Ask yourself how far your lectures have gotten you?
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There are a lot of things that you can start at New Years. New exercise programs. New eating routines. New approach to your marriage. New, new, new.
Starting new things is fun. But there is one thing that is even better. I want to stop the lecturing.
I think that lecturing is what is really destroying the Country.
It’s really Google’s fault. The Internet is one giant lecture machine, telling you and I how to think and how we should live our lives.
A Google search shows that the word “Lists” yields 25,000,000 hits. If you really want to have some fun, search for “Husband Lists” and you wll find are 28,000,000 hits! Yes, men… that is 28 million lists. Apparently, men need a lot of help with lists. We like being lectured about what we need to do.
I am an equal opportunity writer, so I asked Google about “Wife Lists” and I was disappointed. The wife lists yielded only 19,000,000!! Really guys, are we that dense?
Then I hit the jackpot. I looked up “How to get your husband to listen to you + list” That brought 69,000,000 hits. This is right up there with “How to get your teenager to listen to you + list” which edged out the husbands at 71,000,000.
Apparently, everyone needs a good lecture now and then. Think you should shower your loved ones with gifts or perfume or flowers? Nope. Just lay on the lectures. And right now, there are millions of inventive ways to lecture the people you love.
There must be a lot of money to be made writing lists because the Internet certainly wants to get in on the lecturing business. I wouldn’t know about that, no list-shaped cash has made it’s way into my PayPal account.
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I find it interesting that when Jesus walked on the earth, he didn’t give us a bunch of lectures or lists. I don’t know about you, but I am kind of disappointed with this. I expect that God would have a lot of things to say to us.
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I find it interesting that when Jesus walked on the earth, he didn’t give us a bunch of lectures or lists. I don’t know about you, but I am kind of disappointed with this. I expect that God would have a lot of things to say to us, things like “Take out the garbage and don’t dump it in the ocean, eat your vegetables, get along with Egypt, pay more attention, floss, invest in Apple.” He should have said those things, but he didn’t. When Jesus walked on the earth, he told stories instead.
If you are like me, when I am mad at people or at my circumstances, I tell myself stories. And they are not kind stories. You have three main stories that I tell myself:
- Stories about how circumstances, the other person, God, or the Internet are trying to control my life.
- Stories about how I cannot trust anyone.
- Stories about how nothing I do matters anyway.
There, that is my list for the post. Go ahead, be lectured.
You may have other stories that you could add to the list. If you prefer any of my stories to your own, go ahead and take them, I will give them to you for free.
Have you ever listened to yourself?
A while ago, I listened to myself. I was surprised at what I heard. That is rather funny… listening in on the conversation you are having with yourself. I wonder if the US Government, Google and Wikileaks are getting in on this one?
You should try listening to yourself sometime
What listening to myself taught me is that I was ranting stories about how another person was trying to control my life and that nothing I do matters. I repeated the story over and over in my head. Then it hit me that the story I was telling myself wasn’t helping the situation at all.
So, as a gift to myself at New Years I decided that day that I am going on a lecture diet. If you want to go on a lecture diet, there are a few steps:
1.Get a lecture journal and write down the ways that you lecture yourself
2.Next, ask yourself how far your lectures have gotten you. Do they help you to take action to make your life better or do you end up avoiding doing what you know you need to do?
3.Then write down stories about your better self.
4.There you have it, you are officially on a lecture diet.
Ask yourself how far your lectures have gotten you.
Once upon a time, the Internet did not exist. Yes children, there really was a time before the Internet. What did we do to entertain ourselves? We watched TV. And before that, we told stories. The Story Teller is still inside you, just waiting for a good story.
“We think in story. It’s hardwired in our brain.”
Lisa Cron
If you enjoyed this article, you will want to read some of my other writing:
Lessons from a Saskatchewan Boy
Mental Health and my WMD: The Weapons of My Depression
Mental Health stigma is really just undiagnosed verbal illness.
I write articles about wellness, leadership, parenting and personal growth. My hope is to deliver the best content I can to inspire, to inform and to entertain. Sign up for my blog if you want to receive the latest and best of my writing. If you like what I have to say, please share my work with your friends.
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Keep it Real
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Getting High on Recovery 