Deepen the Discontent – A Menta-Morphosis Competency

Introduction:

Discontent provides emotional power and fuels the will to enable us to expend the energy necessary to change our behavior.   It is the driving force behind much of the progress the world has made.

“Restlessness and discontent are the necessities of progress.” ~ Thomas Edison

“The world owes all its onward impulses to men ill at ease.  The happy man inevitably confines himself within ancient limits.” ~ Nathaniel Hawthorne

This step focuses on the source of that discontent and points to a solution to it. Discontent comes from two primary sources:

1. A problem/pain we want to make go away.
2. A goal that is something positive we’d like to attain or accomplish.

       Used for

In this step, we clarify the source of the discontent, and think through the consequences of not extinguishing it, as well as the rewards for doing so.  It is used at the beginning of a thinking project to provide the emotional power to work through the process.

       Input/ Output

The starting point for this competency was a weighty situation and a vague sense of unease and dissatisfaction with the situation.  The ending point is a written statement describing the ‘discontent’ in specific, practical language.

       How to

1. Articulate what is the source of your discontent. Is it something we want that we do not have, or some problem or pain that we’d like to make go away?
2. Now describe, and write down, the rewards and consequences for that.
3. Finally, turn it into a question.

          The output of this step is a written statement of our discontent, the consequences of it, and a question designed to focus our energies on a potential solution.

Here’s an example.

With your recent promotion, you find yourself being invited to receptions and social events and you have decided to improve your ability to converse with strangers.  You decide to improve your conversational skills.  So, you write it out like this: I need to be better at conversations with people I have just met.  You’ve completed the first part of this step.

Moving onto the second part, you write:

If I can, I’ll be more confident and far less anxious in those events, and I’ll improve my promotability.  If I don’t, I’ll continue to be anxious and nervous about these occasions and be perceived as something of an introvert.

Finally, you convert that to the question: How can I improve my conversational skills?

         Variations