Blog
Don't Do Something Dumb
Jan 19, 2021
Due to an unexpected schedule conflict, I cannot host Intentional Tuesday Live today. We'll look to resume next week.
In the meantime, I wanted to share a passage that a good friend of mine shared with me recently. As you will see, it's quite timely.
It's from Cheryl Strayed, author of Tiny Beautiful Things: Advice on Love and Life from Dear Sugar. She writes...
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"Don’t do what you know on a gut level to be the wrong thing to do. Don’t stay when you know you should go or go when you know you should stay. Don’t fight when you should hold steady or hold steady when you should fight. Don’t focus on the short-term fun instead of the long-term fall out. Don’t surrender all your joy for an idea you used to have about yourself that isn’t true anymore. Don’t seek joy at all costs.
I know it’s hard to know what to do when you have a conflicting set of emotions and desires, but it’s not as hard as we pretend it is. Saying it’s hard is ultimately a justification to do whatever seems like the easiest thing to do—have the affair, stay at that horrible job, end a friendship over a slight, keep loving someone who treats you terribly. I don’t think there’s a single dumbass thing I’ve done in my adult life that I didn’t know was a dumbass thing to do while I was doing it. Even when I justified it to myself—as I did every damn time—the truest part of me knew I was doing the wrong thing. Always.
As the years pass, I’m learning how to better trust my gut and not do the wrong thing, but every so often I get a harsh reminder that I’ve still got work to do."
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It's easy to think that difficult decisions sneak up on us. They catch us off-guard and that's what makes them so difficult. Bur when I look at my own life, it's rarely that way. Usually I see the difficult moments far off on the distant horizon. My problem is that I ignore them until they are right in my face, screaming at full blast for the attention I should have given long ago. My gut always knew, but some part of me thought that I knew better.
It occurs to me we might witness some dumbass behavior this week. Let's each make sure we don't react in an equally dumbass manner. We're in this together. We can be strong whilst being kind.
Be safe.
-zog
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