Who got to hold a 15 foot snake, snapping turtle and bearded dragon this weekend? This girl!
Evan’s 8th birthday party was on Saturday, and because of his extreme love for reptiles, I endured 18 children under the age of 10 AT MY HOUSE, a traveling reptile zoo, and lots of slimy, slithering creatures. That’s when you know how much you REALLY love someone. In any case, I survived both of our birthdays last week and am still sane (somewhat).
Meanwhile, my sister-in-law (one of the coolest women I know and a fantastic writer) sent me this, and I love it! Thanks Lynn!
This morning while getting my coffee in my workplace cafe, I overheard two women speaking about shopping. One of them said to the other, in her eastern European accent, “Yeah, but you can find good deals if you look hard. Like the other day, I found a BCBG dress for $50. I thought to myself, ‘It’s beautiful. I’m not even going to try it on. I’m going to take it home and it’s going to fit perfectly.'” My immediate thought was that she was naive, or that only she in her size 0 figure could just take a dress home and have it fit perfectly.
But her words kept ringing in my head all day, in her accent of course. “I’m going to take it home and it’s going to fit perfectly.” Her words were so confident and brave. What if I approached everything with such provocation? Maybe my life would become a self-fulfilling prophecy if I assumed everything was going to work out well. I started applying it to my day: It helps if you use the accent.
“I’m going to look at my emails and get them sorted perfectly.”
“I’m going to call the client and it will work out perfectly.”
“I’m going to have just a little bit of a healthy lunch and it will be just the right amount.”
Confident. Bold. Righteous. Assumptive.
I like this way of thinking. I’m going to give it a shot this week…..and it’s going to work perfectly.
-Lynn Grady-Worthen
I love this! Since I have a bit of a problem with perfectionism, I will definitely use this, but replace “perfectly” with “great” or to keeping in tone with the accent, “spendidly”. 😉
Ha! I like “splendidly” 🙂
I think I know that Eastern European lady…or one with the same joie de vivre! Maybe its a common trait among people who have experienced a less-than-perfect life in another country and who realize that, for all its faults and shortcomings, this one is pretty darned near perfect, so why shouldn’t the clothes be that way too?
I guess what I mean is that perspective can have a real impact on our outlooks. Sometimes we get so caught up in the thick of thin things, that we miss the bigger picture, one that is much closer to perfect than imperfect. Maybe if we try changing our viewpoint, we might see the picture in a better light.
Amen sister!
Very inspiring Anne. Goes in line with; We create our tomorrow today. If I tell my wife she looks fat, gaurenteed my tomorrow will not be good. If I sit here speaking negatively, i.e. “Tomorrow’s going to be so boring.” “I’m going to hate getting up for work.”, I promise, tomorrow will be boring and I will hate getting up for work. Speak happiness and positive thoughts in existence.
Ha! If my husband tells me I look fat, he better duck! You’re right…it’s all a self-fulfilling prophecy.
Great post, Anne. I more and more believe that we create our realities; thinking/visualizing it will make it so! (Though I returned a pair of sandals to Ross today that I so wanted to fit, but after they pinched my feet just between the closet and the kitchen, I realized some realities are a bit immutable.) So maybe the trick is to recognize which ones are more open to our influence.
So true 😉