Good Tuesday morning to you. It’s a great week here in Dallas as we watch the Rangers in the World Series again. And it’s another great week in the Rocker Life Coach blog, focusing on great simple ideas. In life I never know where I’m going to find a lesson. Yesterday’s idea came from notes someone took from a fairy tale. As I have told you before, many small pieces of wisdom came from my reading of books from the Bible like the book of Proverbs. Where have simple lessons come to you in life?
One of the childhood stories that has always been a favorite of mine was “The Emperor’s New Clothes.” It’s the story of how the emperor is told by his tailors (who are taking advantage of his pride and egoism to swindle him) that the fabric of his new clothes can only be seen by someone who is fit for his position. He’s so afraid to admit that he can’t actually see the clothes that he pretends to see them. It’s the same for all the members of his court. No one wants to be the person who admits they can’t actually see the clothes. They’re all afraid that admitting they can’t see them will prove their own unworthiness. Finally, when the Emperor walks before his people it is a little boy who shouts out that he has no clothes on. The little boy doesn’t care what anyone thinks of him because he’s just a kid; he hasn’t learned adult insecurities.
While thinking about this story, it told me something about many in our world today. We can all have the wool pulled over our eyes very easily. I have learned, for example, as an adult to choose preachers who tell me how we are not to take what they teach as fact, but to research it and hold them accountable to always stay right in our search in the Bible, to always have people around you to keep you in check, and always make sure you are not being taken advantage of by those who just want to make a buck off of you.
The next thing I learn from this story is if you have faithful people around you they will tell you the truth before you make a complete fool out of yourself. Imagine if the emperor had had one faithful servant to tell him that really there were no clothes on him, that it was a scam. But too many times in the world people are just trying to make others feel good, and what they really need is to hear truth. Too often we are the Emperor who doesn’t want to know the truth.
The last thing I get from this story is, did you ever notice how it was a child who brought this story to the public attention? The honesty of a child sometimes is what we all need. Think of how many times it’s the four- or five-year-old at a wedding that makes the funny (but true) observation that makes us all start to laugh. They are still too young to know what they said is not” proper.” Well, in life we need that kind of honesty sometimes, just to keep us smiling, just to keep us on track. Maybe we need to have our kids remind us to stay honest and not get caught up in the properness in life and start down a road that will lead to a life of lying and cheating.
Take some time and think in your life: have you had someone try to pull a fast one or a scam on you? We all could have it happen to us. What can you do to set up your life to be prepared for the scams? Earlier this year I lost a hard drive on this computer I’m writing to you from. It happened from a virus that I picked up on facebook when a friend’s computer got it and sent me a message. I opened it and by the time we were able to figure out what it was, my hard drive was beyond repair.
In life, we need a set of friends who we are helping to get better in life, and those who we are learning from to get better. It’s like having people on both sides of you to keep you in check. I have friends who I always talk to, making sure that I’m still honest in many of my dealings. I have Gwynne in my life to keep me from becoming carless with money, she also tells me when I’m too hard on my daughter or her sons. Having honest people in your life is what will keep you honest.
The final thing I want to bring up is that the Emperor was looking for clothes that were newer and better than what he had – even though, as an Emperor, he already had the best and finest stuff on earth. Do not become someone who has to have something new just for the sake of having something new. In the book, “The Magic of Thinking Big,” it is mentioned that some of the biggest things that bring people down are perfectionism (always feeling you have to do things exactly right before you start); procrastination (putting off till tomorrow what you can do today); and status (having to have things that are bigger and better than everyone else).
This past month, the new iPhone came out. I’m able to upgrade my phone but I’m not the person who has to have the latest and greatest. It’s ok for me to wear my jeans and button up shirts; I don’t have to have designer jeans and shirts. I don’t get caught up in that game because it only ends with your money gone. Take these simple lessons to life.
I’m Tim Gillette, The Rocker Life Coach. It’s time for you to live a life you only dreamed of, to love what you do and those you share life with. Set your life up with honest friends and common sense to become the RockStar in your world.
