dailyprompt – Page 12

A great big word

How often do you say “no” to things that would interfere with your goals?

“No” is one of the biggest words in the English lexicon.

For many of us, it is also very hard to freely express. In my case, it’s taken decades to make the case to just say no.

The impediment to saying no is the desire to be agreeable. “Go along to get along” is the meme that makes it so much easier to just say yes.

Happily there are rewards for those who stick to their guns and act in their own best interests.

It often pays to say no and let the chips fall as they will.

Weather or not

What is your favorite type of weather?

Why is the weather always everyone’s go-to small talk? Is it the only neutral topic for your office elevator ride?

My theory about our fascination with weather is that there is a climatologist manque in each of us.

Not for nothing that Groundhog Day – the film and actually Feb 2- is such a vibrant theme in our lives.

We admire the ability at prediction even if we deride the result. “Wouldn’t you know it? Didn’t need the umbrella today.”

Speaking of umbrellas, I always refuse to or forget to carry one.

It’s not only because I love the rain. It’s also because umbrellas are annoying. And I find the rain purifying.

None thanks

What tattoo do you want and where would you put it?

Don’t want any tattoo. I would put it nowhere on my body.

I understand that this is not a popular view. In the past 20 to 30 years, the tattoo has become a mainstream decoration.

Once upon a time, wearing one signaled you had been on leave from your ship in a foreign port.

Nowadays, tattoos are as common as if we had all been in the signal corps.

For the purposes of

What is one word that describes you?

this blog… The Best.

I am, as are you, the best [make that a capital B] me that I can be.

Lost

What activities do you lose yourself in?

I lose myself in writing. Thoughts and ideas spill unbidden from my mind to my blog.

Once upon a time, I know I would have said from my mind to my pen. These days, there is no pen involved.

I tap out my opinions, my conclusions or my beliefs on a screen no bigger than my handprint.

One sentence leads to another and pretty soon I have formed a post.

F**king yes

What is the last thing you learned?

The last or the most recent?

I take an unexpected comfort in learning that cussing is good for us humans and our relatives the chimps.

Although when put the way I just did it sounds ridiculous. NatGeo put it more elegantly in this headline:

Swearing Is Good For You—And Chimps Do It, Too
National Geographic

How to succeed

How has a failure, or apparent failure, set you up for later success?

As Ronnie Cammerari (Nicolas Cage) says to Loretta Castarini Clark (Cher) “playing it safe is the most dangerous thing a woman like you could do.”
John Patrick Shanley Moonstruck

There is a myth among the entrepreneurial classes that you have to fail to be a success.

It’s an interesting theory based on a risk-takers mentality. I was once such a risk-taker. Let’s try it and see how it flies. That must have been what Wilbur and Orville Wright had to say.