Yes . . . or No?
“Every oak tree starts out as a couple of nuts who stand their ground.” Unknown
Earlier today, I heard a woman tell her male friend this. “I think we all get three huge mistakes to make in our lives. I hear all these people struggling with career choices but the decision that can really screw up your life is choosing the wrong person to marry.” The man nodded vigorously. Yes, that’s the mistake that inflicts real damage.
My list of worse life mistakes would include alcohol and drug abuse, smoking our way into lung cancer or emphysema, and believing that AIDs and things like syphilis, gonorrhea, and other sexual diseases only happen to the other guy or gal.
Another major life mistake is believing that lust at first sight is love and that the feeling you get during sex is always romance and true love. Maybe yes or maybe just an itch that needs scratching. Or maybe, just what the experts now call “peer pressure.” Follow the wannbe king or queen who does NOT have your best interest at heart and you are definitely on the wrong path.
Following your best bud or a few wannabe divas into overdosing, getting pregnant at age 14 or 15 or even 17, shoplifting, busting ATM machines or performing a home invasion that sends you to prison for a hard 12 years (yes it happened to a 16 year old boy I know) is dumber than dumb. With friends like this, who needs enemies?
The worse mistake of all – worth counting in three digits — is playing “follow the leader” with your life. Listen to your gut. What does it tell you? Long ago, someone said, “Let me listen to me and not to them.” Tough guy/real life hero General H. Norman Schwarzkopf says. “The truth of the matter is that you ALWAYS know the right thing to do. The hard part is doing it.”
Thoreau said “If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer.” So the next time you get challenged by someone who does not have your best interests in mind, you are welcome to say, “Thanks, but no thanks. Truth is, I march to a different drummer.”
Meditation for the Day
Your “yes” belongs to you. Your “no” belongs to you. Think of where either of them will take you before you give them away.
Action for the Day
“I need to take an emotional breath, step back and remind myself who’s actually in charge of my life. “ J. Knowlton
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