WHEN A FALSE BELIEF KEEPS YOU STUCK

 A false belief, or thinking something is true when it is not, can keep us frustrated, stuck and struggling to move forward. This can happen with small misconceptions, or with major areas of our lives.

A couple of weeks ago, I bought a new mattress from Costco. My husband can no longer help me do these things, but fortunately, I’m just stubborn enough to find a way to do them myself. The thing was the Casper mattress that we like (and we do love our Casper mattresses!) was on sale and I had to get it done before the sale ended.

SHOPPING AT COSTCO

I wheeled that flat cart around the store with the mattress on it, adding the few things we needed on top of it and sweet-talked the Costco guy into loading it into the Cherokee. In all honesty, Costco promises to help anyone load anything, but sweet talking makes them move a little quicker.

Once in the back of the Jeep, that’s where it was going to stay until the weekend of our family gathering when I planned to bribe my sons into bringing it into the house. Little did I know that before the weekend happened, my husband would total the car on his way to the dentist! (That’s another story for another time. Suffice it to say, it hasn’t been fun. The seatbelt did its job, by breaking his sternum along with seatbelt shaped bruises across his body. Ouch!)

Eventually, my son was able to retrieve the mattress from the car which had been towed to a junk yard, and brought said mattress to us. He helped me switch out the mattresses which launched me into the false belief challenge. What to do with the old mattress? I didn’t want him to put it in the truck or outside on the deck as it was due to rain. For the sake of expediency we shoved it into my office, and the decision with it, where it sat, blocking my closet, for the next week as I fretted about the whats and hows of its disposal. Kitty thought it made a great snoozing look-out post.

ANYONE WANT AN OLD MATTRESS?

What can you do with a used mattress? It was my belief that you can’t sell a used mattress or even give them away. As it turns out this was a false belief. But before I woke up to that fact, Scott and I fretted and stewed about what to do with it. We tried our garbage collector. No go. We tried finding someone to haul it away. $100. We thought about taking it to the dump. Our permit was on the totaled Jeep. And around and around we went. Every time I wanted to get something out of the closet I had to move the mattress. One of our kitties decided it was a perfect place to nap!

Then, my ever-so-beautiful and very smart daughter-in-law said, “Throw it on Facebook Marketplace for free!” Duh! At least I was pretty sure that’s what she was thinking. And, I did overhear her murmur to someone that we “overcomplicate things”. ha ha Of course she’s absolutely right, but I would still like to be a fly on her wall forty years from now. Anyway, I thought, why didn’t I think of that! So, Sunday morning, I posted it on Facebook Marketplace (averaging 1.185 billion online shoppers a month) for $25.00. (I’m not one to leave a few dollars on the table!) Within an hour I had a buyer and three more waiting in line.

In fact, the person that bought it hired “Dolly” to pick it up and deliver it to her – and I’m guessing that cost her at the very minimum $50. (I should have asked for more. Dang!)  But, they did bring a mattress bag to keep in dry in the rain. The transaction was all done on my phone. Facebook. Venmo. Doorbell. Bam. Out the door. And $25 in my account. Problem solved.  That’s when you’ve got to love technology.

LESSONS

1. 1. Always ask your D-I-L for advice on how to simplify things.
   2. When facing a challenging situation, look for a false belief(s) that might be standing in your way.
   3. People will pay for almost anything if there’s still some life left in it. More of us are struggling financially than not.
   4. Young people love technology!

My false belief about mattresses is not a very big issue in the overall scheme of things, but the impact was the same. A false belief keeps us stuck. It keeps us confused, feeling overwhelmed, spinning our wheels and going nowhere. And, the minute we recognize our faulty thinking light floods our psyche and we instantly feel lighter. I hope you get the chance to try it some time. Do let me know!

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