The DUI Jar..

Some time ago I came to use this tool as a way of tracking personal growth. I am not sure where the concept came from, but it has helped me in ways that I can’t express in words.

Anyway, I have this big jar. I call it the D.U. I. jar. It has nothing to do with driving under the influence. It is my “Don’t Understand It” jar. Here is how I use it. Whenever I come across something that I do not understand, I find a piece of paper and I write this “thing” down, and then I put the piece of paper in the jar. I have been doing this for at least fifteen years. Needless to say, the jar has a lot of pieces of paper in it.

It is my hope that when I die, the jar will still have a lot of pieces of paper in it. There is so much that I do not understand. Most of the time, during the course of any given day, I may write down several things. Take today for example. I wrote this down…. “I have no understanding of why I feel the way I do about someone I have never actually met. “ I also wrote this: “I have no understanding of the CAGED system.” That first one will probably be in the jar for a long time. The second one may not be in there too long.

Every now and then when I feel that I am not growing as a person. I go to the jar and start pulling out the pieces of paper and read them. I repeat this until I find one that has something written down that I now have an understanding of. After reading it. I throw it away.

This exercise has served me well.