Fooled or Foolish?

Who exactly are you trying to fool? Or perhaps you have convinced yourself you are the one who is fooled?

I know I’ve written before about cutting out the BS but it still amazes me how often we do it and don’t even realize that we are trying to pull the wool over our own eyes.

As a Coach, I see it all the time.  Most of the time I can tell pretty quickly who has an honest relationship with themselves and who lives in an alternate reality – so to speak.

A perfect example of this came up for me this weekend while I was out shopping for some groceries.

A rather large and loud woman (for the sake of the story lets call her Sue) and her friend (let’s call her Susan) were shopping in the same area.  Susan suggested that they pick up strawberries.  Sue took a look at them and very loudly proclaimed how expensive they were, and how regular people like her simply could not afford to eat such things. 

Now I happened to be almost right behind her and could clearly see in her cart.  People who can’t afford to eat concern me…I’ve been there and I have been blessed to have someone help me cross the hurdle.  So I peeked.  And that’s when I spotted it…the BS.

4…yes FOUR name brand full-sized bags of chips, three bottles of soda.  One of those bags could easily be exchanged for a box of strawberries.  No kidding…almost the same cost.

Now I try hard not to judge we all have our issues after all; but if you going to yell about it in the grocery store, please don’t try flinging around the cow patties you know?

The thing is you bet she fooled herself into believing it…because she wanted the junk food.   Hey…go for it.  It’s your body your pouring crap into.  All I ever ask from my clients and friends is that they don’t BS me or themselves about it. 

I do stuff sometimes when I know better too.  One of my favourite coping skills that I developed when struggling through the first year of pain and strife after my car accident was avoidance.  You can come up with a TON of excuses that might even be slightly true with that one. 

It wasn’t until I started being straight with myself and asking “what’s the real reason?” that I was able to begin healing and moving forward. 

BS is strong stuff…keeps you stuck and sucks you in (I know…gross metephor but it’s more true than you realize).

So, think about that important question.  “Why am I doing this?  What’s the real reason?”  Have you discovered some BS in your own life?