I wonder if this essay will be interesting.
Ha!
We (or at least I) spend so much time hoping. I hope I get this job, I hope I fall in love. I hope I have money. Hope hope hope! We hope our kids do well. We hope we don't get fired. We hope we win the lottery! Hoping is hard. And disappointing. There's always room for disappointment in hoping. So lately, I've taken to using new language. And it's wonderful.
I recently read Susan Jeffers' Embracing Uncertainty. And I gotta say although second half is kind of a snooze, first half is a game changer! There are a couple of her exercises I use regularly and love! One of them is the idea of wondering. She says by changing this one word "fear of the uncertain is replaced by curiosity." I like curiosity. Curiosity is fun! It may have killed the cat, but I think that's a lot of hype.
So nowadays, I always try to wonder instead of hope. I wonder what will happen. I wonder if they will call. I wonder if I will be a success. And I gotta tell ya: It's a wonder! Life is better while wondering. It's full of possibility. It may be a simple language shift, but it actually can lead to a larger transformation if you're open to it. For realz.
Wondering takes us out of fear-based worry, takes us out of the crowd, takes us out of the what-if mentality. Wonder is child-like, open and yes even hopeful, but it is not hoping. It's the step before or maybe the step after -- I don't know. But it feels different. Better. Breezier. Easy, breezy, beautiful Cover Girl. And the best part? There is no disappointment in wondering because there is no expectation. I mean, after all, we're just wondering.
Try it. It works.
(I wonder if you will...)
I think that's brilliant, the shift from "I hope" to "I wonder". "I hope" sets up potential shortfalls, "I wonder" sets up potential and possibilities. Since I was a kid, I remember being asked- by guidance counselors, family members, etc- what I hoped to be as an adult. It's a set up, really. You can't just say I hope to be in a good place in my head and heart. It's best to accept the now and wonder where it's leading. We can choose the direction our feet move but not what we will encounter on the journey.
ReplyDeleteAlso, in this apartment curiosity usually just gets the cat immersed in dirt or coughing up a hairball.
Ha!
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DeleteI wonder if Kim knows how awesome she is and what an inspiration she is to her friends? THANK YOU FOR THIS!!!
ReplyDeleteawwww!
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