10. "Change is good." I see. Say you take a big cut in pay. How do you like that change? Sticking with what works is very underrated.
9. "Just be yourself and everyone will like you." Unless you're a jerk or tell really bad jokes. Or maybe you are overdo for a shower. Or what if you're a narcissist? Being "yourself" doesn't guarantee how people will feel about you.
8. "The truth is probably somewhere in the middle." Unless one of them is lying!
7. "It's going to get worse before it gets better." Maybe. Or maybe it's going to get better before it gets worse. Stop trying to sound so deep.
6. "It's always darkest before sunrise." There are variations on this including something about a storm, but the bottom line, I'm sorry to say, is that just because it's bad doesn't mean it's going to get better before it get's even worse. Or that you should take something bad happening as a sign that it's about to get better. Maybe it will get better and maybe it will get worse. That's life. Surround yourself with good friends, ditch the bad ones, pray and hopefully it will get better. But there are no guarantees in life (a cliche that's actually true).
5. "Slow and steady wins the race." Unless the race is the 100 meter sprint!
4. "All that matters is if you had fun." Well, not if you lose and winning mattered to you. At least for me, it's more fun to win than to lose. No need to sugar coat it, losing sometimes in life builds character. Life isn't all roses and sunshine.
3. "Everything happens for a reason." God doesn't micromanage the universe. And on top of that we have free will. Look at your hands, arms and legs. We were made to take care of ourselves and do things on our own and that's not a bad thing. Does that mean that we don't need God or that we shouldn't pray for God to intervene to help us in certain situations? Of course not. But you stubbing your toe on the stairs isn't part of some cosmic plan to make you a millionaire in the next few months either. Some things just happen because we made a bad decision, or a good one, or because we got lucky.
2. "You can do anything you set your mind to." I've also heard it said, "Whether you believe you can or you can't, you're right" and "If you believe in yourself, you can do anything." I'm sorry folks, but it's just not true. Yes, it helps to believe in yourself, no doubt. But no matter how much we'd like to believe otherwise, physical and mental limitations do exist despite how much we believe or how hard we work.
As individuals and parents it's best to determine our strengths and work within those rather than exist under the false pretense that all we have to do is pick something and "set our mind to it" in order to accomplish absolutely anything we wish. We must always remember, we're not the only one (or group) who wants to achieve something and other people are working just as hard, believing just as much and wanting it just as badly. Injecting realism might help us and our kids not become victims of undue self-blame in thinking that if we'd only worked harder or believed more then we would have dominated the NBA despite being too short.
1."It doesn't matter what you believe as long as you really believe it." Really? So if I believe I can fly but can't, the belief that I can is still as valuable as your belief that you can walk? Come on people!
There you have it, The Top Ten Cliches That Are Really B.S. My book comes out in a few weeks, enter your email address HERE for a chance to receive a free copy.
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