My thoughts
and prayers go out to the people on the East Coast as they brave it out through
Hurricane Sandy.
If you're in
the affected areas, and you're not busy evacuating your home, gathering food
and supplies for your emergency kit, trying to locate a source of power, or
overseeing your family and loved ones, and you just happen to be online, feel
free to share or vent about what's going on.
Hang in
there, East Coasters! *Virtual hugs!*
Monday, October 29, 2012
Monday, October 8, 2012
When You Don't Get Back What You Put In
I do a mental eye roll whenever I
hear someone say, "You get back what you put in." It's a presumptuous
comment to make about anything, even if it's spoken in the spirit of
encouraging someone to do their best so they can reap the rewards of their hard
work.
Here's why I don't like this misleading adage:
1. By the
logic of "you get back what you put in," when someone doesn't get the
end result they were aiming for, must that mean they didn't utilize enough of
themselves into reaching their goal? Of course not. So this
saying sets someone up to feel like they didn't try hard enough when in
reality, they might've done all that they could.
2. What if someone worked and worked and worked towards a goal, and the prize
they feel is due to them is forever out of their reach? The "you get back
what you put in" finger wagging in your face can leave someone feeling like they have been
cheated, as if the universe now owed them something big.
3. It can tear someone up inside when they observe another person getting what
they themselves had labored and sweated away for, and the cut goes even deeper
when the "chosen one" appears to have been less deserving of the
prize.
Self-doubt, entitlement, and bitterness are undesirable pieces of
baggage for anyone to lug around.
Here's how I would put it: Sometimes you get back what you put in,
and sometimes you don't. You don't always have full control over the results of
your efforts.
What do you think of "You get back what you put in?"
Have you ever NOT gotten back what you put in? How did you react to that
disappointment?
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