Think About It! But Not Too Much.

I recently purchased a dog door for my screened porch. Theoretically, this enables Barkley and Maddy to nose open the flexible flap and let themselves into the yard; I can stay inside as I open the sliding door from the kitchen to the porch. Simple for everyone, right?

Sort of. Usually. It depends…

You see, my intrepid galoot, Maddy, got comfortable with the door in less than two minutes. Her learning process really was simple: poke, pause; poke, pause; poke, pause; exit.

Maddy is my role model. She identifies something she wants to do or have; she goes after it with all-out effort; and she keeps at it until she gets what she wants.

Then there’s Barkley.

Barkley is a bit of a queen. She likes things done for her — on her timetable, naturally. Her learning process went like this:

• poke, scramble back
• poke, scramble back
• look expectantly at Mom, wait for door to be opened
• [lather, rinse, repeat]
• whine when Mom – and treats – move to outer side of pet door
• whine
• whine
• snarf down treats when Mom pushes her hand through the door flap
• whine
• whine
• hesitantly step out while Mom holds the damn flap open
• [lather, rinse, repeat]
• open the flap all by herself – finally

Sad to say, I occasionally do a Barkley. Sometimes I let myself be scared of the unknown, look to others to save me, and generally waste a lot of time and energy.

I suspect I have a lot of entrepreneurial company in that regard.

How much easier life would be if we didn’t over-think the situation, paralyze ourselves with disaster-focused “What ifs”, or act as if we just don’t have what it takes.

Maybe it’s time to adopt as a mantra the powerful observation made by Brendan Francis:

Many of our fears are tissue-paper thin,
and a single courageous step would carry us clear through them.

What are some of your fears you would like to see as the tissue paper they are?

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