First time I noticed
Over my lifetime my mindset has changed a huge amount and I think for the better.
I have spent a lot of time on my personal growth and one of the things I have learned is I need to learn a lot more! ?
One of the biggest mind shifts I have had over my life is my willingness to lend an item to a friend like a book or a lawnmower. I use to expect that the item I lend out to a friend to come back to me exactly as I lent it. Here is the story of how my mind ?shifted.
It All Started With Lending a Book to a Friend
I was in technical school and it was the first time I lent someone a book and I really wanted to do it. I was happy to share a book from an author we both respected with someone who really wanted to read it. Being a college student I did not have a lot of extra money to buy ?books, but I bought this one because I really wanted to read it and It was a good book!
After about a month I asked how she was enjoying the book and she was really enthusiastic about the topic and we talked about it for about ⏳10 minutes and then I said, “So are you done with it then?” and she got a bit quiet and said she needed it for a couple more weeks.
I was ok that she wanted to keep the book a little longer but I was concerned about how sheepish she was when I asked for it back. My gut feeling of concern was well placed.
Two weeks later my book comes back to me about three times thicker than it started life as. I think the correct term is, “I was Gobsmacked!” ? I lent this book out, no I was excited to lend this book out only to have it returned to me crushingly damaged.
“I dropped it in the tub,” she explained. Back then I didn’t know tub ?reading was a thing!
I looked at her and she looked at me. We both looked at the book, smiled, ? shrugged our shoulders, and walked off to class. I had read the book. I got all the goodness out of it. My new friend read the book and she got a lot of goodness out of it as well plus we had a great conversation about it. So many good wins there.
Is the information in the book less important now that it has had a bath and swelled to three times its size? NO! Still great information!
Could I read ? the book again if I wanted to? Yes! She did a great job of drying it out.
No pages were ripped out or torn and I could still read the words.
Three lessons I learned from this is:
1. If you are open to lending things to people don’t be surprised if they come back differently.
2. Once you lend it out don’t expect it to come back to you at all.
3. And while not ideal, both are OK.
Having Less “Things” Can Clear My Cluttered Brain
If something is so important to you that you can not do without it then do not lend it out. However, things we use to make our daily lives better like appliances, DVDs? (if you still use them), or a book; we can all make do without them. Maybe having fewer things in our houses would be a benefit and help clear our cluttered lives and brains. I think I may begin to lobby for “No Space for Storage!” in our house. Wonder how my wife would feel about this? ?
I think this same way about the ideas and ? thoughts I send out over social media. This blog for instance. Some people will embrace my ideas and think they are great or thoughtful and others will be a lot less charitable to me. Either way, I keep lending items and sending out thoughts with the desire to be helpful and solve somebody’s problems or give them a few minutes of enjoyment.
Thanks for joining me today as I journey down memory lane reliving the day my mind shifted for the better!
Have you had an experience like mine when your mind shifted? Send me a note to tell me about it.