May | 2014 | BulgingButtons

May 30, 2014
by BulgingButtons Leave a comment

Just What Are You Trying To Tell Us?

This evening the local news featured a piece on several class action lawsuits that you, too, can “get in on.” The reporter mentioned that you probably should have actually purchased said products, which ranged from sunscreen to dog food to just about anything from Trader Joe’s, but the tone and message of the piece was “hey folks, these companies are giving out free money so hop on board and get your piece of the pie.”

Over and over the amounts that people could claim, without any receipts, flashed across the screen. The way they presented it made it sound like free money. I can imagine a person who is pinching pennies might think, “these companies don’t know whether or not I actually bought their product, so what would it hurt to make a claim?” After all, twenty dollars here and thirty-five dollars there can really make a difference when your family is struggling.

What are these suits about, anyway? Well, the dog food suit actually stemmed from some harm coming to some pets. That doesn’t sound unreasonable, but why open it up to just anyone who claims to have bought the food? Then there was the one from the fancy flip flop company. Apparently they claimed some health benefits that they shouldn’t have. Really, people? You’re going to sue a flip flop company because your feet still have issues after wearing flip flops? How is this sane? It’s like the person suing McDonald’s after spilling hot coffee. Coffee is supposed to be hot, isn’t it? You just have to be careful and use some common sense.

I believe we’re too quick to look for blame and to try to get something for nothing. I didn’t buy that sunscreen. I won’t put in a claim for the eight dollars or whatever it was, even if I don’t need a receipt. I know easy money is hard to pass up, but Karma’s a bitch, so I don’t mess with it. Do the right thing because it’s the right thing to do. Is the world black and white? I don’t think so. You need to feed your babies, you need to keep safe, but do you really need twenty dollars from Trader Joe’s because they may have mislabeled some of their products? I doubt it.

May 28, 2014
by BulgingButtons 11 Comments

All or Nothing Has Got to Go

I don’t know where we get the “all or nothing” attitude. I suppose it stems from perfectionism. If we can’t do it all, why bother doing anything? But that thinking is flawed, and it keeps us stuck.

I’ve been thinking about this as a negative, but let me turn it to the positive for a moment. I’m a “big picture” kind of person. A while back I had a principal who provided the whole staff with Strengthsfinder 2.0 books, and we all took the test to find our strengths. I wasn’t terribly surprised to find that my strongest came out as “ideation.”

According to the Strengthsfinder folks, “People strong in the Ideation theme are fascinated by ideas. They are able to find connections between seemingly disparate phenomena.” In other words, I see things as part of a whole, and can envision how they all connect together. This is very helpful when I’m planning lessons and units in school, when I’m renovating parts of my home, or when I’m designing a quilt.

The flip side of this, for me anyway, is that I sometimes get lost in the details. I know what I want the whole thing to look like and how I want it to function, but all the little bits and pieces of making it happen sometimes trip me up. That’s where I get stuck.

Instead of writing a whole novel, I need to start with an outline. Instead of cleaning the whole house, I need to wash the dishes. Instead of losing 100 pounds, I need to go for a walk. Breaking down these big goals into smaller, more manageable ones, isn’t hard, it just doesn’t come easily or naturally to me. I want to do it all, and I want to do it now. I know that’s not realistic for large goals, so I tend to do nothing instead. How crazy is that?

I have to stop myself and make myself hear how ridiculous I’m being. I would never expect a student to get an idea for a research paper then turn in that finished paper the same morning. I wouldn’t expect my son to take up a new sport and be and expert at it in the same week. I wouldn’t expect my dog to master a new behavior the first time she tries it. So why do I expect so much of myself?

I CAN lose a hundred pounds. It will take a long time and I will get tripped up along the way, but I have to expect that and forgive myself and keep moving forward. I CAN be a published author, but not if I don’t hone my craft and submit my writing to publishers. I CAN keep my home neat and tidy, but not if I don’t spend 5 minutes here and 10 minutes there to keep up with it.

Many imperfect steps in the correct direction will lead me far further down the path I wish to travel than just a few perfect steps. I have to keep this in mind and just keep moving. Living in a state of inertia, while easy, holds no rewards. With risk comes reward, and with work comes success. Wish me success and I try to learn this lesson over and over again.

May 28, 2014
by BulgingButtons 5 Comments

Five More Simple Things That Make Me Happy

1. Rediscovering my i-Tunes library, which I thought was lost in the cloud forever. Hello Barenaked Ladies, Goldfrapp, Shiny Toy Guns, and Big Audio Dynamite. It’s great to hear from you again.