You know this governmental gridlock sucks! I really hate riding on the 1-94, this traffic is overwhelming! You told me you would meet me at 8:00pm, and you show up 20 minutes late with yet another lame excuse!! Really?? Do you think your cooking is good? Well its lousy!! I can't believe that you can't understand such a simple concept!! You are too fat, skinny, tall, short, black, white, red, yellow, brown! When are you going to learn to speak English, I don't want to learn Spanish! And the beat goes on and on.....! Although these objections, complaints, you’re wrong, questions and statements show up in the external world, there are literally hundreds more that you randomly think about every single day!! How exhausting!!
In the realm of coaching these snippets are called "RACKETS". As I am sure you know that a RACKET is a complaint, or someone, or something is wrong. Everyone runs RACKETS, if they are living and breathing. Nothing wrong with running RACKETS, unless you are trying to improve a relationship or solve a problem. If you are trying to solve a problem or improve a relationship, RACKETS flat out do not work, and is a waste of time devoting any mental energy to it!! At least that’s my thought. If you plan on being extraordinary at work, play, or life minimizing RACKETS is the way to go. Participating in them with your friends, family, co-workers, clients, or enemies for that matter, invariably keeps you in the “dugout” of life, and out of the game!
Yet we are unaware of the pervasiveness of RACKETS in our daily lives, squandering our most valuable resource, which is our time. Yet again, we still operate a life fully engrossed in being RACKET filled! And if we run out of our own RACKETS, we solicit those of others! Wow! And we compound it by viewing mindless reality TV shows that highlight the RACKETS of our celebrities, and individuals we admire.This allows us to compare notes of how messed up things are, everywhere! Which by the way again, takes us out of the game, and we do not have to '"do" anything, accept wait for our bosses leaders, or clients to get their acts together. And there is another downside to a life filled with RACKETS, it allows us to live our life in our heads, versus in reality!
Reality defined by some as the "real" world, that cannot be access in a static way, only through motion (actions taken) can reality be experienced. While it may appear that we are "doing" something through our thoughts, in actuality its just thoughts, the thousands which the average person will have throughout the day. The graveyard is full of thoughts never actualized.
An exercise which I love, and most individuals I know hate, is capturing 50 RACKETS we are participating in on a daily basis, which by the way, we are probably doing closer to 500! LOL! Just becoming aware goes a long way in improving our use of time, who has our best interest in mind, and who does not, plus discovering where we are leaking most of our life-force away.
Leadership Practice:
Identify 10 ongoing RACKETS. Ask someone you trust, love, and/or have your best interest at heart, to give you some additional insight on why you are hanging on to these RACKETS. Most important: Devise a strategy to eliminate them. You might be surprise what you uncover.
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