Thursday | February 09, 2012
Don’t Waste Your Time Chasing ‘Dead Rabbits’
| Rate Center | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Today's Average Rates Across the Country* | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
By
Michael Chatman
11 March 2004
A woman happened to be looking out the window of her home one morning. She was horrified to see her dog shaking the life out of the neighbor’s rabbit. Her family had been quarreling with these neighbors; this was certainly going to make matters worse. She grabbed a broom and ran outside, pummeling the pooch until he dropped a rabbit now covered with dog spit – and extremely dead.
After a moment’s consideration, the woman lifted the rabbit with the end of the broom and brought it into the house. She dumped its lifeless body into the bathtub and turned on the shower. When the water running off the rabbit was clean, she rolled him over and rinsed the other side.
Now she had a plan. She found her hairdryer and blew the rabbit dry. Using an old comb, she groomed the rabbit until he looked pretty good. Then, when the neighbor wasn’t looking, she hopped the fence, snuck across the backyard, and propped him up in his cage. No way she was taking the blame for this thing.
About an hour later, she heard screams coming from the neighbor’s yard. The woman quickly ran outside, pretending not to know what was going on. "What’s happened?" she asked innocently.
Her neighbor came running to the fence. All the blood had drained from her face. "Our rabbit, our rabbit!" she blubbered. "He died two weeks ago, we buried him – and now he’s back!"
Had the neighbor poked the rabbit or tried to play with him, she would have discovered the truth: The rabbit was dead. And playing with a fluffed-up dead rabbit isn’t much fun.
The same is true with fluffed-up dead people. One of the disadvantages of living in an affluent society – meaning most of us – is that it’s too easy to get dead and buried before we’re dead and buried. We clutch our material possessions and social status tightly. Too often we’re afraid to take risks, stand out in a crowd, or attempt anything that could make us look different. In a world of people whose first priority is to maintain the status quo, simply looking alive can be too dangerous.
I once spoke with a news anchorman who hated nearly every aspect of his job. When I asked him why he didn’t quit, he said he’d come too far to turn back now. To search for something more significant in life would mean taking a pay cut and relinquishing a few job perks.
So every day he gets up and heads for a job he hates, so as not to lose what he’s gained. And just what has he gained? It sounds like a fluffed-up dead rabbit to me. All over the country, college graduates accept jobs they hate so they can buy stuff they don’t need to impress people who don’t care.
You deserve so much more than that. Could it be time for you to take a deep breath and really live again?
Take some risks. Your life’s goal should never be about being propped up in a cage. I’ve met dozens of students who finally took a leap of faith and made their escapes. Some changed majors; some changed attitudes; some took initiative and summoned up the courage to live their dreams.
There are some people who are living with fewer financial resources for now, but they’re experiencing an excitement and a renewed hope they never knew possible. They are learning to invest in real assets and not liabilities. The renewed fire in their lives leaves no doubt they’re alive.
Michael Chatman has spoken to more than two million young adults from coast to coast. He is also the author of "Mom… Dad… What Were You Thinking? Seven Ways to Build Wealth and Prove You’re Financially Smarter Than Your Parents." You can contact him at info@michaelchatman.com.
Copyright © 2003. YOUNG MONEY®
Tag Cloud
Financial help Center
Newsletter Sign Up
Enter to win a Young Money Career Package by signing up for our newletter.
I can empathize with your new client. As a child, as for many years as an adult, I had no real confidence in myself, regardless of accomplishments. When I was a child, my parents tried to teach me the lesson of the ‘Little Engine That Could.’ As you recall, it could because it though it could. Whenever they told me that, I say: “but I don’t think I can”, as that was a far as it ever went.
When I was in college I read a science fiction novel in which the main character (if I recall, I don’t really remember the details) was consumed by fear. So he learned this small poem, which I memorized and said it over and over to myself:
“I must not fear.
Fear is the mind-killer.
Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration.
I will face my fear.
I will permit it to pass over me and through me.
And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path.
Where the fear has gone there will be nothing.
Only I will remain.”
Recently I looked it up. It is from a book by Frank Herbert in the Dune series. Regardless of its origins, it really helped me; it helped that I memorized it and repeated it to myself a million times a day.
Well, there are other things that helped my in conquering fear and in ability to be confident, but that was one of the first steps.