“How you’ve been GRINCHED and you didn’t even know it.” Intro.

Dear reader, this article is Part 1 in a series of 10 articles titled: “How you’ve been GRINCHED and you didn’t even know it”. All of the 10 articles will be linked and will take a completely new look at a well-known story about the Grinch. The ideas I will share with you are intended to be thought-provocative. As such, the more you can relate them to your own examples in life (career, business, relationships, etc.), the more you’ll get out of it – I promise you that. Therefore, I invite you to make this reading experience personal and listen to my ideas newly instead of jumping to quick conclusions, opinions, and/or disagreements. Over the next 10 days I will publish all 10 parts. I look forward to hearing your feedback. Enjoy!:)

GRINCH – irritated by the happiness of others.

I must have heard about it, seen cartoon clips of it and overheard it in conversations a dozen times, but I’ve never watched the actual movie before. So, this past Christmas I watched “How the Grinch stole Christmas”. And as I was watching it, I couldn’t help but realize how much I can relate to the main character, the story and how relevant the movie is to our lives today. After the movie was over, I started thinking about it more. And in all that thinking, an idea was born in my head. An idea that I believe many of us can relate to. And I would like to share it with you all.

In our daily lives do you ever catch yourself just going through the motions? Hours go by, days go by, weeks go by, years go by. Heck, our lives go by and we rarely stop, pause for a minute and get present with ourselves. We constantly think about what happened at work, at home, at school; who said what, why they said it and what it means; all the could have, would have, and should have(s). When it’s not about the past, it’s often about what else you need to do next, how to do it, when to do it, where to do it, how much money it will cost you, what others will think of you, etc. It just doesn’t stop, we could spend hours listing all such questions.

Doesn’t it drive you nuts to just keep going and going, and going??? So my point is: let’s pause for a second and get present to this very moment of your day, as you’re reading this. What do I mean by that? You are in you seat, chair, bed, car, office, couch – wherever you are right now – let your mind free of all the garbage, all the questions, all the autonomous thinking of yours and pay attention to what I’m going to talk about. Listen to it as if you truly want to get something out of it. The only reason why I’m saying all this is because I care and I’m not afraid of any judgement, criticism or opinions; I’m doing this for you.

There is a saying “The past is history, the future is mystery. Being alive in this moment is a gift – that’s why they call it the PRESENT”. So in this moment let’s take a closer look at the Grinch and how we all can learn from his story. He is a furry, green humanoid recluse living in seclusion on a cliff overlooking the cheerful and optimistic town. He is apparently irritated by the happiness of others and derives pleasure from spoiling other people’s merriment. He was once living with all the other people, but a single moment of his life turned everything upside down. Under pressure of judgement from his peers, the Grinch felt so embarrassed, so insecure and failure-like that he once and for all determined that he is an outcast and everyone hates him, and he should hate everyone back, live alone and make everyone’s lives miserable. Think about that again, one single moment of one’s life (and so early on, as a child) determines your entire life!!! How absurd is that???

Have you ever wondered why things in life don’t always go your way? Why it’s always someone else’s fault but not yours? Why we get irritated at the first sign of opportunity to do so? Why we have gotten so judgmental and hateful about everything that surrounds us despite the hundreds of likes you get and give on your social media pages? Well, consider that you’ve been GRINCHED. Yes, I said it. You’ve been GRINCHED. And the hardest part is that you may not even know it, you may never even notice it, you may be so consumed by it that there is no way you can see it. You walk it, sleep it, eat it, breathe it, think it, talk it – it’s become a part of who you are. You may disagree and that’s totally fine. I’m not trying to convince anyone of anything here. I’m providing an alternative point of view that may give you a gateway. So, at least allow yourself to consider that you may have been GRINCHED. What if you really have been? What if it’s been running your daily actions, thoughts, and communications and you don’t even notice it? Pretty scary, huh!? So let’s allow ourselves to consider that it’s possible – that you indeed have been GRINCHED. We already established that you have been caught in the daily past/future, never present hamster wheel of your life. So, here is what I mean by GRINCH: Grumpy, Resentful, Irritated, Numb, Cynical and Heartless. At first glance you may be like: Oh no, that’s not me…no way i’m not like that. In the following articles (Parts 2, 3, and 4), let’s take a closer look at what each component of the GRINCH personality looks like and then, more importantly, we’ll look at ways to shake things up and turn it all around and UNGRINCH you. Fair enough? OK. Then buckle up, Part 2 is coming next…

Ⓒ 2018, Sergey Kiklevich, CEO of Gambit Solutions Inc.