“Mommy why do you cut off the ends of the ham?” Suzy asked one Thanksgiving Day while helping make dinner for the family. “Oh honey, we always cut off the ends of the ham before we bake it. But I am not sure why, let me ask grandma.”
Suzy’s mom walked into the living room where her mom was watching TV and asked “Hey mom, why do we cut off the end of the ham before baking it for Thanksgiving dinner?”
“I don’t know, she replied. Let me call your aunt Helen in Cleveland. She might know.”
So, Suzy’s grandma, her mom’s mom, got on the phone and called her sister.
“Hey sis, why do we cut off the ends of the ham before we put it in the oven for Thanksgiving?”
“Simple. In the two bedroom house where we grew up, the oven was too small, so mom would cut off the ends to make it fit. I guess the habit just stuck.”
Today, my question for you is simple: Where are you cutting off the ends of the ham and you don’t know why?
Where are you following rules that don’t exist?
Where are you doing things that made sense for someone else in your family that makes NO sense for you?
Where are you expecting OTHERS to do things the way you do, but you aren’t really sure why?
Start investing why you do the things you do, and you will start to discover that you’ve been limiting yourself…. limiting your dreams, limiting your actions, limiting how you think your life should go.
Today, just start to notice… that’s step 1.
Let’s do this.
Author
Matthew Ferry