Resign & Realign

Retreat is sometimes the best option. Find out why in this week's Grasshopper Notes weekly essay from John Morgan for the week of November 3rd.

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. 

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"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? 

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Transcript

Resign & Realign

I’ve never been to the U.S. Naval War College in Newport, Rhode Island, but I’m willing to bet one of the first things they teach is something like this: “Retreat doesn’t mean defeat.”

Some days, life really does feel like a war. We suit up, brace ourselves, and give it everything we’ve got . . . only to wind up on the losing end.

But what if, in the middle of the battle, we suddenly realized the “enemy” we’re fighting is one we can never beat? That’s the moment you discover you’ve been fighting reality — and reality always wins. Still, we hang in there, swinging away, hoping somehow we’ll overpower it.

One night, The Grasshopper handed me two words to jot down on a sticky note: “Resign & Realign. ”At the time, I had no clue what that meant. But by the next morning, it clicked.

1. Resign yourself to the fact that you can’t beat reality. Stop trying.
2. Realign your energy and come at the problem from another angle.

One of life’s most valuable gifts is the realization that what you’re doing just isn’t working. It may not feel like a gift, but it saves you from banging your head against the wall every day for the rest of your life.When we fight reality, life becomes a daily battle. We patch ourselves up, reload, and go right back at it — without ever noticing that reality doesn’t play by our rules.

Resigning isn’t giving up; it’s a smart strategy. When you step back, breathe, and stop waging war on what is, you suddenly have the clarity and resources to try something different. And that reminds me of a story . . .

Back in my Navy days, I was assigned to the radio and TV studio aboard an aircraft carrier. Great group of guys — we clicked, we worked well together, and frankly, we had fun. Then one day, a new guy arrived. He outranked all of us by just a hair, came from a strict military family, and knew the rule book inside out. What he didn’t have was . . . well, common sense.

He didn’t see the smooth, well-oiled machine we had built. What really threw him was that sometimes the lower-ranking sailors were giving direction to the higher-ranking ones — because they were the ones with the specific skills needed for the job. He had rules, and we had . . . competence.

It caused some head-butting, until one day he finally got it. His “Ah-Ha!” moment came when he learned that one of the lowest-ranking guys on our team had actually worked in a civilian TV studio and had more experience than the rest of us combined. Suddenly it made sense why we let him call the shots.

From that moment on, our new guy resigned himself to the fact that rank doesn’t run a studio — expertise does. And he realigned his thinking. He dropped the hard-line approach, became part of the team, and honestly, he was a pleasure to work with after that.

Resign & Realign. It's not surrender — it’s a reality-based strategy that helps you win more often.

All the best,

John