I woke up pretty early at 4 AM. I couldn’t sleep well due to sleeping too lightly. What woke me up was a nightmare. But it was an odd sort of nightmare, if amusing. A bit of background: while I have the ability to control my dreams, I stopped doing that decades ago as I found that I slept better if I simply let the dream mainfest on its own, and besides, the randomness of it made dreams more interesting. In my dream, I was in my apartment (which is weird, I actually currently live in a RV full time – maybe apartments are inherently creepy? Heh.) I was walking to my bedroom in the apartment when I noticed the whole apartment was dark, with details barely visible. I was approaching my bedroom when I noticed the door was ajar. I felt a sense of foreboding, tension was ramping up by a crazy amount. I immediately recognized this as a nightmare, that something scary would be in the bedroom and it’d scare the heck out of me. I had two options at this point: go with it and see what happens, or take control.
I decided I’d flip the script and instead of stopping the nightmare from happening, I’d let it happen — with a certain change — I’d scare the crap out of whatever was in that room instead of it scaring the crap out of me. So I tensed myself, then ran into my bedroom screaming and waving my arms. There was nothing there. Either there was nothing, or I was that terrifying. I’ll opt for the latter. Heh. Right after that I woke up with my heart pounding, feeling as tense as I was in the dream. But hey, at least I flipped the script, it was amusing and brought a grin to my face. Not a bad way to start the morning.
So on that note, I decided I’d get a jump start on optimizing my morning routine. I wanted to work out in the mornings, but I also wanted to work in into my rountine saunas. So I jumped in headfirst into research on benefits of saunas, how long to be in the sauna, how often, whether to do it before or after working out, and more.
Wait, from nightmares to saunas? Hell of a transition. Remember the theme I woke up with: flipping the script.
If you find yourself at a pace you’re not happy with, or if things are not going the way you’d like, flip the script. It doesn’t necessarily mean doing the opposite; it can mean doing something entirely else. You can always revisit whatever wasn’t going the way you’d like later when you’re in a better frame of mind. It doesn’t mean you shouldn’t care, it simply means you shouldn’t allow it to hijack your mental state and bring your entire day down. You’re the one living your life. Rather than you experiencing those events in your life, flip the script — those events in your life are now experiencing YOU.
That’s right, flip the script.
Is it hard to flip the script sometimes? Yes. Doable? Absolutely. Should it be done? If you’re finding that it’s hijacking your mental state and in danger of setting the tone for the day, DEFINITELY flip the script.
How do you know when it’s time to flip the script? There’s an easy test for that: ask yourself a simple question. It’s NOT about the answer, it’s about HOW you answer it. Here’s the question: “How do you feel about how your day is going so far?”. Don’t think too hard on the answer. Again, the answer is irrelevant. Focus more on the feeling behind the answer. Do you feel mentally upbeat in answering the question? If you’re feeling anything other than mentally upbeat, there’s your answer. It can be a bit difficult at first, but over time, it becomes an ingrained habit. If you find at the end of the day flipping the script didn’t work as well as you hoped; STOP RIGHT THERE, FULL STOP. Flip the script. You’re thinking about how it didn’t work out as you had hoped, let’s reframe that. In spite of the day not going as you had hoped, you spent the day working to flip the script. You refused to let it drag you down completely. You were relentless in spite of the day pounding away at you. You had tough moments, but you didn’t break. You kept trying to flip the script. You didn’t lose. You learned from the day. You didn’t quit. You kept TRYING. You were RELENTLESS. Be damned proud of yourself for flipping the script.
You know what to do now. FLIP THE SCRIPT!