Latest / Encore Living / #138: Changing the Case: UPPERCASE Thinking for Life's Lowercase Challenges

Transcript

#138: Changing the Case: UPPERCASE Thinking for Life's Lowercase Challenges · Encore Living

• 0:21
  Speaker 1: In yesterday's show I talked about my summer vacation.
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: I went on a cruise to Alaska, which was amazing.
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: I saw a lot of incredible sites, including numerous whales, including one that breached actually got a video of a whale breaching from the water.
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: Oh, I also got COVID, and I was in the room for over half the trip.
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: Now you might think that wrecked the trip, but it didn't, and I'll tell you why in today's episode.
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: Welcome to Every Day A New Thought.
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: I'm Thor Chalgrin and every weekday I share one new thought.
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: Today's thought is inspired by my recent trip to Alaska and, as I said, this was an amazing trip.
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: I got to have room service delivered almost every day.
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: I'd start my morning with coffee, out on the balcony sipping coffee, having a fresh fruit plate, croissants, and then later I'd have some kind of eggs or something.
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: It was just amazing, sitting there in the sunshine looking out at the ocean as we went by from one amazing scene to another.
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: Sometimes it was glacier, sometimes it was whales.
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: I'd watch sea planes fly in and out.
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: Oh, and the meals that I had.
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: One night I had a surf and turf.
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: I actually had lobster and steak on my patio watching this amazing sunset.
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: Another night I had prime rib.
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: It was incredible.
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: Every night something new During the day.
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: I'd have food delivered to me at lunchtime and I'd sit out there read my book.
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: I finished two books because I had nothing to do but just relax.
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: So this whole time sitting out on the balcony and having an amazing time.
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: I know I also had COVID half the time.
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: Now you might think that last part that I just mentioned is what I would have led with If I was telling people about the vacation.
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: If people asked how your trip would be, if you heard everything that I just said, what do you think I would have likely said to people when they said, how was your trip?
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: Most people probably would have said, oh, it was terrible.
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: I got COVID, and that would be true to an extent.
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: But if you were writing or typing this out, I feel like a lot of times what we do is that thing that wasn't great.
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: We put in big uppercase letters with lots of exclamation marks.
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: But what if, instead of writing it or saying it or thinking it in uppercase, we talked about our problems in lowercase writing?
• 3:03
  Speaker 1: Too often I think we overemphasize our challenges and we under-emphasize the good things.
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: So in my case, if you asked me how my vacation was, I could tell you a story of a vacation that was filled with room service dinners, whale watching, relaxing, reading on my private balcony, having a great beverage, sitting out there watching the sunset.
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: I could tell you all of that.
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: Or I could tell you that I was isolated in my room for four days and I couldn't go do anything else on the ship.
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: Now, both of those are true, but it's my perspective on it that makes it feel different to me.
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: When I write in uppercase about how amazing the trip was, that feels great, and when I write in lowercase that, oh yeah, I had COVID, then I sort of minimize that.
• 3:53
  Speaker 1: So, rather than talk about your problems in uppercase and emphasize the challenges, why not talk about the great things in uppercase and the challenges in lowercase?
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: Is there something in your life right now that would benefit from changing the case?
• 4:12
  Speaker 1: If there is, maybe it's time to change your challenges from uppercase to lowercase and look at the things that are great about your experience and make those the things that you emphasize with uppercase.
• 4:27
  Speaker 1: That's the show for today.
• 4:29
  Speaker 1: If you like this episode, please hit like.
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: If you're watching on YouTube, if you're listening to the podcast, please subscribe or follow the show on your favorite podcast app Until next time.
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: Thanks for listening.