My Name Is Jasper

Bullet With Butterfly Wings

Now I'm naked,

Nothing but an animal

But can you fake it,

For just one more show?

And what do you want?

I want to change

And what have you got?

When you feel the same

Bullet With Butterfly Wings – Billy Corgan (282)

In the days following the Highly Performing culture training, I started doing mindfulness exercises. With my home country still making the news as breeding ground for Muslim terrorists, and yet another large scale police action with little result last night in Brussels, everything that helps me find positives are more than welcome.

Julie and I both started to keep a journal-like record of 3 amazing daily things that happened. This can be the smallest thing, something unexpected, all the way to massive breaks we experienced during our day. According to Dr. Gervais, there is proof that this kind of daily chronicling, will lead to a lasting rise in happiness. He also urged people in a relationship to make this a bedtime tradition. People get more close when they talk, so enjoyable side effects are bound to manifest themselves. He was right.

Additionally, Dr. Gervais urged everyone in the training to set one daily goal every morning. Write these goals down in a calendar. That alone will make you more likely to actually take the time and do it. Again this can range from the smallest detail, to the biggest challenge. This will give you a sense of achievement everyday. A sense of control.

Important to remember with these daily goals, is to focus on what is 100% in your control. These can be built on your thoughts, your attitude, the effort and the movement you make. Let go of things that are not in your control. The weather, traffic jams (283), your quota?

The daily goals, recognizing amazing things all around me, the intimacy with Julie. All of it is great, yet... It's not enough.

Oh, that came out slightly wrong. Julie will probably give me a hard time for that last sentence.

Damnit, that training got to my head. "Who are you?" "What is the thing you are best at in the whole world?" I don't know! But what is now clear to me, is that I won't be able to find out without making some drastic changes.

"Despite all my rage I am still just a rat in a cage..." (284)

A golden cage. I love my career at Microsoft. Probably the best employer in the world. I love my life in Toronto. I love my friends. I am the fortunate son. Hard work, supporting parents, and some good old fashioned luck have given me all I need and then some. But it is a cage nonetheless.

I need to break out. Explore. Not just the world, but myself.

Who knows, that exploration might end up where I start. Like I said before: life is good in the golden cage. And a Jasper who understand who he is and what he wants to do, might actually elevate that cage.

Julie's mindset is in a similar position. She has a fire burning to go explore the world. She is ready for change, but just like me she doesn't know what that means. We make a decision: in the new year, we will change our lives, quit our jobs and hunt the frontiers of the world and ourselves.

According the Doug Lipp there are Dreamers and Doers. As I was reading his fantastic book (285), I was already dreaming... Time to become a Doer.

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(282) Lyric from Bullet With Butterfly Wings, the first single of the undisputed masterpiece of the Smashing Pumpkins: Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness (Virgin, 1995)

(283) Remember never to bitch about being stuck in traffic, you are the traffic.

(284) One more lyric from Bullet With Butterfly Wings (Virgin, 1995)

(285) Disney U: How Disney University Develops the World's Most Engaged, Loyal, and Customer-Centric Employees (McGraw-Hill, 2013). I've referenced this book before in Chapter 3 – Heaven And Hell. You should read it!

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A very short Chapter, which can almost be considered an appendix to the previous one. The next one will be a longer one again, stay tuned for that!

Thanks again for reading my book, I hope you like! if so, leave a vote, if not: leave me feedback (you can also leae feedback if you do like it obviously).

Have a great day!