The Juice Of Life - Grasshopper

We're all squeezing things out of life – decisions and creations, if you will. But if your creations or decisions lack juice there's not much satisfaction attached.

I believe we're all naturally gifted at something - something we didn't work at - it just comes to us. You may be naturally empathetic, or a whiz at math. Me, I have an auditory gift. I can hear what "juices" people just by listening to them for a very short period of time - sometimes just for seconds. It's my lame superpower.

 

But anyone can develop this skill just by doing some active listening - to yourself or others.

 

Listen to a friend who is wrestling with a choice. Listen as they describe what they're trying to decide. One of the choices will contain more juice: energy. The choices may sound the same at first but as you listen further, you can easily make distinctions between the choices. The decision could be as simple as what food to order in - pizza? Chinese? Mexican? Thai? etc.

 

You will hear shades of enthusiasm. The one that has the most juice behind it is the way they really want to go, and they may not even know.

 

Listen to yourself when describing a choice that you have before you. You could be explaining to a friend or musing to yourself about another job that you're not sure if you will like more than your current job. After you list the pros and cons, pay attention to the juice behind your thoughts or words when considering each. And pay even more attention to your feelings.

 

Years ago, one of my teachers said, "When there is a conflict between thought and feeling, go with the feeling." Juice is the feeling.

 

Reminds me of a story . . . 30 some years ago, my wife was offered a secretarial job at a factory. It offered more salary and more benefits than her current job. She was telling me all about the interview and the position, and the benefits with some minor enthusiasm. Then she casually mentioned that her desk was near the door to the factory floor and she said some dust would come into the room when the door opened - not a lot, but some. The energy left her voice when briefly mentioning the dust.

 

I requested she do some future pacing in her imagination. I asked her to imagine being at her desk each day for a week and to see the dust coming through the door each day. I asked her how she felt after imagining a week in this new position. She didn't even need to answer me; the juice was gone. She decided not to take the job.

 

Consciously, something may make sense to us, but to our sensations it may make no sense at all.  That's the time to pay attention to what juices you. It may make the difference between winding up with something that's perfectly suitable or being in a cage at a zoo.

 

All the best,
John