Tuesday, January 27, 2009

Cheesy post

On Sunday, Nathaniel and I drove to Farmington twice (yep, twice). On the way there and back, we listened to some talks by Elder Maxwell. They were amazing, naturally. In one of them, he said something about not wasting effort criticizing, or something like that. There were lots of really great things that he said, all of which I planned on implementing in my life, but most of them I messed up on Monday. Oh, well, I'm going to keep trying.

But I did do this: I am occasionally guilty of thinking bad things about people. I never used to do that and I really think it drags life down. So I decided that every time I thought something bad about someone, I had to think of five things that were good about them. I remember reading about doing that with a spouse in an Ensign article. I decided to store that trick away for a time when my inward complaints about my spouse were something more than, "Dang, he's putting his shirt back on," and "Why is he going to school when he could just skip it and hang out with me?" Yes, I am a very mature person.

When I got to school on Monday, I saw a girl and the first thought I had was something like, "annoying." Dang, now I had to think of five good things about her. I didn't want to. But I did anyway, and it wasn't hard. It made me feel guilty. She is super nice, she's smart, she has a cute haircut, and she works hard...and she's super nice! Okay, that's only four, but I don't really know her that well.

It was so interesting: when I saw her again later that day, my thoughts about her were positive. I wondered why I thought before that she was annoying.

I hope this doesn't sound too much like a sacrament meeting talk, but I think this is a really powerful principle. Maybe this is part of what the apostles mean when they say the Gospel of Jesus Christ will change the world. Imagine how the world would be if everybody thought positively about everybody else. Of course, you have to judge - the world is not all butterflies and chocolate covered cherries - but if we could just criticize what people do, with compassion and understanding, and not people themselves, the world would be awesome.

3 comments:

Lexi January 27, 2009 at 11:24 AM  

This is just what I needed, what a great idea! I'm definitely going to use your technique.

Liz'n'Steven January 27, 2009 at 10:27 PM  

LOL, I hope that wasn't me!!! But even if it was, I'm glad you're implementing the new strategy. ;) I'm going to have to use it to, but on people at work...

Lexi February 24, 2009 at 12:05 PM  

Just so you know, Jeff and I have been using the 5 positive things technique. We really like it!