Hang on…Hang on. Don’t get your hopes up. Do you think Iwant to teach myself right out a career?
“How to Treat Yourself” is about…okay…how you treat yourself. We spend a lot of time and energy struggling to get other people treat us well. With limited success, I might add. Other people are so resistent to training. “Here…here’s your script, dear. When I say this….you say….and never say….Also, you are required to compliment me…and never mention that little, okay, moderate less-than-perfect feature…never, ever and I can tell by your expression you’re thinking about it.”
Not only are other people difficult to train, they often are distracted attending to their own lives….Speaking of annoying habits.
Thus, “How to Treat Yourself” is a self-employment opportunity.
The Show Horse Philosophy. A friend and I followed had a lead on a horse prospect, a small bay with three white socks. Outside of the socks, the horse had little to catch the eye or, in my case, hopes for a big future. We located the scrawny fellow in a field outside of town, trailered him into the show barn, and walked his dusty, a undersized body into the stable. Disappointed with our find, I leaned against the wall, waiting for a next move. Not my friend. To my wonder, she immediately located her grooming tools and set to work on Three Socks. She cross-tied the prospect, brushed out the dust and loose hair, oiled his hooves, trimmed his ears, then stood back to survey Three Socks.
From where I loitered I asked: “Why did you go to all that trouble?”
She said: “I’m not letting him go without a chance. What I”ve learned is, treat a horse like a show horse and he acts like a showhorse.”
Did Three Socks end up Hunter Champion of the State? Did he go on to prove his doubters wrong? (Theme from Rocky here.) No, he didn’t.
Here is the great beauty of the Thinking Guidance System over the Emotional Guidance System. My friend wasn’t going for future trophies. While my Emotional System was asking, “Why go to all this trouble and still be a loser?”
Her Thinking Guidance System used facts. Not “potential happenings” from some mystical future where, apparently, we all expect… if we can make the right decisions..we will be transformed by having more money, a better job, recognition…winning the lottery…whatever we are holding on to that’s going to happen so that we will be happier… My friend operated with the fact that “Every minute you are alive…you can make it great…have fun with it….If you make it great….no way to be a loser. Or, you can stand on the sidelines (with me) criticizing and thinking of a future which may or may not happen.”
