Friday, July 10, 2009

Assuming the Worst


funny pictures of cats with captions

from I Can Has Ceesburger - LOLcats

Why is it we always assume the worst of ourselves?

Earlier this week I had a delightful lunch with someone I hadn’t seen in a year. A year had passed partly because of the weirdness of the whole hibernating thing. Partly it was because after a certain amount of time had passed I felt so awful about it that I couldn’t psych myself up to call her.

My mother would say “well, she didn’t call you either.” It’s hard to argue with that that fact, and yet, it has never made me feel any better. (Probably because it is, after all, all about ME.)

This someone, Colleen let’s call her (because that is, after al,l her name,) is another small business owner and when she sent out her monthly ezine I emailed her back without allowing myself to think too much about it.

I did it because if the tables had been turned I wouldn’t have been annoyed at all with her for her absence. Quite the opposite, I would have been overjoyed to hear from her again. Maybe, I thought, just maybe she might feel that way about hearing from me.

It was a stretch to believe but I took a chance and lo and behold, she was happy to hear from me. We had a wonderful lunch. We plan on seeing more of each other because we seem to have the rare gift of “getting” one another.

I want to start practicing assuming the best of myself. I don’t exactly know how I’m going to do that – it feels like such a radical concept!

"Every human being's soul is beautiful, but to show this beauty outwardly, you must first have found it within you." Barbel Mohr (the quote Coleen has on her email. So beautiful!)

What would change in your life if you started assuming the best of yourself?

1 comment:

Beth Dargis said...

Thanks for sharing this. I was thinking just today that I always thought I was an optimistic thinker and for the most part I am. But, I realized when it comes to money and my business I don't expect it to go well. So now I want to bring some of that optimism to that area.