Page 22 - Whosjobisit

Instead, he told himself, “They are trying to take advantage of me and I am not going to let them.” That made him feel good about not helping others or cleaning his nest or whatever the others wanted him to do.
However, feeling good about your Thumbs Down behavior does not cause your life to be Thumbs Up. Just as with Howard, others will not want to be your friend. Others will not want to help you when you need help. Others will not trust you. And finally you will discover that in your effort to only do the things that are easy or fun, your life becomes boring and difficult.
Howard spent more time and effort with his barrel plan than if he had just done the nut gathering as he had been told. When he needed help, no one was willing to help him. You may have noticed that he kept fooling himself into believing that he could always do just what he wanted. He ignored the warnings about eating up all of his stored food. Then he had to go out in the cold and take risks that the others did not have to take.
By insisting that life should always be the way he wanted it, he ended up making his life more difficult than it needed to be. Ask yourself, “Am I thinking and acting like Howard?” When you hear yourself say, “Whose job is it?” It is your job ... DO IT!
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