How to Quit Beating Around the Bush

Has anyone ever told you to quit beating
around the bush? They want you to get to
the point, right? In a moment, I'll tell
you where that phrase comes from. For now,
read how humor can help you get to the
point...and become healthier and happier in
the process.

How pointless would it have been to
rearrange the Titanic’s deck chairs? Would
you take the time to carefully build a
sturdy staircase that led up to…nothing? Does
preparing a sumptuous meal make sense
before you even know how many people will
attend?

Of course these examples are ridiculous. But
I’ll bet you do things just as absurd
everyday. You see, these examples are all
metaphors for not having a destination in
mind when you take action. Even the best
actions can be useless when you don’t have
a clearly defined goal in mind.

That is why I created the Fun Commandment,
Locate Your Target. I’m calling for you to
establish short, medium, and long term
goals. I want you to discover how much
more fun it is, and how much more effective
you become, to align your actions with
specific targets.

It’s understandable that you may have
avoided setting goals. It can be
intimidating, even scary, to identify
exactly what you want to accomplish. After
all, what if you can’t achieve your goals? What
happens then?

If you’re finding yourself reluctant to set
goals, however, let me inspire and motivate
you. Have you ever heard of a self-
fulfilling prophecy? That’s when you hear
and say something so much that you wind up
doing it. The very act of declaring your
intended targets is often the catalyst
which propels you toward their achievement.

And who cares if you don’t reach your goals
anyway? Will you be worse off for having
tried? My patient, Syd, set a goal of ten
years of life after being diagnosed with
inoperable, terminal cancer. And believe
me, that decade of life he was shooting for
came up in every session we had; Syd was
committed to it!

I’m proud to say that Syd made it seven
years. He fell three years short of his
goal, but both of us agreed, during one of
our last conversations, that he wouldn’t
have made it that long without the original
goal of ten. We were both very grateful
for Syd’s optimistic goal, because it was a
guiding beacon around which he dedicated
his daily actions and drew motivation for
them.

By the way, beating around the bush comes
from the Middle Age practice of hunting by
throwing a net over a bush and beating
around it with clubs. The frightened birds
would fly out and get trapped in the net. So
someone who kept beating around the bush
would never get to the point of the action -
catching and eating the birds.

Don't beat around the bush any longer,
start locating your target. In two weeks
I'll tell you exactly how to set realistic
and reachable goals for yourself.

Also...I'll follow this issue of The Fun
Times with a brief issue regarding the
results of your latest happiness survey. Thank
you for sharing your thoughts with us!

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Some Humor to Help You Smile

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Cliff Kuhn, M.D.
The Laugh Doctor
7406 Wesboro Road
Louisville, KY 40242
"It all starts with a SMILE"