Dooley Noted. 12/9/2013
I tend to be upbeat.
Someone this week had a very select choice of words to describe this tendency.
“The very thing I like about you, I also despise.”
One might get offended by that harshness, so instead I asked him to elaborate.
He explained that he loved that I was so upbeat, but it was also too much for him to take.
I found this observation fascinating. Are the very things we like potential liabilities?
It’s interesting.
Perhaps this is the human condition. Or, we just have more work to do to understand what “liking” something even means. Does liking something set one up for liability?
You might “like” yoga, but too much flexibility without stability is seen in many yoga classes.
You might “like” to run, but running on injuries may be a liability.
You might “like” to squat, but your back folds like origami during it, making the exercise a liability.
So, I try to figure out why I like what I “like” and assess the risk to benefit ratio of liking it.
Doing things I don’t necessarily “like” is just what I need to manage the “like” risk.
I don’t “like” to do push-ups. It’s most likely because I’m not great at them. Thus, I need to do more of what I don’t like.
And, can’t we learn to like what is good for us? I “like” the hard-style push-up, so that may be a way to learn to like push-ups.
Now, the person with the above statement clearly does not spend enough time with me. I experience the rainbow of human emotion, with a tendency to be upbeat.
But, he taught me a huge lesson on the liability of “like.” For that, I’m certainly thankful – like it or not.
– Dr. Kathy Dooley