I finally bought the TV Service they sell at Wal-Mart… NOT.

It is a real wonder that I have ever tried anything new or different in my life. Sometimes I begin to wonder if I ever really have. I can pinpoint my patterns that have been in perpetual repetition for as long as I can remember. I am talking about patterns of behaviors, habits, emotional responses and most especially cyclical thoughts that ever return, over and over again.

Funny then, that the idea of repetitiveness comes from my encounter yet again, with the TV sales guy at Wal-Mart yesterday. I don’t know if you visit that store as much as I do (and I hope you don’t) but for several months they have allowed a team of salespeople to bug you about buying their TV service anytime you walk past the electronics department.

Grrrr…

I walk past there several times a week. So then, I am constantly asked a little ‘opener’ question about what TV service I have. I already know what to expect. I have seen them from down the isle. I usually (only halfway politely) respond with the fact that I have free TV service that comes out of the airwaves. They usually tell me that they have a great service also, and at a really good price. I have not yet found it to be as cheap as FREE, but maybe by the time the 150th salesperson engages me, they will find a way to describe it as so cheap, it’s almost free… Yeah Right.

Anyway, as I walked away from Mr. TV Guy yesterday, I once again said a little ‘good thought’ prayer for him. I do hope that he finds productive valuable work and can give his talents to something more substantive than bugging shoppers to sign his contract.

I was thinking about how I really don’t ever like to be ‘sold’ something. I was thinking about how I do not ever want my current mission to be derailed and rerouted into the ‘swinging deal’ that some salesman is hawking. I don’t let the root of my intentions for my day, be redirected into becoming the pawn in someone else’s sales goals… not without my permission first, and very first.

Of course I do engage in purchasing and consuming like most other people. I have signed contracts and bought things and helped someone else hit their sales goals. I do it probably every day, on some level. However, I much prefer the open door, the business who provides a good product or service, and I get to hunt them down, when I want to.

These are tiny examples of my personal ‘come-from’ and probably a lot of other people’s too. I think of this idea in terms of business ideas I have tried, and also failed at. I have tried to create services that offered things people could need. Like marketing/advertising/web design for your small business. I have tried to offer personal financial fitness coaching, to help people feel more in control of their money problems. I have also done some life coaching.

Selling things like this was hard for me. I felt that people (like me) didn’t want to be sold on something, they wanted to be able to ask for it, hunt it down and feel they were the ones who made it happen. (Like Me)

According to Mr. Steve Chandler, this idea in itself is a mental blockage.  A life coach is someone who can bring a cool drink of water to the sun-baked and thirsty desert wanderer. He expressed new realms of thought around the idea of selling and allowing someone access to a product or service.

I do love hearing him speak about those exciting concepts… However, I usually crawl back into the dark hole of my well-known comfortable past experiences. I want the alleviation that complacency allows. I want the same problems again, because I know them well. New ones would be scary, I guess. Maybe even better problems, more exciting and fun and fulfilling, but I tend to keep new and different at bay.

So there I go, settling back into the deeply contoured seat that my the fat butt of my being has worn over and over again through the decades. I think I return to the same issues and experiences, that I truly always have.

I see my young nephews developing their personalities. At four years old, you can see now, things that were noticeable almost as infants. I have a kid on the way too. I wonder what specific shapes their personality will carry throughout their lifetime?

I know some people who work on this stuff, trying to ‘fix’ it. I have met and talked with those who have attended Landmark Forum seminars, they have tools to reprogram the mind, they say. I have seen the work of Byron Katie, who seems to take the opposite approach, she teaches to Love What Is. Michael Neil, who I have met and talked with, has a book out called the Inside Out Revolution, where all the work we need to do is within our power, inside of ourselves, and then the world becomes what we want it to be…

I know about all this ‘life coaching’ and behavior stuff, because I was interested in it. I hunted it out. I wanted to learn about new possibilities for me, for others. It wasn’t because someone caught me passing by and ‘sold’ me on it…

I may always be curious and always wanting to learn about new streams of thought. I may always choose to stay stagnant and stuck, even when help is right across a thin line of action. I know my own victim-mentality better than ever now. I know I could start the conversation with the TV Sales Guy. I know I could witness to him, probably get him to avoid me 🙂 I could do a lot of things…

I probably will do things I have done before. Until I am just completely fed up, and the pain of staying the same becomes greater than the pain of change. (Dr. Henry Cloud)

Until next week. Take Care.

Sincerely,

Aaron Nichols

“We change our behavior when the pain of staying the same becomes greater than the pain of changing. Consequences give us the pain that motivates us to change.”

― Henry Cloud

2 thoughts on “I finally bought the TV Service they sell at Wal-Mart… NOT.

  1. Love how you word things!!! This is so on target with some of my feelings.
    Maybe you could write about all these phone calls (daily) from someone concerned about your computer

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