My Grandpa Francis Cloud Schellinger used to talk about people who wore a belt and suspenders at the same time. He figured they did this to be double safe and insure their pants had absolutely no chance of falling down. I think my grandpa found these people to be overly cautious.
I could relate to these belt-and-suspenders-at-the-same-time wearers. After all, I was an overly cautious kid, then an overly cautious teenager, then an overly cautious young adult. Indeed, if there was a way to double or triple–or even quadruple check something, be it that if the car doors were locked, the fire alarms were in good working order or my pants were properly zipped, I’d find a way to do it.
After all, who wants bad things to happen? Definitely not me!
Maybe, I’m not the only one who does this. Where in your life might you be wearing both a belt and suspenders and double, triple or quadruple checking certain things?
I’ll have you know, I’m starting to mend my belt and suspender ways. You see, I’ve come to believe that joy and happiness and abundance are definitely not belt and suspenders type experiences. And since I want as much joy, happiness and abundance as I can experience, I’ve been rethinking how I do things.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m all about taking sensible precautions, thinking ahead and trying proactively to pilot my life the way I want it to go.
But I’m no longer obsessing about figuring out and controlling an utterly unknown future.
Let’s face it, we could worry every waking moment of every day about what will come and there would still be endless unknowns to worry about. The future is truly an unsolved mystery that there’s no way any of us are ever going to crack. I’ve tried my hardest. I’ve been there. I’ve gotten the participation t-shirt and it’s no longer my rodeo or my circus.
No set of suspenders is going to save us from either the good or bad of an unknown future, so I’m taking my certainty suspenders off. Sure, once in a blue moon my pants might fall down because I wasn’t wearing suspenders along with my belt, but you know what I’d do then?
Simply pull my pants back up and move on with as much confidence as I can muster.
Will you join me?
Want to comment on this story? Join the discussion on Facebook
If you’ve enjoyed what you’ve read, please consider signing up for my twice-a-month Newsletter for more content like this OR giving me a follow at one of my socials below. Thank you for reading.
JASON FREEMAN is a Professional Speaker and the proud owner of a Speech Impediment. He is also the author of “Awkwardly Awesome: Embracing My Imperfect Best” and a Perseverance Coach.
He excites and encourages his audience to break through the barriers of their own limitations using a method he created, called “Doing your Imperfect Best ™”.
His Imperfect TEDx Talk can be viewed here.
Recent Comments