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02-18-2008, 08:24 AM
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#1 (permalink)
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Prime Motivator
Join Date: Jan 2003
Location: Stewartstown, PA
Posts: 9,821
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Mahler’s Monday Morning Motivator # 202 – The Water Glass
Mahler’s Monday Morning Motivator # 202 – The Water Glass
The Water Glass (02-18-08)
I would imagine that most of you have heard the old chestnut about the water glass. Let me refresh your memory, in case you don’t recall. You take a glass and you pour water into it so that it is exactly half way. Now, you show that glass to some folks and ask them what they see.
According to the psychoanalysts, psychologists or what ever “ists” you consult, the optimist will likely say that the glass is half full and the pessimist will undoubtedly confirm that the glass is half empty. Why these two answers, you might ask?
The optimist, we are told sees the positive side of things. There is something there in the glass, even though it is not full. The optimist sees the value of what is and does not concern himself with what is not. The pessimist, the experts will tell us, sees that something is missing and dwells on what is not there, rather than what is. He tends to concentrate on the negative.
I would like to take this a little farther. I wonder if the optimist also sees that there is potential in that glass; that there is room for more; that there is space for something additional? I wonder if the optimist understands that that glass, with a little effort, could be full?
I also muse about that pessimist. Does he only see loss; the lack of something? Does he understand, too, that with a little effort the situation can be changed and the water could reach the brim of that glass?
Too often in life and in our fitness journeys, we become the eternal optimist or pessimist. We get wrapped up in our thoughts, our efforts and direct our goals towards what is already there or what we think is missing. We can become single-minded in a pursuit of addressing why that glass is half full or half empty. By doing so, we can forget the most important thing of all. The glass doesn’t have to be half of anything. We can pursue the possibilities of what “could” be there.
I look at the glass sitting there on the table and frankly I am wondering. What do I see there? Am I the optimist or the pessimist? Perhaps I am neither, and yet, at the same time am I little bit of both. Is the glass half full or is the glass half empty. You know? I think I am a realist. I’m thirsty. I drink from the glass and move on. There’s work to be done.
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Have a Great Week!
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__________________
In Fitness & Friendship,
MAHLER
______________________________ __________________________
There is no light at the end of the tunnel. You carry the light with you.
My blog: http://www.iammahler.blogspot.com/
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02-18-2008, 08:35 AM
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#2 (permalink)
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Back on Track
Join Date: Apr 2006
Location: Milwaukee, WI
Posts: 3,884
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I just want a smaller glass.
Thanks John
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-50# by 50
Last edited by Mahler : 02-18-2008 at 08:51 AM.
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02-18-2008, 09:24 AM
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#3 (permalink)
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Ben. Just Ben.
Join Date: Dec 2002
Location: CLT
Posts: 7,082
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I say it's time for a beer run, even though this beer tastes strangely like water
Thanks as always, John.
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02-18-2008, 09:39 AM
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#4 (permalink)
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Senior Member
Join Date: Dec 2006
Posts: 1,509
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excellent reminder on perspective, John. Thanks.
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02-18-2008, 09:48 AM
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#5 (permalink)
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Junior Member
Join Date: Dec 2007
Posts: 14
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As always a great read (I liked last week's too.) I agree, it is never as cut and dry as people like to simplify it down to be. Me? I'm a potential guy. I like to see what could be there and all to often overlook what is there. If it were not for people trying to make the world a better place, where would we be?
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02-18-2008, 10:20 AM
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#6 (permalink)
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Senior Member
Join Date: Dec 2005
Posts: 4,895
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Great motivator John. I love the silent reflections that always come to after reading your MMMM's. Thanks John.
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"My darling," she said at last, "are you sure you don't mind being a mouse for the rest of your life?"
"I don't mind at all," I said. "It doesn't matter who you are or what you look like so long as somebody loves you."
Roald Dahl, The Witches
http://plainjanestrikesagain.blogspot.com/
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02-18-2008, 10:34 AM
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#7 (permalink)
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Senior Member
Join Date: Jun 2006
Location: Rural, Western Washington
Posts: 2,987
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nice one
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02-18-2008, 12:41 PM
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#8 (permalink)
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dividing by zero
Join Date: Nov 2006
Location: Orange Cty, CA
Posts: 3,819
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being contrarian I always thought the experts had it backwards - if I see it half-empty iI also see room for more, room to expand, room for me to add to it. If I see it half-full I see a job almost completed, little challenge left, whoever started it can likely finish it without me.
even in a glass and a simple 2 pronged choice - 1/2 full or 1/2 empty the interpretations are not static - or they are accepted only because that's the explanation from the experts - not my explanation nor my interpretation.
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"Have fun and be determined to finish"-- Jack "UpNorth", 9.
"You see yourself every day. Nothing changes. Change comes in an explosion of awareness. You wake up one day and it dawns on you that it's not a sleep line but a wrinkle." - Deserve (aka Gabe)
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02-18-2008, 01:41 PM
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#9 (permalink)
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GU '12
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: N.J.
Posts: 4,031
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The damn glass is just twice the size it needs to be. 
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"Rust on a nail builds tetanus. Rust on a barbell builds character, strength, and attitude." -EC
"Don't spend your life wishing. Spend it doing." -FishrCutB8
"You're a mutant, like a snake with two heads or a cat shy one nipple. Be thankful that your mutation is helpful." - LD
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02-18-2008, 01:55 PM
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#10 (permalink)
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Prime Motivator
Join Date: Jan 2003
Location: Stewartstown, PA
Posts: 9,821
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Kevin T.
The damn glass is just twice the size it needs to be. 
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Or are we half as much as we could be.
The point, I guess, is this:
Don't worry about whether the glass is half full or half empty. Just drink the water.
__________________
In Fitness & Friendship,
MAHLER
______________________________ __________________________
There is no light at the end of the tunnel. You carry the light with you.
My blog: http://www.iammahler.blogspot.com/
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02-18-2008, 02:10 PM
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#11 (permalink)
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I think, therefore I post
Join Date: Oct 2002
Location: Little Rock, AR
Posts: 14,472
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My glass is spilling over! 
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www.jpfitness.com
http://forums.jpfitness.com
"Twenty years from now, you will be more disappointed by the things you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbour. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover."
-Mark Twain
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02-18-2008, 03:27 PM
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#12 (permalink)
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On the manga bandwagon
Join Date: Apr 2005
Location: Sugar Creek, MO
Posts: 6,530
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Nice.
One of my goals is to be more positive and less negative. Thanks for some great ideas to think about as I keep pursuing the goal.
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Keep your eyes on YOU; don't let the achievements of others dictate your obsessions. -- Alan Aragon
Log: 2008 is gonna ROoOoOoOCK!!!
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02-18-2008, 03:58 PM
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#13 (permalink)
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Ben. Just Ben.
Join Date: Dec 2002
Location: CLT
Posts: 7,082
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Quote:
Originally Posted by RacerBill
Nice.
One of my goals is to be more positive and less negative. Thanks for some great ideas to think about as I keep pursuing the goal.
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I'm not dead yet. That's pretty positive 
__________________
Facebook
No Magic Pill (the blog)
No Magic Pill (the log)
My Movember challenge
"If you do not find time to become and remain healthy, you will be obliged to find time to be ill." --George Hackenschmidt
"These Canadians lure you with their kindness and Eskimo stories and then WHAM...you're bent over an IHOP trash can, pants around your knees with nothing but your tears and the smell of blueberry syrup to comfort you." --gobbla
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02-18-2008, 05:06 PM
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#14 (permalink)
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staying medium
Join Date: Apr 2005
Location: Australia
Posts: 1,514
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thanks John, time for another drink
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02-18-2008, 05:37 PM
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#15 (permalink)
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Prime Motivator
Join Date: Jan 2003
Location: Stewartstown, PA
Posts: 9,821
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Jean-Paul
My glass is spilling over! 
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Does it have a Peej in it? 
__________________
In Fitness & Friendship,
MAHLER
______________________________ __________________________
There is no light at the end of the tunnel. You carry the light with you.
My blog: http://www.iammahler.blogspot.com/
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02-18-2008, 05:51 PM
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#16 (permalink)
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Senior Member
Join Date: Jun 2007
Location: Carpinteria, CA
Posts: 348
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I always remember my grandfather when talking about half full glasses of water . . .
He came to live with us when I was in my early teens . . he had parkinson's disease and was 'all shakey and everything'. He used to ask us to fill his glass up full even when he had only drunk half of it. At first I rolled my eyes thinking he was being 'old or something' but then realized he really needed the glass to be full in order to get the water in. No moral to the story, just a story.
Toni
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02-19-2008, 07:29 AM
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#17 (permalink)
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Team Ninja
Join Date: Oct 2004
Location: England
Posts: 1,674
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Often, I see people in the gym complain that a particular machine/ Free weight is being used by another member. Pehaps the implied message in this weeks MMMM was not to dwell on it too much.... 'the seated row station is being used; just use a barbell row instead.
That's what I took from it anyway.
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