One of the biggest blunders we make in life is assuming we are the thoughts in our head.

We identify our thoughts as us and with just a little inspection of this belief, we find out we’ve been duped.

Just take a moment and observe the thoughts going on in your mind. What you’ll notice is they are the same type of thoughts you’ve had before, and they just repeat themselves over the years. They may dress up in a brand new suit of clothes, but when you disrobe them, they’re the same old thoughts you’ve had for a lifetime.

These thoughts aren’t you. They’re old songs playing on a jukebox in your mind. The real you is the part of you that notices that these are songs of the past, pretending to be you.

One of the great songs of the 60s is called, “It’s The Same Old Song” by The Four Tops – a Motown group: I suggest you let that title remind you of what’s playing in your mind.

The key to stop identifying with the thoughts in your mind is to start catching yourself thinking. That’s called observing your mind at work. When you catch yourself thinking, ask, “What song is the jukebox playing?”

If you sit back and listen for a moment, you’ll recognize it as a tune you’ve played countless times before. Just by noticing it’s the jukebox playing, you’ll disengage from the long-held belief that you’re the jukebox and all its old songs.

Want to stop playing the same old ditties and not hum along? Notice it’s the jukebox playing, and before long you’ll be singing a different song.

All the best,

John

Hear the recorded version below.

Here is the recorded version of the Grasshopper Note for the week of 02-28-22.

Read the written version here.

Make sure to download a FREE copy of my ebook: INTER RUPTION: The Magic Key To Lasting Change here.

Do you know someone who is always the hero of their own story? How about the person who’s always the victim? These two folks have something in common. They’re stuck in their story.

The hero keeps his low self-esteem in place by pretending to be the perennial victor. The victim is super glued to the notion that others are the cause of their dismal circumstances. Both are prisoners of their stories.

With each passing year it becomes more obvious to me how we limit our growth by dragging ourselves backward by sticking with our out-of-date story.

The hero thinks if he creates just one more heroic narrative, it will make him feel better about himself. It won’t. The victim believes if they reiterate their tale of woe just one more time their circumstances will change. They won’t.

Convincing these people to retire their stories is harder than convincing a drug abuser that they have a problem. Their story has become who they are and they will justify the telling of it, ad nauseam, to those near and far.

The only thing you can do for them is make them aware that their story hasn’t gotten them what they wanted: relief from their pain. It never will.

Perhaps asking them to get a “little religion” and stop telling the story so often will put a crack in their border wall and eventually open up an escape route.

But the full release can only be achieved when they stop being the hero or the aggrieved.

If you recognize yourself as the victim or hero, stop telling your story or you may wind up like that famous, Roman fiddler: Nero.

All the best,

John

Hear the recorded version below.

Here is the recorded version of the Grasshopper Note for the week of 02-21-22.

Read the written version here.

Make sure to download a FREE copy of my ebook: INTER RUPTION: The Magic Key To Lasting Change here.

Here is the recorded version of the Grasshopper Note for the week of 02-14-22.

Read the written version here.

Make sure to download a FREE copy of my ebook: INTER RUPTION: The Magic Key To Lasting Change here.

During a conversation with my friend Hali the other day I was describing some silly things I do to challenge myself during the course of the day.

For example, I have Keurig® machine in my kitchen to heat water for tea. I put my cup in place to catch the water, push the button to heat the water, and while that process is happening, I go across the room to where my tea bags are stored. Each one of the bags is individually wrapped, so I have to unwrap it and come back across the room to put it in the cup. The challenge is to get the tea bag unwrapped and into the cup before the first drop of water falls. I told you it was silly.

I described this and other frivolous rituals I do as “contests” and claimed that by doing them on a regular basis, they trained me to act more quickly in other areas of life. We can debate if my theory is valid or not, but that’s not the road my friend went down.

She said she does similar challenges but calls them “games.”

It struck me that there is an air of seriousness around the word “contest” vs. the fun that is connoted by the word “games.” The discovery for me was that I wasn’t enjoying my contests as much as she was enjoying her games. She was taking pleasure in her endeavors and I was taxing myself by testing and measuring my skills.

The larger discovery for me is how we approach situations in life and how that approach affects our state of mind and mood.

I could be having more fun during my day rather than having them populated by tension filled rituals that I succeed or fail at.

Our conversation brought to mind the popular axiom, “Don’t sweat the small stuff.”

The overarching message for me and, perhaps, you is this: Be less serious in your approach to life (unless you’re a bomb defuser). Make it more fun and games rather than a contest that is a mental drain.

All the best,

John

Listen to the recorded version below.

Who am I beneath the bumper sticker? That’s the question we start asking ourselves when we reach the subtraction phase of life.

Subtraction begins when addition ends. That means that we finally figure out that we don’t need to add anything else to discover who we are beneath our labels.

Addition is us looking to add that one more thing that’s going to make us complete. Subtraction is discovering the completed original beneath the painting we’ve been adding to our entire lives.

Addition is staying stuck on the surface. Subtraction takes us deep into our cavern of creativity. That’s when we discover who we are beneath the bumper sticker.

I’m forever grateful to author Byron Katie who asks us, “Who are you without your story?” She opened my eyes to the world of subtraction which added a whole new perspective on who I am beneath my additions.

I believe life is a trip out and a trip back. The trip out is filled with adding all sorts of things: an identity, preferences, prejudices, positions, and host of different roles to play: butcher, baker, candlestick maker. We get lost in these additions and can’t see the forest for the trees.

Then, at some point, we get an invitation from out of the blue to turn the corner and return to our essence – the completeness we were born with. If we accept that invitation, we begin subtracting our bumper stickers one by one and realize, beneath it all, we are already everything under the sun.

I encourage you to revisit the basic math of life and find out what phase you’re in and decide if you need to add any more, or should you head on down to the bottom floor and open the door to subtraction.

Here’s the bumper sticker: Subtraction Adds Fullness To Life.

All the best,

John

Hear the recorded version below.

Here is the recorded version of the Grasshopper Note for the week of 02-07-22.

Read the written version here.

Make sure to download a FREE copy of my ebook: INTER RUPTION: The Magic Key To Lasting Change here.

Here’s a suggestion for a powerful way to start your day.

Begin your day with these three words, followed by whatever it is that you want to accomplish. The three words are: “I wonder how . . .”

“Wonder”, itself, is a magic word. Did you ever notice that when it’s used, you wonder along with whomever is using it, even if that person is you?

“I wonder who will win the Super Bowl.”

“I wonder what the weather will be like over the weekend.”

“I wonder how I’m going to make some extra money.”

“Wonder” engages your curiosity and creativity. When you add the word “How” to the mix, you not only prime your creative self, you kick your logical, planning self into gear.

This is not a strategy designed for instant results. It’s a practice, that when used regularly, builds on itself, while a plan fro get what you want forms in the background.

You can use this “I wonder how” strategy any time of day. In fact, using it multiple times during the day or night reinforces your desire to the parts of you that can make it happen.

You can write these words on cards and put them in multiple places as reminders to “wonder how.” You can put one on your night stand, your bathroom mirror, the dashboard of your car, or put a sticky note on your computer, or record an audio reminder alarm on your phone.

The key to success with this strategy is to reinforce it so it becomes second nature for you to wonder how.

This strategy doesn’t work because I say it does. It works when you work at it, and then you can validate the results yourself.

Final thought: I wonder how soon you’ll start your day the “I wonder how” way.

All the best,

John

Hear the recorded version below.