“They say motivation doesn’t last, neither does bathing, that's why we do it daily.”—Zig Zigler.
How many times have I used that quote? Many. It’s one of my favorites.
Have you ever watched a movie the second time, like maybe 20 years later, and you remember a little, but when the introduction rolls, you say, “I don’t remember ever seeing that.’ And maybe there are a whole bunch more scenes you don’t remember. I did that with the movie Children of a Lesser God last night.
And we do it with those wonderful cryptic sayings that are so meaningful at the time, quotes, and motivational sayings.
Peaches and I are in the truck parked by our once bare ground field, now ablaze with green spring goodness. We are basking in the glorious sunshine that is warming us from head to our toes. I’m recovering from a cold, the first in over 5 years. I declared I was never getting another, but alas, there is many a slip between cup and lip.
So, we sit here like two lizards on hot rocks, but the image of a crispy lizard flashed on my brain, and I quickly cooled my choice of words from hot rocks to warm ones. Of course, if I were truly creative, I would come up with a better analogy than a lizard on hot rocks, but as I was reading The Poisonwood Bible, I was shocked to see that Barbara Kingsolver used clichés, and if a Pulitzer Prize-winning author can use a cliché, so can I.
Those cool word pictures, aka clichés, climb right to the top of our brains—“Cool as a cucumber,” hardly causes a pause in the reading. We all know what it means, we all understand a cliche'. I think they are like traveling to famous sites of the world, yes these sites are frequented, and advisors tell us to get off the beaten track, but the sites are frequented because they are the best.
(I admit cliche's are lazy writing, but hey, I'm giving my stuffed head a break. But isn't it refreshing when we run into a simile that gives us an explosive "Ha!"?)
Earlier, I listened to a video of a monk advising us that when sadness visits, quickly replace it with a gentler thought. Joy opens doors.
Imagine this: we are in control of our thoughts, yet most of us think our thoughts are thinking us.
You know I had been following the Monks Walk for Peace and Aloka, their Peace dog, until the end of their journey—that 2,300-mile trek. I pray that the Peace and loving kindness they were spreading and receiving will continue.
I should say it will continue, for once our eyes are opened to possibilities, it takes extreme effort to close them again.
I'm going to throw in something I gained from my Real Estate Continuing Education Course I took last month--don't be scared if I mention Real Estate, it wasn't all dry stuff. (And you guys know how I was dreading taking that course.)
The course warned us about something they called “Implicit Bias.”
Implicit Bias as a subconscious bias that is difficult to detect and hard to overcome. It is our tendency to assign negative traits to people outside our group and positive traits to those within our group.
But that’s not all to it.
We know about discrimination—treating people, groups, animals, differently, thinking of them as inferior or not worthy of our attention. Sometimes we judge by stereotypes, which are oversimplifications of behaviors or characteristics.
Here are some examples of Implicit bias I just pulled out of the hat:
- Anchoring bias occurs when a person’s judgment is unduly influenced by the first piece of information they have on a subject.
- Beauty bias: That beautiful people have it easier. They are hired more often, promoted more often, and paid more. Yet, that can work against them. When a highly attractive woman applies for a physically demanding job, she is likely to be judged as incapable of doing the work. Being attractive can cause jealousy and lead to social isolation, sabotaging promotional opportunities. Many are surprised when a beautiful woman is also smart. (I had a hard time accepting California’s governor, Gavin Newsom as a presidential candidate because he was so good-looking. But then I listened to him.)
We don’t want to admit some of those feelings sometimes.
- Affinity bias, which is the tendency for us to be attracted to people like ourselves. They like the same things we do, believe the way we do—boy howdy, isn’t that true? It can cause tunnel vision. It limits debate, can create a closed mind, and limits one’s education.
And then I came home to type up this information for I had my arrow pointed at the bull's eye that is my blog. I was ready to let go of the bow's string...when...
I learned that my first boyfriend died. I feel sad and odd. We dated for four years. He greatly added to my self-esteem and self-confidence. I know as we matured we become polar opposites in many ways, but I was impressed at what he had accomplished over the years, and that in college on the east coast, and having no car, he bought a scooter (not a motorcycle) and drove it from the east coast to the west coast to visit his parents. That was awesome!
I didn't know the man he became, but I remember the boy.
It feels like the end of an era.
I decided to ignore the monk’s sage advice and be sad for a while.
And then I went outside to close the chickens in for the night and saw this:
