Last night, at 9:32 pm, I found myself slumped Gollum-like over my smart phone compulsively checking my work email. As I waited for the opening page (you know the one...the one that says who has emailed you and what they have emailed you about -- the one that tells you if you can breath because you have the "all clear" or the one that is notifying you that your desk has just been lit on fire and you better have a plan to fix it by tomorrow morning), I realized how much I live and die by what this particular piece of technology tells me.
As I took a mental step back from the Gollum-posed me, I was struck by the similarities of my posture and intensity to that of a kid waiting for an answer to a question made to a Magic 8 Ball. Remember asking when you were a kid -- sometimes it seemed amazing that the 8 Ball could give you the answer you sought! ("Does So-and -so really and truly like me???" "Outlook looks good!")
Okay -- we're older and wiser now. We know the 8 Ball doesn't hold the key to our future -- it has no insights except what we give it. (Right??)
So...let's look at another scenerio. What about when you get up in the morning and step on the scale. How much power are you giving that scale over how you feel about your yesterday and your today??
If the number is down -- "Yeh! I rule the world!!"
But if they numbers are up -- "I suck!".
And yet -- much like the Magic 8 Ball -- the numbers on the scale have no insights into the person you are, how you spent your yesterday or what great things you will accomplish today.
They are just numbers.
They do not define you. You give them power they do not have without your active participation.
Don't be Golum-like on your scale -- it's not a pretty picture and you certainly deserve better from yourself.
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