Page 44 - Mousy Mouse Has a Bad Day

CONCLUSION
Think about the children in your life... any of them a Mousy? Look at your coworkers in the lounge... you know the rest of this question don’t you?
Mousy is so typical that it is hard to imagine anyone who is free of Mousy Mouse qualities. These qualities are the basis of all sales presentations and marketing strategies from time immemorial. It can’t just be functional, it must also be beautiful. We rate historical societies by their ornaments and their ability to have frivolous bobbles. From the purple robes of the ancient nobles to the neckties of the modern corporate executive we always have ways to identify ourselves as special and important. These outward trappings are used by others to judge us and we use them to compare ourselves to others.
Mousy, like so many of us, finds ways to “not measure up.” In so doing, she is condemning herself to unhappiness and a constant unfulfilling search for perfection. Some of us continue this “comparison shopping” and perfectionism into adulthood and strive to meet these unrealistic goals by becoming workaholics. As such, we may achieve financial and career successes but are never truly happy and suffer many ailments from alcoholism and ulcers to depression. Some of us, needing this perfectionism to accept ourselves but finding it unattainable, give up and become life’s dropouts.
The purpose of this story is to help your children recognize that they may have the type of thinking of these three groups already and that by giving up their irrational “comparison shopping” and perfectionism, they can achieve their best and be happy with it.
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