Don’t you love to have your choices affirmed?
Thursday night I took the boys out to eat at one of our favorite restaurants. When I ordered the Spicy Kung Pao Shrimp, our waiter said emphatically, “MMMM, good choice!”
It was as if he had been waiting all day for someone to come in and order that dish and I was the only one with sense enough to do so. His long wait was over. The one he had been looking for had finally arrived. I thought he was going stand on a chair and announce to the everyone else in the restaurant that in the future they should let me order for them, because I knew things the rest of them didn’t.
I’m such a sucker for affirmation that when he asked me if I wanted a side Caesar salad with it, I said yes, just so that I could be rewarded with another outburst of appreciation for my enlightened choice of cuisine.
Afterwards, I went to my Fantasy Football league draft. On several occasions, when I announced my pick, the guys responded by whistling through their teeth in astonishment or saying “great pick” with just the right amount of admiration for me and personal regret that they hadn’t been smart enough to make the same pick themselves. I don’t remember anyone else’s picks eliciting that kind of response.
Every time it happened to me, I felt myself straighten up in my seat. I’d give a polite nod of appreciation and then start thinking about my next pick, feeling like I was the second coming of Bill Walsh.
Affirmation is a powerful narcotic.
So tell me, how do you like this post?
Telling Stories, Asking Questions, Learning Lessons
I think the post stinks.
Just kidding of course. Affirmation is a powerful feeling. And it’s hard to not constantly pursue it to the exclusion of everything else.
Great job on the post! Affirmation is a powerful thing. And yes, very addictive. So addictive people will do amazing things to get it.
God bless!
Dude. Great pick. GREAT PICK!
dude, my strategy during the draft is to lure my opponents into a false sense of security and confidence with their draft choices, thus leaving the actual good picks for myself.
It worked!
So let me affirm be whooping your butt in fantasy football week 4.
Good luck!
🙂
mark
Inquiring minds want to know…I think a small post breaking down your draft and your roster as well as your expectations for the year are in order. But hurry! Thursday brings back football!
People say, “I don’t care about your fantasy team!” But I care Wade. I CARE!
Yep. It is nice. I get a waiter like that from time to time too.
Oh. Uh. Good job.
Wade,
That was an awful post! (And I refuse to follow that up with a “just joking” comment because it was genuinely an awful post.) Maybe the Lord has given you a limited number of “good decisions” which you clearly must have used up when you ordered the Kung Pao Shrimp and had your fantasy draft in a single day. This combination must have created a tremendous vacuum in which you were so incapable of making a good decision, you took time out of your day (and ours, as well) to write a post which may or may not be the worst post in the history of posts. If I were you, I would take a few days and not make any major decisions (especially those concerning your children, world hunger, or the bird flu epidemic). In addition, I’ve made a commitment to never affirm you in anything you do or say again. This is not necessarily a punishment. I make this commitment out of the recognition that had the waiter and/or your fantasy football cohorts not affirmed you on Thursday night the world would have been saved the trainwreck that was your post. I want to do my part to prevent future trainwrecks. No need to thank me, world, I’m just trying to do my part.
Zac–I’m not making my roster public at this time. For a small fee, I might change my mind.
Ben–Your comment about my post is almost as long as my post. In devoting so much time to my meaningless post, you have affirmed it! 🙂
Mark–you’re the league commissioner. The draft was held at your house. We drew numbers out of bowl your kids made. Somehow you ended up with the number one pick. I ain’t buying it dude. I’ve already put an asterisk by your name even before league play starts.
Wade, you don’t even need people to affirm you. You claim affirmation when it clearly isn’t there. Typical preacher…typical.
I think i heard this speech at Captain Anderson’s a few weeks ago. But still I am so proud of your ability to translate this message from verbal communication to the written word. Just like finding in the third round what everyone else just saw as a white boy from South Bend w/ a week arm, you have found a gem out of what no one else would have thought meritted consideration.
If I ever get another dog I will name it after you.
How much was the tip you left that waiter?
Wow.
AFFIRMATION – Isn’t that why we blog?
This post is the worst post you have ever done!
It stinks!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
That is very interesting my dear friend because on the surface you seem like a guy gets nothing out of someone else affirming you. You have that cool exterior that exudes a quiet confidence based not at all on what others do or do not say about you.
You are becoming more transparent!
You are letting us into your life more!
You are teaching us how to really encourage you!
Atta boy Wade…
Aren’t you the guy who blogged a couple of years ago, “But enough about me. Let’s talk about you. What do you think of me?”
Got to love it.
http://www.matthewsblog.waynesborochurchofchrist.org