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Connecting the Dots
Written by Cyndee Peters   
Friday, 29 May 2009 11:33
Connecting the DotsI don’t know if, in the digital age, this still exists, but when I was a kid -- often in newspapers and puzzle books -- there was something called connect the dots. It was a fun way to learn how to count. With a pencil you started with the number l, then had to draw a line to the number 2, and then to number 3, and so on until a picture was formed. Simple, very pedagogical and it was lots of fun. If you followed the rules, connecting the numbers in the right order, you’d get your reward.

Some things in life are exactly the same way.

If you learn to connect the dots, you often get the answer/results you want. Things make sense. Opera legend Beverly Sills has said, “There are no shortcuts to anyplace worth going to.” Shortcuts don’t work in connect the dots. There is a reason for each number being placed where it is.

In geometry I was taught that the shortest distance between two points is a straight line. Which is true, but it doesn’t work in connect the dots! Some people go through life never connecting their little dots. They simply do not get why things turn out the way they do.

In 1982 I opened a shop here in Stockholm. I won’t go into details, but any business in its early stages, no matter how hard you work or how grand your idea is, becomes virtually a nightmare. Things are in constant state of flux and you can forget about a good night’s sleep. Between touring and running the shop (forget having a life), Cyndee was not doing well.

One of my employees, who once had her own business, said in one of my most desperate hours, “Cyndee, don’t worry, this will work out. I’ve had to declare bankruptcy seven times. But each time I pulled myself together and started over.”

The problem is not that there
are no good men


Marianne Williamson, a well-known motivational speaker and author and a very smart lady, writes in one of her books about a girlfriend who constantly complained over her inability to find a good man. You know the drill: there are none, and if you do meet one, they are either married or gay. Her friend did everything she could, but according to her, all her dates turned out to be either idiots or jerks.

After having heard this conversation for years, one day Marianne Williamson says the following, “The problem is not that there are no good men, or that all the good ones are married or gay, or that all the men you date turn out to be jerks or idiots. The problem is that you give them your telephone number.”

Okay, now we all get to say: DUH! Believe me I have had my own periods of failing to connect the dots. I call my little lapses where I end up in a difficult situation and claim not to know how I got there selective memory. You get to be a victim and, as we all know, victims are not responsible for what happens to them.

Sometimes, it is allowed take shortcuts (sorry, Beverly), but you must have mastered the process first and be willing to take responsibility for what happens step by step, all the way. When/if you do that, then you are allowed do a Frank Sinatra. You get to stand up and declare “I did it MY way.” You get to have bragging rights. But until then 1 follows 2 which leads us to 3 and so on.

“If the map don’t match the road, then it’s the map that is wrong”!


Cyndee Peters


Cyndee

This article is the property of Cyndee Peters AB, Stockholm, Sweden
and may not be used or duplicated without the expressed permission of the author.
www.cyndeepeters.com March. 2009



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