The #1 Tactic for Less Stress, Greater Joy, and a Happier Life

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Having written several books and training guides, I am fascinated—sometimes frustrated—by typos.

I’ve wanted to scream, HOW DID I MISS THAT!?!? I even wrote a piece about one critical typo here.

So, in search of typo knowledge, I found a piece by Marianne Worley titled, The Truth About Typos and Why You Keep Missing Them.

When I read her insight below, I thought … well, I’ll tell you what I thought after you read her comment:

How do you make the typos visible? You need to re-train your brain to expect that your writing contains errors. That’s why it’s easier to find typos when you proofread someone else’s work. You expect to find mistakes even before you start your review. If you adopt this new perspective, you’ll be more successful in your battle against typos.

Are you thinking what I’m thinking? That’s so QBQ-esque!

If you know QBQ!, then you know how easy it is to see the flaws in others. But to live a life of personal accountability, we need to find them in ourselves.

We need to expect to find them in ourselves.

So, by melding Marianne’s comment with QBQ! content, we get this:

When we see other people’s typos (or flaws), we’re apt to ask an Incorrect Question (IQ) such as, “Why doesn’t my manager give me more coaching?”

But, we can find our own typos (flaws) by asking The Question Behind the Question (QBQ): 

“What can I do to learn knew skills?”

More …

IQ: “When is my spouse going to meet my needs?”

QBQ: “How can I be more caring?”

IQ: “Why won’t my son ever listen to me?”

QBQ: “How can I improve my parenting abilities?”

IQ: “Who made that dumb decision?”

QBQ: “What can I do today to be outstanding?”

IQ: “Why can’t management get its act together and stop changing everything?”

QBQ: “How can I adapt to my changing world?”

Where does stress come from?

Stress is a result of attempting to control or change what we cannot. 

Which is pretty much everything and everyone beyond ourselves.

We reduce our stress, find more joy, and live a happier life by practicing personal accountability; by asking QBQs. Said another way, by finding, focusing on, and fixing our own typos.

Discussion Question:
How do you plan to apply this message today?
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PS: Did you catch the one typo in today’s piece??? 🙂

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13 Responses

  1. Hi Bob:
    I am just reeding this. I saw your typo “knew”.

    So my QBQ is:
    What can I do to get John to spell correctly? -:)

    Actually, I have been reading and trying as best as possible to take personal accountability of myself for years. At times it rubs off on colleagues. Reading this one about reducing stress by practicing personal accountability is timely for me.

    Thanks
    Jim

  2. When our children had a writing assignment I ALWAYS made them write a rough draft so the “errors” could be corrected. Proof reading was number one in our home. I love this post. And when I read “knew” I “knew” I had to comment. “QBQ” has changed my life. Every day I ask myself, “How can I be….” or “What can I do….” I love the “QBQ” way and everyone; I mean everyone, within the sound of my voice hears about it!!

  3. I need to remind myself not to go on auto-pilot! Missed “knew” until it was noted in the comments!

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