Wanting What You Get and Getting What You Want
Posted: Monday, October 11, 2010
by Donovan Baldwin
No Diet 4 Me
My mother, going to be 93 in two months, was telling me about her childhood. From time to time, in those pre-cold cut days of the 1920's, her mother would not have the fixin's for sandwiches for the kids to take to school. On those occasions, her father, a butcher, would make sandwiches at his market and have them sent over to the school.
No finesse, I guess.
As she mused about it, however, she added that it really wasn't too bad as many of the other kids would be willing to trade their "better" sandwiches for the basic model. So, in the long run, she and her siblings came out ahead on the sandwich front.
Life is like that, isn't it? Sometimes we get what we want...sometimes we don't. Sometimes we are able to take what we don't want and make it into something that we do want...sometimes not.
What do you do if you don't get what you want? Sit there and feel sorry for yourself, or try to figure out how to make lemonade, or something, out of the lemon that life handed you?
Remember the news story of the guy who started bartering with a big gag-gift paper clip and wound up with a house? He took something that was of little worth to him and traded it to someone who did want it for something which someone else didn't want as much as they wanted a big gag-gift paper clip.
Go figure!
I am sure there are some things which nobody in their right mind wants: famine, pestilence, etc.
However, most of the things which come our way usually fall somewhere below that level. If we don't want it, there probably is someone somewhere who does. Did you ever wonder why they might want it?
It means something to them. Maybe if you could figure out what that is, you could possibly get as much out of it as they would.
I don't watch many TV shows, but one I catch from time to time is "Dual Survival". If you haven't seen it, it follows two survival "experts" Dave Canterbury, ex-army survival specialist and sniper, and Cody Lundin, "bush hippie", as Dave calls him, who specializes in primitive survival techniques using minimalist strategies.
While I know that a lot of their presentations are probably staged and they have backup should they need it, they still show a lot of skill at making use of the limited materials available to them. Using what they are able to lay their hands on, they feed themselves, protect themselves from the elements, and eventually reach civilization...where I suspect they celebrate with a couple of cold beers, or other refreshment of choice.
Point is that they don't have everything they would like to have to make survival easier, but they use what they have to accomplish what they need to accomplish.
Maybe that's what we need to do. If we don't get what we want, maybe we need to figure out how to want what we get.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Donovan Baldwin is a 65-year-old accountant, amateur bodybuilder, freelance writer, certified optician, and Internet marketer currently living in the Atlanta, Gerogia area. A University Of West Florida alumnus (1973) with a BA in accounting, he has been a member of Mensa and has been a Program Accountant for the Florida State Department of Education, the Business Manager of a community mental health center, and a multi-county Fiscal Consultant for an educational field office. He has also been a trainer for a major international corporation, and has managed various small businesses, including his own. After retiring from the U. S. Army in 1995, with 21 years of service, he became interested in Internet marketing and developed various online businesses. He has been writing poetry, articles, and essays for over 40 years, and now frequently publishes original articles on his own websites and for use by other webmasters. He has posted a series of articles on The Law of Attraction , and other self-improvement issues at xtramoney4me.net/internetmarketing/reviews/law_of_attraction_articles/index.html .
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Top-level comments on this article: (3 total)I see the importance of finding what is workable and making lemonade, and I also feel that it's important to be real with ourselves and acknowledge what doesn't work - I guess to respect our need for something better. I suppose it's different in every situation, and it depends on what we have that we don't like. For example, if one comes from a place of abuse, one doesn't want to be making any kind of lemonade out that!
Hi Jennifer and Fran, Thanks for the visit and comments.
I really like the way you summed up the article Donovan. "If we don't get what we want, maybe we need to figure out how to want what we get." There's a lot of truth to that. Well said!
Thank you, Brianna. To all.....Have a great day!!! I demand it! - Don
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