Baby Steps

Watching a baby take its first steps can be more that exhilarating; it can be instructive. There's a life lesson in there that's covered in this mini podcast.

Grasshopper Notes are the writings from America's Best Known Hypnotherapist John Morgan. His podcasts contain his most responded to essays and blog posts from the past two decades. 

Find the written versions of these podcasts on John's podcasting site: https://www.buzzsprout.com/1628038

"The Grasshopper" is the part of you that whispers pearls of wisdom that  seem to pop into your mind from out of the blue. John's essays and blog posts are his interpretations of these "Nips of Nectar." Others have labeled his writings as timeless wisdom. 

Most of the John's writings revolve around self improvement and self help. They address topics like:

• Mindfulness
• Peace of mind
• Creativity
• How to stay in the present moment
• Spirituality
• Behavior improvement

And stories that transform you to a wider sense of awareness that presents more options. And isn't that what we all want, more options? 

John uploads these podcasts on a regular basis. So check back often to hear these podcasts heard around the world. Who wants to be the next person to change? 

Make sure to order a copy of John's new book: WISDOM OF THE GRASSHOPPER – 21 Days to Creativity. These mini-meditations take you inside where all your creative resources live. And you'll come out not only refreshed but recommitted to creating your future. 

It's only $16.95 and available at BLURB.COM at the link below. https://www.blurb.com/b/10239673-wisd...

Also, download John's FREE book INTER RUPTION: The Magic Key To Lasting Change. It's available at John's website  https://GrasshopperNotes.com

Transcript

Baby Steps

Can you remember a time you saw a baby walk for the first time? It’s quite the experience to witness. It’s a joyous moment with lots of hoopla.

It seems we've forgotten how to celebrate baby steps.

We now need lengthy leaps before we even consider celebrating, and they don’t happen that often. That gives us less to celebrate and less to feel good about.

We also fail to remember that it was a baby step that launched our walking career. We forget the foundational, and focus entirely on fruition. If you can only feel good when the job’s complete, you’ll spend many days, weeks, months, years or decades without celebrating.

There’s an old song whose title says it all:  LITTLE THINGS MEAN A LOT.

We as a society look for sweeping changes. We don’t notice that when a sweeping change comes, the tipping point was caused by a baby step that preceded it.

Reminds me of a story . . .

Many years ago I attended a workshop conducted by my friend Jerry Stocking. There was a woman in the room who had, for lack of a better description, expressive eyebrows. Jerry noticed this pattern and asked her to focus on doing something different with her eyebrows over the next few days. He said much of who you currently perceive yourself to be is tied up in the little eyebrow pattern you run. Her only assignment was to work on the eyebrow routine. Within a day, people started to notice a shift in her behavior. By the end of the week, it was like night and day.

It was a little thing.

What little thing can you adjust? What baby step can you take now? Reminds me of another story . . .

I remember a time I was agitated when I saw the kitchen trash container didn’t have a plastic bag inside. That meant that I or someone else had taken the trash out and neglected to replace the bag. Mortal sin! It was at least a 3 to 5 minute rant in my head about the bag not being replaced. That pattern shifted though when I noticed a little thing. I noticed it took 12 seconds to replace the bag. Once that fact entered my awareness, I did an assessment. Do I do 5 minutes of destructive diatribe in my head, or do I take a 12 second action?

I outgrew the trash can rant that day by noticing a little thing.

Small changes seem to cause a chain reaction. Large changes don’t seem to last. I’m sure there are exceptions to the contrary, but not many.

I think of dieting. Suppose you notice you don’t completely chew your food when eating. Then you take a baby step to focus on the act of chewing. Let’s say you bring that new focus to your eating for 21 days in a row. You now have automated that new behavior. Without doing anything else, you’d lose some weight. It’s a little thing.

Don’t get caught up in the idea that the changes have to be large or important. After all, how important are expressive eyebrows? Find some little thing that you do and go to work on it. Think of it as a spiritual practice. What you'll notice is that other shifts will automatically happen as a result of completing this one, tiny baby step.

Start taking baby step today and notice how soon you are off and running in a new direction.

All the best,

John