Casual Friday

Do you have a formal personality? If so, it makes you a "stiff" your whole life. Find out how to find your casual self 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

Casual Friday

I once had a dream about being at the beach . . . beautiful day, and I decided I wanted to go for a run along the water. Ahh, yea. But then I looked down . . . and I’m in a full suit and tie . . . totally overdressed for the moment. I was too formal for what I wanted to do.

A number of questions popped up after my dream:

What façade prevents us from doing what we want to do?

What obstacle have we donned that puts us in our own way?

What conditioning that happened way back when is no longer useful today?

What's the most efficient way to get reconditioned?

I won't pretend to have "the" answer, but here's one that came up: Notice your formality.

Formality usually contains a formal, pat answer – a hard and fast prescription for an affliction. That rarely, if ever, works. Because formality, a lot of the time, comes with a script. It’s stiff. It tells us, “This is how you’re supposed to act.”

Let’s take movies, for example. Before actors like Marlon Brando or James Dean, most performances were super formal. Very polished, but not very real. Then those guys came along—raw, unfiltered—and suddenly movies felt more authentic. More human.

Or look at broadcasting. Before Arthur Godfrey, radio announcers sounded like they were reading from stone tablets. Very proper. Then here comes Godfrey with a casual, “How aah ya, how aah ya, how aah ya?” And people loved it. They felt like he was talking to them, not at them. They gravitated to his informality.

Do you have a formal façade? If you have to remember to be a different personality with different people, yes you do. If you have to appear a certain way, you're getting in your own way.

What mantle are you wearing that needs to be shed? It starts by noticing your cloak. 

There may be a good reason we got this way, but that's never a valid justification for standing pat. How we got this way is a history lesson, and as we learned in school, history is about the past. Noticing what happens in the present is the ticket to a different future.

 To remove a stick from the mud we have to notice it's in there. The key is to take notice every time we display our formalities. With each notice . . . every time you catch it, you weaken your formal self and, in short order, become more comfortable in your own skin. 

Was your favorite teacher in school a fuddy-duddy or a lot more free form? My guess is most of us would gravitate to the more comfortable of the two.

Are you formal or informal? To go from one to the other, start noticing which category you fall into. Oh, and did you notice I informally ended the previous sentence with a preposition?

All the best,

John