There’s that saying to “fake it til you make it” – you hear it a lot being said to new classroom teachers and others who’re just launching out. Its not that a seasoned instructor is encouraging anyone to get in front of their class and be phony. Its not that. Its like someone backstage, in the wings, on your side, saying, “Break a leg kid, you’ll do fine.” It implies that “it” will get easier, and that as it gets easier you will eventually make it, finesse it perhaps, and until that day comes just step out in what you know now. Its a confidence thing really. Feeling uncomfortable in it should never stop you from doing it.
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Tom Hanks told about, in a recent Today Show interview, a particular scene he filmed for the movie “A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood.” The script called for him to kneel bedside and pray on camera. You could sense some mild discomfort on his part as he described the experience, and in so many words the director coached him through it. It wasn’t a comfortable or natural thing for him possibly. But he continued to say in the interview (and this is the part of it that I admired for it’s simplicity) that he learned for himself there were really only three words needed and that anyone could pray using just those three . . .
“Thank you God.”
It’s that time of the year that gets rushed out’ the way as the shops turn our thoughts to transactions. What to buy, what to wear, what to gift that’ll impress. But before we go there let’s be thankful. It doesn’t take much, just three little words. And if it feels awkward I can tell you it gets easier. No one needs to be a seasoned professional, an actor or minister to say it. “Thank you God.” Just start small, that’s all.
The Daily Cuppa Jo 