

All the best,

John

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Sometimes the title of today’s blogpost takes on a pejorative tone, intimating that you are “too big for your britches.”

I ask the question without bias in an effort to point you in a direction to find out who you truly are.

This much is pretty clear to me: We aren’t who we “think” we are, but we get closer to who we are by noticing what we do.

My friend and celebrated teacher Jerry Stocking recently posted this which sheds abundant light on the topic:

“In the absence of precise data about what you should do, it is often useful to notice what you do. And let what you do lead you to what you do next, and let the sum of what you do provide a glimpse into who you are, as what you think serenades, providing background entertainment, mood music for the expression of who you really are.”

I find that you are the you that shows up between your thoughts, not the person who gets lost in them, or spouts them ad nauseam to anyone willing to listen.

Doing is an elixir; it calms the mind and engages the body. Like the ancient Chinese saying reminds us: “Talk doesn’t cook rice.”

My preference is this: Don’t tell me what you’re going to do; show me what you’re doing.

You can waste your days continually thinking about who your really are, OR you can do something about it.

All the best,

John

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On my walk yesterday, The Grasshopper popped in and had this to say: “People run scared into the arms of their conditioning.” It took the whole walk to glean some meaning from his musing.

There’s no doubt in my mind that we are a fearful society. We’ve been conditioned that way, and the conditioning gets stronger with each passing generation.

I harken back to when I was a kid on summer vacation from grade school. I would get up, get dressed, eat my breakfast, brush my teeth, wash my face, comb my hair, and head out the door looking for a friend to play with. We would explore the nearby woods, play catch, shoot hoops at a schoolyard, work on an outdoor Cub Scout project, or walk to a playground and work the monkey bars. We were gone all day and didn’t come home most days ’til dinner. No one was concerned for our safety, nor thought it unusual that we didn’t return home until later in the day.

Somewhere along the way, as I moved closer towards adulthood, “Stranger Danger” got conditioned into society and now it’s a way of life.

We have learned to be fearful and we pass that along to our children, and they to theirs.

I call it the “World War II Water Down Theory.” I believe most people will agree that their great grandparents had it harder than their grandparents, and their grandparents had it harder than their parents, and their parents harder than them. We’ve become a protective society over the generations and what got watered down is our resiliency, which naturally increases our fear factor.

We are less trained to deal with adversity with each passing generation. And when it hits, we run and hide. It’s really not our fault; we were conditioned that way. But conditioning is no excuse to remain cocooned in fear.

The remedy is recognition – to recognize that you have the ability to respond to any situation vs. react to it. Application of this recognition acts as our reconditioning agent.

We have to retrain ourselves to trust our resiliency to get us through. We’re all resilient; we’ve just forgotten, and that forgetfulness fosters our remaining frozen in fear.

It is possible to bounce back to our natural ability to be resilient. The first step is recognizing that we possess it, and step two is to employ it more often. What you’ll find is that you’re tougher than you think as you break the link to past conditioning.

All the best,

John

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Here is the recorded version of the Grasshopper Note for the week of 7-27-20.

Read the written version here.

As I’ve written before, “Better” and “Best” can be fighting words, especially when used with people who like to mix it up.

When someone asks your opinion, better and best don’t seems so offensive as to put someone on the defensive.

It’s when you offer an unsolicited, emphatic assertion that contains those words that you should get ready to duck. It’s highly likely that you’ll get into a verbal dust up, especially if the person you’re directing it to has a much different view.

When offering a better or best opinion, it’s “best” to say something like this: “I find that this one works better for me” OR “The one I like best is this one.” When you choose to use this type of phrasing while using “I” and “Me,” you are stating preferences, not citing bible verses.

“The best football player ever is Tom Brady.” Can you see how that statement will get someone’s fur to fly, especially if they’re not a Tom Brady fan?

This is a gentle reminder that a subtle shift in language that takes you from absolute assertions to personal preferences will keep things in conversational mode instead of going down a rocky road.

Which way is better? The way that works best!

All the best,

John

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There’s another global pandemic going on besides the one that’s monopolizing the news. It’s been active since the time of Adam and Eve and, best as I can tell, no time soon is it going to leave. It’s the universal affliction of being stuck in our head.

If we charged out thoughts by the hour for taking up space in our mind, Jeff Bezoz and Bill Gates would be considered paupers by comparison.

When we’re in our head, which is most of the time, we are absent from our life. We’re in a pseudo-world that has nothing to do with what reality is presenting to us 24/7. We’re living on a movie set when we’re in our head. We are all storefront and no store. Our aliveness disappears and is replaced by what Bob Dylan called, “jugglers and clowns.”

Did you ever notice that when you stop thinking, you become an active participant in life? You’re more in touch with your senses and your aliveness can be seen, heard, and, most importantly, felt.

Excessive thinking is insidious. It sneaks up on you and before you know it, you’re overpowered by it. What to do?

The starting point for getting out of your head is to notice that you’re in it.

Noticing is the cure.

When you begin to notice your thoughts from a distance as an unemotional observer, you return to your body where life is actually happening. Getting out of your head and into your body can be easily done. Here’s one way that works:

When you notice that you’re in your head, acknowledge it by saying to yourself or aloud, “I’m in my head.” It’s a pattern interrupt that will interrupt your thought process long enough to activate your senses. Then, if the situation permits, close your eyes and do an inventory of your body. That means to bring each body part to mind (feet, hands, legs, stomach, neck, etc.) and just notice (feel) what’s going on in that part of your body. The whole process can be done in under two minutes.

When you activate your senses, you are no longer a member of the walking dead who’s trapped in their head. You are you – alive and present.

Truth be told, we’re probably never going to completely stop thinking, but we can mitigate it long enough to experience what alive feels like. The more often we notice our thinking, the less often we’re bound by it, and the more vibrant our life becomes.

Make it your mission to experience more of life today. You do so by letting your body have its say.

All the best,

John

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The Grasshopper had this to say this morning, “The biggest bugaboo is follow-through.”

It didn’t take me too long to realize he was referring to us starting but not completing.

Some folks are perpetual starters. They get a creative notion but it doesn’t take form due to a lack of motion.

In order to get through to the other side, it’s helpful to follow this practice: Master the foothills before you attempt to scale the mountain.

We’ve become a shortcut society. Everything is wanted by yesterday. The seeking of shortcuts becomes our shortfall because we use so much of our time looking for ways to avoid the work that’s necessary for completion to take place.

I remember my friend Paul interviewing the author of the famous “Spenser” books, Robert B. Parker. When asked about the daunting task of writing books (a mountain if there ever was one), he said something like this: “I set aside two hours each morning to write. Some mornings I write a sentence or two in that time frame. Other days, I can’t stop writing and go past the scheduled time.” The point being that he set the time for work and adhered to that practice.

So, to put a finishing touch on The Grasshopper’s musing, you’re guaranteed to be more productive if you follow Robert B. Parker’s example. To use a manufacturing term, It will keep your “throughput” from going kaput.

All the best,

John

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Here is the recorded version of the Grasshopper Note for the week of 7-20-20.

Read the written version here.

Our world has highly educated and highly experienced people. Often these two peoples’ are at odds.

Highly educated, smart people aren’t necessarily experienced. And experienced people aren’t necessarily smart.

In America, we build altars to one and keep the other on the church steps. Can you guess which one is exalted?

Common sense is available to both, but it seems one uses it more than the other. Can you guess which one?

Smart people are great arguers. Experienced people let their results speak for themselves.

Smart people cite facts to make their arguments. Experienced people don’t let facts deter them. It’s not that they don’t recognize facts; they just don’t misapply them.

Perhaps a story would be helpful . . . Here’s my experience when attempting to help very smart people overcome something that’s getting in their way. Smart people are harder to help because they amass abundant facts and build a wall around themselves with them. It’s hard to penetrate that wall and get them to see that they use facts as a defense of their limitation.

Smart people often confuse themselves with the facts. They find a never-ending list of them to declare and defend their position that something’s not possible, whereas the experienced person is more focused on the outcome they want and don’t let the facts get in the way.

It seems the smarter we are, the more abundant our facts, and our excuses.

This is not a rant against smart people. I love them. They bring unlimited perspectives to things I would never have thought of. It’s more of an acknowledgement of experienced peoples’ accomplishments – ones they were never schooled in.

Here’s my self-educated request: Show me your experience, not your argument.

All the best,

John

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