Chewy Chicken

Don't you hate it when you look forward to a meal and after everything, it turns out the ingredients are sub-par so no matter how much love you add or how well you follow the recipe, the dish is going to suck. I'm currently eating some chicken that is extremely chewy which is annoying because I really felt like chicken today and here I am semi-forcing myself to chew through it because I don't want to waste food.

Recently, I've been having to deal with many situations where it wasn't the situation I was in that was irritating, but the people I was dealing with that were pushing my buttons. I've discovered one thing I really dislike is a person without drive. Basically a person who can't be bothered to help him-/herself and expects others to take care of him/her. It's one thing to need help because you're helpless, it's another to need help because you can't be bothered. It's quite a sad state when a person reaches a point where they don't even find themselves useful/able to do something and just give up without even giving themselves a shot.

It reminded me once of someone I spoke to about comedy, who kept denying that they could do stand up comedy and I kept insisting that I am a firm believer that anyone can do stand up comedy, just like anyone can ride a bicycle, you just have to give yourself a chance. Later on I changed my wording and said it's a matter of respecting yourself. To deny yourself a chance to do something because you don't believe you're able to do it is really quite disrespectful to yourself. It's like being denied something because someone thinks you won't be able to do it. I mean, there have been many arguments that were started because of such attitude.

I also spoke to someone else who asked me how often it was someone new came to an open mic night at the comedy club, performed, and decided to return? The truth is, not many. Why? I suppose it's because it is very rare that a person's 1st time on stage is a home run. And most people feel defeated about this immediately. That person then asked me why I didn't try to persuade those people to give it a few more chances before they gave up. It's interesting because at that moment I felt like a person who gave up after the 1st try already wasn't the type of person that stand up comedy is for. I know sometimes people just need encouragement or a push to get passed their comfort zone, but perhaps in my life I've seen far too many people who just can't be bothered and want things handed to them. Sadly, when you sit and wait for someone to hand something to you, chances are you'll be getting leftovers or hand-me-downs.

The more I do what I do, the more I realize a person's self-confidence/respect has such great impact on what they do. I had an interview with a magazine who was doing an article about The Perfect Man and one of the points was sense of humor so they interviewed me and in the end asked me did I think sense of humor was the most important thing in a perfect man, and I had to disagree, I think it's a self-confidence that makes a person perfect. I mean not self-ego, but confidence. I'm re-reading (Well listening to since I got the audio book) Think like DaVinci because it's just such a classic and this book has been a great influence on me because it taught me one thing that I'll never forget, and that is to embrace ambiguity. Life is full of unknowns so you need to accept it. But a confident person can embrace it better because he/she is confident he/she can deal with whatever they're given. Like these last few days have really been a test of my ability to deal with the unknown. I'm sitting here dealing with chewy chicken that should have been moist (at least what I thought this morning) and a schedule that has been completely turned upside down and inside out.Darwin's quote "It is not the strongest of the species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change." rings so true here.