“DON’T HAND ME NO LINES AND KEEP YOUR HANDS TO YOURSELF”

The blog title comes from the band “The Georgia Satellites” and their 1986 hit “Keep Your Hands to Yourself”, which goes to show you my age, because that song was in my head this morning…but for good reason!  I remain an agent of duality, with opposing forces constantly battling within my brainspace and, in doing so, existing harmoniously in a state of balance.  Whereas many western ethical/philosophical schools may support the notion of maximizing virtue and minimizing vice, there have been several schools of the east that speak to the benefit of achieving balance of these forces through a more or less EQUAL presence of them.  And so we have “don’t hand me no lines AND keep your hands to yourself”, and this regards specifically the notion of ego…and as I continue to bloviate on philosophical/psychological schools of thought, I mean this sense of self-worth and self-value.  I am a firm believer in having a HUGE ego, which is to say, a HUGE sense of self-worth and self-importance.  I believe it is in the best interest of the majority of humanity to think quite highly of themselves (even though, as a misanthrope, I think quite LOWLY of them…again, balance, duality).  I constantly express that “the world will go out of its way to beat you down: don’t give it a hand!  Overcompensate in the other direction so you can reach neutral/balance”.  However, while I say this, here comes to counter-proposal: “don’t hand me no lines and keep your hands to yourself.”

Ok, maybe just "keep yourself to yourself"...

 

What am I trying to say here, aside from inviting an earworm into your cranium (you’re welcome by the way)?  I believe we should think VERY highly of ourselves.  I am amazing.  I am excellent.  I am incredible.  I am a Viking and The Juggernaut and all things fantastic, and I will be the biggest and strongest and fittest and most jacked being to ever walk the planet.  HOWEVER, these are the things I THINK.  I tell MYSELF these things, because having a healthy and strong ego is beneficial for the sake of maintaining a healthy and strong positive self-image and, in turn, mental health, which governs physical health.  The systems all play together.  BUT, I also exercise “staying in my lane” DESPITE how I think and feel about this.  I don’t hand you lines, AND I keep my hands to myself.

 

Some of you folks out there in internet-land have ONLY focused on the “thinking highly of oneself” angle here, and have forgotten this OTHER important half.  And, in turn, you end up speaking out WELL above your paygrade on subjects you know absolutely nothing about, NOR do you have any right or credibility to do so.  And before someone keys in on that word “right” and yells “FREEDOM OF SPEECH”, a fantastic rule of thumb is that, if the ONLY reason you can do something is that it’s illegal to STOP you from doing it: you’re PROBABLY being an a-hole.  It’s not illegal for me to walk down my street and blare an air-horn every 38 seconds…but there’s no reason for me to do it.  It’s not illegal for me to microwave fish in the office microwave…but I’m probably an a-hole for doing it.  Here, when I say you have no right to discuss this subject outside your area of expertise (whatever THAT happens to be), let’s add “lawyer” to that list of things you AREN’T.

We still miss you Phil

 

When your opinion is valuable, it will be SOUGHT AFTER.  Think of all the coaches out there that have opinions that are so valuable they get PAID to share it.  It’s LITERALLY valuable: it has an associated monetary worth assigned to it.  “My opinion costs $X”.  When your opinion is WITHOUT value, you can’t even GIVE it away.  You have to FORCE it on people.  That’s a sign that you should “keep your hands to yourself”.  No one wants your touch right now.  We learned “keep your hands to yourself” when we were kids, and it holds true today.  When you are desirable, your touch will BE desired.  When you find yourself having to force it upon others, you must understand the implications of such a situation.

 

And to what “benefit” does your touch bring in the first place?  Compared to those who are sought after, what are YOU bringing to the table?  Could it at ALL be more valuable than what’s being put out there by those that are sought after?  At BEST, it will be equal…and that would be purely out of coincidence OR (most likely) a result of you simply parroting that very advice…which runs into the dangerous impacts of “the telephone game”, in that you can very easily misconstrue what is being communicated since you lack the necessary context of the degree of success achieved by the original advice giver AND you lack the necessary degree of knowledge held by that person as well.  So you do not have the tools or experience to even adequately RELAY information to achieve success.  You are merely polluting the signal-to-noise ration here.

Simple enough

 

PLEASE, DO think highly of yourself!  It’s a self-fulfilling prophecy.  When we think we are excellent, we become excellent, because we become that which we think of.  To say nothing of practicing being “that which does” as well.  Success starts with the brain and the body will follow.  HOWEVER, THINK highly of yourself: do not ACT highly of yourself.  Do not inflict these thoughts upon others: have them SEEK these thoughts.  It WILL happen, ONCE you realize these thoughts.   Once you become the very awesome thing that you think you are, others will recognize it, they will seek your opinion AND your opinion will be valuable.  And that is VERY self-perpetuating: you think you are awesome, you do awesome things, to include teaching OTHERS how to be more awesome, and that makes you even MORE awesome, and others will inform you how awesome you are. 

 

But until that day arrives, don’t hand me no lines and keep your hands to yourself.