These days, one of the things I hear time and again is how people ‘hate their job’. Along the way to where I am, there’s been plenty of jobs I disliked doing. The one I hated the most was being a telephone salesperson.
Even though I hated it, one of the lessons I took away was the truism they taught me that “A salesman is the easiest sell”.
The shift leaders used that phrase like a mantra in ‘motivate’ us to continue productivity. They repeated it often as the other grunts and I continued cold calling people from the phone book.
I wondered if that saying applied to other areas as well, and to my surprise, it did. I found my answer in a children’s book.
The place where this jumped out at me was the ‘real’ story of Pinocchio. ( I say ‘real’ meaning the Carlo Collodi version rather than the Disney version of the story). The original story is a far cry from the Disney presentation of it.
First, the ‘real’ Pinocchio is a brat who mocks people, kills small animals, has a temper and often takes advantage of those he meets. This is totally different from the cute, Disney version.
In the real story, Pinocchio kills the cricket he meets with a hammer unlike the Disney version where it functions as his conscience.
One of the episodes that happens is that Pinocchio is cheated by the cat and the fox. They take advantage of the poor puppet by faking their handicaps, pretending to be his friend and stealing from him.
Eventually a fight breaks out where Pinocchio bites one of their hands off. In reprisal, the cat and fox hang the puppet, leaving him for dead.
Cheating takes advantage of people. The cheater thinks they’ll get something, yet end up being taken themselves.
When cheating starts, as in Pinocchio, it hurts everyone involved in one way or another. The cheater’s own greed and passions end up hurting them.
If they’re lucky, all they lose is time and money. They could end up losing their marriage, job and health.
The cat and fox illustrate that ‘the cheater is the easiest person to cheat’. Pinocchio was looking for a way to cheat at life and ended up being cheated himself. Like Pinocchio, cheaters are vulnerable to being cheated by the lover, their betrayed spouse, friends and others.
Pinocchio also hadn’t learned his lesson about lying. He continued lying long after being cheated. He lied to others and lied to himself. The lying never made his life better. Instead, it made things worse.
The ‘real’ Pinocchio contains lessons for cheaters in terms of being cheated, lying, searing your conscience and general unruliness along with where it eventually leads. Cheating is destructive in many ways.
It ends up taking more from the cheater than they ever imagined. It also takes you deeper into trouble than you ever intended to go.
The worst damage is that done to the cheater’s heart and soul. They grow hard hearted and cold toward others.
I’m not your cricket or conscience, but I can help you and your cheater recover your lives after the affair. My “Affair Recovery Workshop” is a great starting point for repairing and undoing the damage that’s been done. Click and download the workshop today.
The real Pinocchio was left hanging for dead by those who cheated him. Your marriage relationship can be rescued rather than left hanging.
You want your marriage healthy again. There are ways of doing it. When you know what to do and the right sequence to do things you can be surprised by the change.
Keeping It Real,
Jeff
