A couple weeks ago Tim and I had a conversation while standing in two different rooms. I can't remember the subject matter or what I said before this exchange, but he paid me a lovely complement, impressed as he was with my solid, self-assured position. Flattered, I walked into the room from whence he spoke, and with a big smile I asked,
"Did you just say, I'm always self-confident?"
He smirked and replied, "I said, you always have a comment."
Well I should hope so, wordsmith, am I!
That story found it's way into art class the next day, becoming, it would seem, the catalyst for a day of missed-connections comedy. Did you just say... was the catch phrase, followed by a definite mistake. Ha, ha. It was great fun. But I'm still thinking about how I inferred a compliment from a polite, please lay off, or just go ahead and stop talking for a while.
We hear what we are prepared to hear, be it good or bad, and like anything else, what we absorb and what we expend, is a choice. I need to be confident more than I need encouragement these days. Starting a business from scratch, with a dream, some intuition and a whole lot of courage demands, I'm figuring out, a staid confidence to the core, regardless - especially regardless - of others opinions, doubts and indifference. I like to think I'm embarking on a new journey, yes, that of new business venture, but more importantly, one of total faith in myself. I like to think I'm leaving the dock of support-dependant-me and taking the wheel of believe-in-myself-me, moving away from the safe, complacent shore and out across uncertain territory, that I might just walk on water. And all this has something to do with becoming the woman I want to be. But enough about moi.
Do you believe, that at certain times in your life, your ideas and feelings for a person, an idea, an entity, were colored by your surrounding, peer crowd, maturity (or immaturity)? Can we agree that our emotional dispositions anchor how we understand the world and each other?
Every day is different, both the events and our reactions to them. Today, for example, I hate writing. Because I've been submerged, blissfully, in learning new software, creating a new blog design and general product creation, et al, in preparation for my new business - the re-launch of Mable - I've had to rack my brain for something to write about. It's not just that. Focusing on the new project has made me want to hunker down and hibernate until everything is as I want it to be. I'm a horse in blinders driving through the thick woods of new frontier. (let's nickname this post, Bad Metaphor Monday)
Still, we hear what we want to hear, what we need to hear, what we have conditioned ourselves to hear. It's a gorgeous day out and while I've dragged the morning well into the afternoon, effectively spending an entire day on this wee and possibly totally insignificant post, I vow to land on the upside. Maybe it's enough just to recognize when I hear something I don't like, something that feels like a threat or an insult or a smothering of my excited ideas, I check my receiver for personal interference first. But if I can keep positive, then it will likely all sound good. And if it sounds like a compliment, you better believe I'm taking it!
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