Backstory
What do you do about things you don’t like? Do you speak up, feeling you have a right to have things the way you want them, or do you swallow your annoyance and put up with it? Debating the best approach one day, this story evolved.
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Learning About Someone – #611
I just found out something new about Bill. He does not like sand in his toes.
We’ve been together for eight years now and I didn’t know that.
Funny how you can be so close to someone, and not know something about them.
Not that sand in his toes is significant, but it got me to wondering what else I don’t know that he dislikes.
People you love are kind and polite. Sometimes they put up with things that drive them nuts rather than say something that might hurt you or distress you. We do the same in return.
That means we may be innocently doing things, day in and day out, that are an irritant. And we have no idea. Or we may be expecting a loved one to do something they just hate doing, but never tell us that.
One of my favorite old TV shows once had a skit that started with a man accepting his brother’s goldfish in a bowl. That was followed by a whole series of comedic mishaps and the final punchline was, “It’s really about your not wanting the goldfish, isn’t it?”
So what should we do? Go out and let everyone know what they do that bothers us? Demand that they stop doing what is annoying to us? Put up with it until it explodes, like the goldfish incident?
I’m going to give that a lot of thought. In the meantime, when we get to the beach, I sure am not going to insist that Bill take his shoes off!
P.S.
The next time you want to get over an annoyance, consider using the 4-step approach that Toni Bernhard suggests in her book, How to Wake Up:
- Recognize the annoyance
- Label it
- Investigate it
- Let it be or take action to change the situation.
[Show #611]
