🐢 TREE 743: Honesty with trajectory

Last week, on my post that said, ‘I am not the story I tell myself. I am what I do.,’ I finished with: ‘It’s easier to move towards a good thing than it is to move away from a bad thing.’

Jill Reeves replied: ‘Moving towards a good thing takes work. It’s a daily practice.’

She’s right, of course. Accomplishing a good thing takes a lot of work. The people who do are the ones willing to work consistently at the good thing for a long time.

The reason I wrote that moving towards a good thing is easier is because people move towards the stories they tell.

Imagine you tell yourself a story like, I am a person who does [bad thing]. I must stop doing it and become a better person. You’ve created a big job for yourself by defining yourself as a ‘person who does [bad thing]. Now you have to spend your energy trying to become a different kind of person while the gravity of the story is pulling you towards doing [bad thing].

Imagine instead you tell yourself a story like, I am a person who did that [good thing you did once]. I bet I can do more of that. Now the gravity of the story is pulling you towards [good thing]. Plus you’ve got momentum because you already did [good thing] at least once.

Acknowledge what you you want to leave behind but don’t focus on it. Focus on where you are going. That’s honesty with trajectory.

Grow slowly
Jeff

PS Poppy with my daughter on Sunday night. I didn’t go to the mosh pit, but once it came to me. Her live version of Hysteria was stunning.