One of my guilty pleasures is catalogs. I don’t order much from them, but still they accumulate first in my mailbox, and then on a kitchen counter. Finally, I sort through the stack removing those I find uninteresting, and grab the rest. Sitting on the couch, or at my desk over lunch, poring through catalogs feels wonderful. I often see things I’d like to buy for someone else, or sometimes for myself. I don’t mark the pages, nor do I even keep the catalogs, they go right into the recycling bin. As I wrote, it’s a guilty pleasure, and those rarely have any real purpose other than fun.
Today at lunch I grabbed my stack of catalogs and settled in. On the last page of the last catalog I saw a tiny graphic and one little sentence below it, that changed my way of thinking forever.
Picture this… a catalog of hosiery. In the upper-left corner of the page is a small illustration containing a pair of hands, scissors, and pantyhose. The caption reads: “No more snipping the waistband for comfort!”
Gulp. All at once the reality hit me. I thought I was the only woman in the world that did that. If you look in my sock drawer, you will find pantyhose and tights of various colors, but with one thing in common: snipped at the waist. It’s not like I ask my friends if they do this too, and no one would ever know I did this, but until I saw that page I never knew I wasn’t alone.
Have you done this? Have you done something like snip the waist, or perhaps use tape to hold up a hem at work, or use a black marking pen to fix a scuff on a shoe? We’ve all done this. I bet even Martha Stewart has done this (or had someone do it for her.)
So now my secret is out, and maybe yours, too. How in the world does this relate to our success? Be patient, I’m almost there…
When I saw the illustration, and realized that I was somehow part of a secret sisterhood of waistband snippers, I started to think of how often I have assumed that everyone else had it all together (and I was the one with duct tape holding her hem up!) That thinking, that assuming that everyone was better prepared, more put together and more grown-up than I am, holds me back. That belief holds all of us back.
Who would we be in the world if we acknowledged to ourselves that everyone feels like the little kid who brought the cheese sandwich and apple to school when everyone else brought leftover pizza and cookies? With that knowledge, what would the compassion that we could show to others mean when we are involved in an emotionally charged business situation? What would the compassion mean for ourselves, when we called on a new client, spoke in public, or asked for credit due?
The scissors and the pantyhose reveal the understanding that every one of us – at some point – has safety pins holding our blouse closed, holes in our socks, and a handful of little indignities that we believe to be ours alone. When we accept that everyone we meet is one thread away from a popped button, or spilled coffee, we will stop being so hard on ourselves and allow compassion to flood our life’s work. And when we channel compassion, it allows the passion to flow into our lives and work, lifting us into success.
Guest Blogger: Diana Hathaway-Timmons
email: Diana@KeepYourZen.com
website: KeepYourZen.com
253.514.8892
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
OMG! I laughed so hard at this! I truly thought I was the only one who ’snipped’ that waistband! Now if they could just figure out that jeans that have a 36″ ‘hindquarter’ does not require a 25″ waist… we’d be in business! Good stuff! (and you forgot the “I’m at work and stapled my hem!” trick
| I really love this post. Thank you.