Asshole's Abound

“It takes courage to grow up and become who you really are.” ~ e.e. cummings

dictionary.com: courage is the quality of mind or spirit that enables a person to face difficulty, danger, pain, etc., without fear; bravery.

From these two little gems, we can garner that in order to grow up and become who we really are we’re going to HAVE to face difficulty, danger, pain, etc. There’s no avoiding it, it’s a part of life. Growth requires pain. We’re not going to travel down the path of life without uncertainty, heartache, and facing difficult truths. We’re going to have to look them face to face, mano y mano, becoming one with them, discarding the ones that are simply lies and accepting others that are out of our control.

For the fun of it, let’s call these difficult truths, “assholes”. No one wants a bunch of assholes ruining their day. What would you do if you found yourself in a room with 10 bonafied assholes? You would leave, that’s what you would do.

So what about the assholes that have infiltrated the cortex’s of our brain? They are certainly there you know. They are the demons and insecurities we’ve picked up over time from life experiences that have hurt us. They’re the scar tissue if you will. They’re not necessarily disabling but they’re there, living testimonies of the pain we’ve felt in the past.

For years, I thought I was stupid. I was far more social growing up than academic by nature. School wasn’t really my thing and I started to believe that I wasn’t smart (asshole). In fact, I never believed I would graduate from college. Somehow though, that little lie manifested itself in me and became a part of who I was for a very long time. It became an excuse for not taking control of my own destiny, but it was totally a lie. I am perfectly capable and able to do anything I want to do, become anything I want to become, but for years, that asshole made me feel otherwise.

So, how did I deal with that asshole? I just started calling it out. When the thought occurred to me that I couldn’t do something, I just began saying, “that’s a lie”. When you start seeing them for what they are they really start to get under your skin and piss you off. Action must taken. The asshole that keeps telling me I am lazy. . . I’ll show him, I’ll go run 5 miles. The asshole that tells me I am not pretty, I’ll dress up for work for no reason (chicks know the amazing power held in a pair of heels). The asshole that tells me I’m not worthy of my friends . . . watch what nice thing I can do for them to make their day brighter.

I love the definition of idiocy that’s been viral for a while now: doing the same thing while expecting different results. If we want things in our lives to improve we have to make a change, we have to do things differently. Often that involves a knocking out a few assholes. And bar fights require courage.