My mom’s neighbor had shoulder surgery so she agreed to babysit Buddy, her neighbor’s heavy set and short legged terrier. I offered to take Buddy outside, and started toward the deck.
“Buddy is afraid to go down the stairs” my mom said, “You’ll have to take him out the front.”
“I’ll get him to go out the back,” I said, up for the challenge.
“He will absolutely not go down stairs,” my mom warned.
“Watch me” I said.
“Here Buddy. What a sweet doggie. Yes you are! Come-on Buddy, that’s a good boy,” I said in my most excited and sweetest baby-talk voice.
Here came buddy waddling like a little pig down the steps to take a leak on the grass. My mom stood there with her mouth gaped open in a state of disbelief.
“You’ll have to pick him up to bring him on the deck,” she said.
“There’s no way he is going to climb those big steps with his little legs.”
“Here Buddy…come on boy! That’s a good doggie!” I said before Buddy rared back and scampered up the steps, reminding me of Arnold the Pig on Green Acres.
My mom wanted to know how I made that happen.
“Mom, you have to honor the dog and discount his story,” I said, using one of the pieces of my Stop Your Drama Methodology.
You have all heard the saying “He lies like a dog?” Most of us lie all the time. We all have a story about what we can’t do.
When our friends and family tell us their story, most of the time we honor their “story” and we discount their growth potential as a person.
You have to turn it around. You have to honor the person and discount their story. You honor the person when you see what is possible for them and discount their excuses and their story.
To be the most help to people — as I was to Buddy the dog — you need to see for them what they can’t see for themselves.
Marlene Chism is the founder of the Stop Your Drama Methodology for life and business reinvention. Marlene works with spiritually-minded entrepreneurs and business owners who are in a stage of reinvention. Marlene offers “clarity consulting” to remove the obstacles to peace and prosperity. www.stopyourdrama.com/clarityconsulting