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HOW TO TURN TWO QUESTIONS INTO A LIFE CHANGING EXPERIENCE

by Doug C. Grant

Here are two questions to ask yourself:...but they must be asked and answered in a special way.

1. How am I feeling right now?

2. How would I like to feel?

Simple. Right? But don't let 'simple' fool you. There's a lot of power behind those two questions.

YOU'VE PROBABLY HEARD OF JOURNALING.

That's process of putting your thoughts down on paper. Perhaps you've always considered it an intellectual's past time. Or maybe you think it's too much of a bore and bother. Besides, you doubt if any of your thoughts are worth putting on paper.

Back up! Let's take a second look.

Journaling is a powerful 'feel-good' tool. But here's a bit of a twist on standard rules. I call it Empowered Maturity Approach to Journaling. 1. You can use any old notebook or even just a piece of paper. (I like to use those small 'class-note' booklets available at any discount store. My wife prefers full size spiral notebooks. The thicker better.)

2. Never write for posterity. I seldom ever read past entries. They belong to yesterday. That's because I'm not keeping a diary of events. I'm primarily writing about feelings.

(I know that a dedicated journalist will have heart seizures over this approach. They have bookshelves lined with leather covered volumes. They not only enjoy rummaging through pages of their past but feel they are writing for future generations. I write with no such pretensions. Besides, I use so many abbreviations and shorthand symbols that no one else could even begin to break code...or want to. I trade speed for readability.)

Your Rascal in Corner

Dennis Menace was always being put in corner for doing something bad. Yet bad thing he did caused us to laugh because there was something so real and true about that person in corner.

Many of us have put rascal part of ourselves in corner, banished.

The one in corner is unpremeditated, impetuous, mischievous, impish, prankish, high-spirited, capricious, idle, playful, spontaneous, fun-loving, irrepressible, incorrigible. I could go on and on.

And this one laughs a lot and makes others laugh. So why is it kept in corner so often?

The Ubiquitous Appropriate Person -- Yawn!

Because our society has a different list of adjectives to apply to Appropriate Person: responsible, reliable, liable, dependable, capable, efficient, moderate . . . you get picture of this Appropriate Person. These adjectives certainly do not describe wrong way to be, unless they are ONLY adjectives that describe a person. Boring.

If we let him or her out, one in corner may do something inappropriate. He or she may speak a nugget of truth around which everyone else tiptoes. Or dress in colorful clothes unworried about matching one garment to another. Or sing at any time — off-key. Or skip through dining room. Or take a bite of someone else’s dessert. Who knows what might happen if rascal comes out of corner?

Guess Who Came to Dinner?

I would much rather have dinner with rascal in corner than with Appropriate Person. The meal likely would be much less boring and probably filled with much more laughter. With whom would you rather have dinner? Honestly, now. The rascal or Appropriate Person?