I cannot tell a lie (wait, wasn’t that George Washington who said that, after chopping down the cherry tree, not Ben Franklin?). Anyway, this quote was floating through my mind all week and I thought it was attributed to Oprah Winfrey, because that’s who I first heard it from. A Google search showed me otherwise. Yes folks, it was Benjamin Franklin, the guy who flew a kite with a key on it during a lightening storm, amongst other, er, unusual things. However, if it was good enough for Oprah to adhere to, it’s good enough for me. When in doubt, DON’T. This isn’t about whether or not you should take a risk or step outside of your comfort zone or push past fear or anything like that. It’s about if everything in you is saying, “This doesn’t feel right in any way” then don’t do it! Don’t even try to reason your way into it. Everything I have ever done that didn’t feel right, but I did it anyway, never worked out. Ever.
Good point , Lesson learned correct?
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Not always, unfortunately, but this is going to be one of my mantras for the new year, and one thing I can say is when I set my mind to something, it sticks.
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Good. Shows determination
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It especially applies to speaking!
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You are so right, Mick!
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Kim actually, it was your Grandpa, my dad that always said that. “If you have doubt, don’t do it.”
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Thank you for telling me that, Aunt Louise! I didn’t know that. He was a wise man 🙂
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…ever
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Absolutely right!
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Kim!!! I just realized you left that WONDERFUL review on Amazon!!! Thank you luv!
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Hi Kathy, you’re welcome. I’ve been meaning to tell you. I left it on Goodreads, too. In retrospect, I wish I had added that all of the women found the strength and courage to do what in their hearts they knew was right, whether leaving or staying. I really need to learn to write things in Word and let them permeate a bit before sharing them. I tend to not be patient that way.
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It’s all good, really! That’s how I saw it. I happened to google my name and goodreads and it came up. I had been racking my brain like who in the world left this great review??? I understand about the impatience of putting words out there 😉
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I think that is sound advice Kim. 😎
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I thought so, too, Alan. We humans have been given these amazing mechanism to help us make decisions about what is good for us and what could harm us, and we don’t listen enough.
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I don’t know if I ever mentioned this but I read a book some years back called Blink. Essentially it explains that our first reaction to people and situations are usually accurate. We then tend to overthink a situation or try to rationalize what we’d like to do and end up making the wrong choice.
Sounds very similar..:)
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I don’t recall you mentioning this book, George. I’ll need to check it out, as it sounds spot on. I wonder why we don’t trust our instincts enough? Must be societal conditioning.
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I think you’d find it interesting. The second half is a little technical but they did studies in married couples, professors and their students, etc.
You’re probably right about societal conditioning. I suppose we should just trust our instincts more often and not question our gut reactions…:)
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Great quote – regardless of who said it first.
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Glad you liked it, Sheryl!
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So true! For me, it is especially meaningful when it comes to opening my big mouth. Whenever I find myself thinking, “should I really say that?” then I know the answer is decidedly “No.” And that I need to follow that instinct….
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Ann, if I had a dime for every time I restrained myself from saying something that I really wanted to say, but knew I shouldn’t, I might be able to afford Christmas in Jamaica!
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Funny how so many help books and speakers tell you otherwise: push yourself past your fear!! Don’t listen to those voices in your head, you can be more than you think…. But actually, those voices were put there genetically to tell us when something was NOT right for us to do. When we ignore the signals, then yes, probably something is not right for us to do. Humans have learned to ignore our intuition and this is probably our most powerful tool…. How many terrorist could be stopped if we just could feel the little hairs on the back of our necks stand up when we felt some odd is about to happen, or someone is just not right?? We need to listen to these signals.
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I blame it on television and all of the other mechanisms used to brainwash us into conformity.
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Reminds me of the saying “better to be safe than sorry”. My sister taught me at an early age that if there was any doubt — you should probably not do it.
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Sounds like you have a very wise sister who knew this intuitively, without having to hear it from Oprah or Ben Franklin!
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It’s all easy in hindsight isn’t it? But I agree with you and we often don’t listen to our gut instinct when we should. Good lessons.
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My goal for this year is to listen to my first gut reaction and not let my mind talk me out of it, and see where that takes me 🙂
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Sounds like a good goal to have. xo
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