My fast-growing orange kitten provides endless entertainment.
This morning, Hobbes was sitting on his perch watching the birds and squirrels do their thing in the feeder.
And the birdfeeder was a particularly busy place this morning, with cardinals, finches, and other assorted birdies eating up the food.
As Hobbes was sitting on his perch, very interested in the quick movements of the birds, he started making a noise that’s a mixture of cackling, meowing, and chirping. His whiskers were alive and he was whipping his tail back and forth. An excited hunter indeed!
Now, Nelson and I have a habit of making up voices for each of the two dogs and the kitten. This morning, I started talking like I imagine the kitten would sound – a small but intelligent 5 year old boy. I imagined kitten was saying, “I want the yellow finch – I bet they taste like bananas! I want the red cardinal – I bet they taste like cherries! Give me the brown birds – I’m sure they taste like chocolate!”
Of course, I’ve never eaten a small bird (thankfully) and neither has Hobbes (also thankfully), so I was just making up stories.
This made me think about how we spend our days making up stories. And over the past week, working with several clients, we’ve talked a lot about this.
- I have to do it this way
- If I don’t respond immediately, they’ll get mad
- I’m afraid to delete this stuff
- To Do lists don’t work for me
- Filing is boring
- Brown birds taste like chocolate! (ok, none of my clients actually said this)
Rather than making up stories, I suggested, let’s try some new things and test them over time.
For instance, most of us believe the story, “I have to save my email. I might need it again. I’d be lost without it!”
Two of my clients actually lost ALL of their email due to computer crashes or hacks. Doh!
The interesting thing is, neither of them has missed ANY of the lost emails. NONE.
Yet, as I was showing them my “Five Simple Steps to Avoiding Email Overwhelm” both of them were still fearful of deleting email messages.
What a story!
Part of my work is deconstructing the stories you tell yourself. I offer a different, more useful story (because really, all of life is stories built from our experiences and perceptions).
Armed with a new story, you will be able to delete or file the email, implement and trust a new system, or delegate work to a team member.
A small shift in perception equals big progress.
Creating systems isn’t hard. All of the retreat’s attendees admitted what IS hard is making the time to do them. If your story is, “I don’t have time” let’s change that story right now.