If you’ve ever seen Yo Gabba Gabba you’re probably familiar with how they try to convince kids to try stuff with their stupid songs that say “I tried it and I liked it”. If you’re not familiar with what I’m talking about click here.
I’ll never forget when Skyler was younger. She had seen one of these dumb songs and thought about it. She later told me, “I don’t like Yo Gabba Gabba because they say ‘try it and you’ll like it’, but that just isn’t true – sometimes you just really don’t like it.” Kids are so insightful.
Teachers, pastors, info marketers, and anyone else trying to convince someone else to listen to what they have to say – all need to take note of that statement. Trying something does not mean that it will be liked. Budgeting, for example, totally sucks for most people. We all know how it helps with managing finances, but the task actually sucks. Having awkward conversations about marriage issues is not fun. We all know how it helps with improving our marriage, but the actual tasks suck. Doing strict exercise and diet sucks, but we know it makes us healthy. I could go on and on.
Everyone would be better off if we’d just be real with each other and acknowledge that some things we need to be serious about just suck and trying alone isn’t going to change it. What we need instead is accountability. This could be someone who is better at what you’re struggling with and can encourage you, or it can be someone who is going through it too and can encourage you. The key is both require the encouragement – not enablement. We don’t need any help making excuses for our poor choices. We need true accountability that challenges and encourages us to not give up when trying something isn’t enough to make us like it.
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