Just because a watermelon calls you, you don’t have to take it home.
This is a critical thing to know. And of course, I’m not talking just about watermelons.
Come with me. I promise it will make sense.
As long as I have been buying watermelons, I’ve bought them in a particular way. And I have been buying them for a very long time. I’ve been shopping for my family since I was nineteen, and since watermelons are a summer addiction for me, that’s a lot of melons.
So for all these years, here’s how I bought them.
I’d walk over to the watermelon bin and pick up the watermelon that “called me.” You know what I mean. You listen. Things call.
I shop for other things this way too. I stop outside of stores and see if anything inside is calling me.
It’s a little more difficult doing this online since I often forget that listening can happen on the computer too, but still, this is the way I have shopped for watermelons most of my life, and this story is about melons after all.
Or is it?
Because let’s pretend for a moment that every decision is a watermelon.
After all these years of buying watermelons, I just recently noticed something.
Not every watermelon that calls to me is the one I should get. Duh!
Yep. Just because something calls us doesn’t mean it is a call we should answer.
Because even though at least seventy-five percent of the time, the watermelon that called me has been a pretty good watermelon, it isn’t always a good one. Sometimes it’s terrible.
So I have been doing something different instead.
Now, I walk over to the bin and start knocking on the watermelons.
If you buy watermelons, you know what I am doing. I am listening for a sound. Hollow. If it sounds good on one side, I turn it over and knock again.
Not until all the sides sound correct do I pick up the watermelon.
Yes, I have always knocked on watermelons. But not carefully.
I have considered the call more important in the knock.
Are you following me here? I know you are!
Because ideas often call us. But should we take them home?
Perhaps we give the idea a quick perusal to see if it sounds right, but we assign the call more power. So we say “yes” when really, we should do a bit more knocking.
Do you have a decision to make?
Look the decision over as carefully as a watermelon. Does it feel right to you, personally? Not anyone else. You.
Do you want to spend time on this thing? Time is more important than money. Is this thing calling you worth the time?
Does it fit into your core values? Will the doing of it make you uneasy?
Will you have to rationalize your choice? (As in, “If it called me, it must be right.”)
If it frightens you—or stretches you—that’s not bad. It’s a good thing. If it’s what you want.
If it doesn’t make you need to learn something new, take you out of what you thought possible, it probably isn’t worth doing at all.
So, how is my new plan of thoroughly knocking on watermelons working out for me?
I still listen to the call, but it has to survive a thorough knocking, or else I move on.
My success rate for good, sometimes excellent, watermelons has risen to closer to ninety percent.
By the way. I can’t leave this idea of making a decision alone before saying one more thing.
Making a decision does not involve the how-to-do-it part. Leave that to later. Don’t muddy the waters.
Make the decision first, then decide how to do it.
Don’t be buying watermelons and onions and oranges and apples at the same time. Get one. Then get the next.
It’s the same thing here. Pick the watermelon. Now, ask yourself, how do I get it home? That’s a decision too. One at a time.
But be sure you knock first. You’ll be happy that you did.
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BECA LEWIS coaches, teaches, writes blogs and books, plays with art, and is addicted to reading. She lives in Ohio with her husband and has kids and grandkids scattered across the country.
