I recently heard a great story from a parent on the sidelines of a sporting event. The other parent was a trainer for a season in life and had some great hooks she shared with me. My favorite was about the unasked question.
As part of the annual holiday dinner preparation she routinely asked her husband to trim several inches off the ham. One year the husband finally asked, “Why do we do this?”
The wife gave the automatic response so many of us would – because this is how we have always done it. But now, wondering herself, she asked her mother. Her mother gave her a similar response. She did it that way because her mother had done it that way.
When the wife finally asked her grandmother why they trimmed the ham that way, the answer was different. The grandmother had her husband trim the holiday ham that way so it could fit into her oven at that time.
How many things do we do out of habit, comfort, and for no real reason?
Are you doing something for a non-existent reason? When is the last time you asked why?
2017-12-16 at 1:51 am
This post really made me think, I do so many things just because my mum/nan did them
2017-12-16 at 1:02 pm
Wow I didn’t expect to really look at and question certain things in life like this? It’s strange because I’ve be known to say things like, ‘I do that because my mum did that’ or ‘we’ve always done it that way’ which when I think about it is just strange. This is a very good, thought provoking post!
2017-12-16 at 3:50 pm
Interesting post, sure we all do things just because of habit
2017-12-16 at 7:39 pm
This is such a great post!! I think we all do some things a certain way because that’s what was modeled to us and we just continue them because for us it has a normalcy to it.