I like to think I’m pretty self-aware. I know why I am the way I am. And, I think I know my motivation. Yet … if I had a nickel for every time someone questions my motivation for continuing to work and hope with Lilly, I’d be a rich girl, who could quit her job and just be a full-time puppy mom. Now, I really do think about the why and how of everything I do with Lilly, but for some reason, it always catches me off guard a bit when someone suggests I give up, back off, step back, stop trying so hard.
Maybe it’s the long, dark nights. Maybe it’s the training fatigue. But, it’s kind of bugging me this week.
What do you say when someone suggests giving up (or at least something that sounds and feels like giving up)?
Am I the only basket case that hears this so much?
Just wondering.
I like that. Thanks. Now … if we could just find a wise quote in response to people who say I “shouldn’t” be trying so hard with Lilly.
For some reason, this quote came to mind: “Those who say it can’t be done should get out of the way of those who are doing it.” – Joel Arthur Barker
I guess for me it feels like a character criticism, like people think I’m doing the wrong thing flat out or that I’m trying to do a good thing for the wrong reasons.
I wish it didn’t bother me, but it does.
Depends who it is and why they’re saying it.
Several years ago when I would come home from agility trials and whine to my husband about not qualifying he’d get tired of hearing it and suggest I just give up and do something else. It made me realize that if the only reason I was doing agility with my dogs was to qualify, I probably wouldn’t be doing it.
However, if someone actually suggested that I should stop doing agility because I wasn’t getting enough return for all the time and money I put into it, I’d probably fall down laughing. They wouldn’t be telling me anything I didn’t already know and why would I care what someone else thought anyway?