Lots of buildings skip the number 13 for their floors. The floor’s still there. Renaming a problem doesn’t remove it.
CREATIVITY
WHAT THIS MEANS
Changing a label changes the experience of a thing and not the thing. The fourteenth floor is the thirteenth floor with a different sticker, and the same trick runs through how people handle trouble: calling a debt a cash flow issue, a fight a misunderstanding, a habit a phase. The renaming buys comfort, and the floor stays exactly where it was.
Say one thing plainly to yourself this week, without the softer word, in short sentences. Then decide what you are going to do about the real version. Comfort is worth having, but not instead of a plan.
A QUESTION TO SIT WITH
What have you renamed rather than dealt with?
MORE IN PARADOX, METAPHOR & FOOD FOR THOUGHT
- Accents tell people where you’re from, not how smart you are. Hear people past the sound.
- An old skeleton key opens a lot of doors because it’s so simple. Simple honesty works on more people than clever lines.
- At low tide you can walk to places that were underwater that morning. Some doors only open in the low points.
Free, with nothing to buy inside it.