See The Job, Do The Job, Stay Out Of The Misery

Living our lives becomes much simpler when we see the job, do the job, stay out of the misery. The misery is self-criticism. It distracts us from the job at hand. This is a new and kind way to take action.

Transcript

Hi, This is Brooks and thanks for joining me. Today we're going to talk about see the job, Do the job, Stay out of the misery. This is one of my favorite things, So I love talking about it. For me, What that means is seeing the job is, Oh, Here's something to be done, Or here's an opportunity to do something that I would like to do, Or here's something that I have to do, You know, I need to take care of this. So I'm aware this needs attention. Do the job is doing whatever I need to do to complete that thing, To do that thing, Whatever that task is, And to do it. Now, Staying out of the misery is, That's the juice of this whole thing. Staying out of the misery is not worrying about, Oh, Am I doing this right? How is this going to turn out? Is this going to suck? Is somebody going to get upset at me? I wish I had a job that I could do. Is this going to suck, Is somebody going to get upset at me? I need to do this as good as I did the last time, Or I need to do this, Like, Not as crappy as I did last time. It's that interference. It's like the difference between a dialogue and a monologue. A dialogue is very straightforward. This is what I'm doing. This is what I'm experiencing. And monologue is the commentary. I'm not doing the commentary on what I'm doing. And that's the misery. That gets in the way of effectively doing anything, Whatever it is, No matter how simple or complex. When we don't have that commentary, We can do a good job. So see the job, Do the job, And the commentary is a real, I found it's a very simple way to live. It makes life so much easier. And all that commentary, On some level, Sometimes it feels like, Oh, Yeah, I need to worry about this. But I don't know about you, But from experience, As soon as that comes into my thinking, When I'm doing something, I either get confused or distracted, Or I question what I'm doing, And everything goes awry. Things suck as a result of that. And at that time, It feels like, Oh, I need to worry about this. I need to be concerned. I need to worry about the fruits of my actions. How's it going to turn out? Is it going to be a disaster? Is it going to be great? Sometimes that feels necessary, But it never is. That's been my experience. When I've noticed it happening, I'll think to myself, This isn't helping. Whatever these thoughts are that are going on, These commentary, These criticisms, You know, It's not helping. So see the job and do the job. That's really what it is. And stay out of the misery is the reminder, In case those thoughts come up, Because sometimes they do, And you don't want to be critical of yourself. Oh my God, I can't believe I'm having those critical thoughts. You know, Which is just, That's more misery, Right? It's just like, Oh, I'm thinking critical thoughts. That's really interesting. Maybe I'm a little tired. Maybe my blood sugar's low. Maybe I'm dehydrated. You know, Those things can contribute to that. Or maybe I got into an argument with somebody like 15 minutes ago, And it's still resonating with me. It really helps to cleanly notice, To kindly notice, And with that simple awareness. Oh, I'm being critical. Oh, I'm starting to worry about the results of what I'm doing. It can be funny. That's why I'm laughing, Because it's just, When it's happening, It's like, This is not helping. So again, It comes back to see the job, Do the job, And stay out of the misery. And I encourage you to give it a try. You know, See if you like this, This way of looking at things. Try it on, You know? So thanks for spending time with me. I appreciate you being here. And take care. Bye.

Reviews

I love the simple encouragement to just "stay out of the misery" ❤

I love the concept. I've gotten better at keeping my inner bully, the self critic during the doing. My misery comes from the avoidance, procrastination or incompletion of the needed task. I wish you would make that a topic.
When I was young I used to rush through jobs just to get them over with and do something I preferred. The slipshod results were an invitation to external criticism. That being unpleasant, I strove for perfection. It was decades before I came to realize it was unachievable and that doing what I knew was my best was enough. Now many years into retirement and living independently, I'm realizing how easy it's been to simply not do -- there's always tomorrow and there are resources I can employ to get the jobs done for me.