Hello everyone, still interested in finding out about my journey to ‘beta’ ness, previously described in Tip #1? Step this way to Tip #2.
Has anyone informed you that you radiate ‘mauve’ light or any other light? I have not been told anything of the sort, until last week. Picture this, I am checking out a school Christmas fair with a dear friend. My eyes are darting from jars of home-made jellies and jams to colourful ‘surprise’ bags and I am trying not to step on toddlers dressed as Santa or trip over kids.
Gingerly negotiating toddlers, kids, prams, voluminous parcels, I am moving towards the cake stall, when a glamorous young lady rugby tackles me and virtually manhandles me to a stall, where she and a bunch of equally young, glamorous, alabaster-skinned youngsters sell beauty products, which do not contain or involve chemicals, pesticides, explosives, wheat, sugar, palm oil, olive oil, margarine, tested and untested animals, mines, child labour, underpaid labour, co-operation with totalitarian regimes and/or politics of any sort (to name a few attributes).
Not only that, I am also told in some detail that these products actually do the Earth some good, in fact, buying them would be akin to practically giving to charity (I am not quite sure how, as by the time they had finished with the list of nasties included in usual down-market moisturisers, such as mine, I am no longer listening to these youngsters, I am busy checking whether I am on fire)
That’s when the mauve/magenta light comes to the fore. Apparently I – or rather my head and neck – radiate such waves, a slightly older, equally glamorous woman at the stall tells me.
Was I not aware of this? My shock must have heralded my ignorance.
My head and its content have been likened to a great deal of weird and wonderful things, but never to a source of radiation, of any colour. But THAT was the past, behold me, a beacon of light- I think.
So, I briefly consider buying one of those moisturisers, more in deference to my newly-found radiations, than an actual need – but I swiftly remember my depleted bank balance, so I explain the situation and try to back off.
That’s when the older saleswoman informs me that I (and my magenta/mauve light, presumably) would make a wonderful sales rep. I am assured thousands of pounds would practically fall on my lap, resplendent people like me had retired after two years in such magnanimous enterprise, having made their fortunes and enlightened the others to the virtues of those products, in the bargain.
I’d also meet like-minded sources of light, ready and willing to help me, as well as providing camaraderie and fun AND this (new friends/allies, thousands of pounds a week, mauve light, fun, philanthropy) in exchange for only £500 to pay for the first stock. My eyes well with gratitude.
I briefly consider it: could I convince people to ditch their toxic concoctions, do the philanthropic thing and buy these new products, turning me into a millionaire in the process?
Then, true to my beta nature, I have a quick reality check. Unlike alpha people, who know they radiate light, who think that daring is the best policy, that you are your own limit, I embrace my limits and work around them.
PLUS, the following occurs to me: buying stock, cashing thousands of pounds for hardly any work, early retirement, basking in my own light… that sounds too good to be true. In my beta world, hard work and A GOOD DOSE OF goofy, unfruitful attempts, are usually prelude to success (if any at all).
Could I, someone who works 12 hours on her start-up, fork out the monumental sum of £500 on products I hardly know to sell them to family and friends? Could I, surrounded by affectionate but humorous friends and family, with a strong sense of value for money and utterly oblivious to my mauve radiations, flog these products to them?
The answer is an unequivocal NO. I had better focus on what I AM DOING NOW. So, when the sales woman rings me a couple of days later to fix my first appointment and deposit the £500, book my first stock, meet my new friends, I tell her what I think.
My magenta light must have started waning there and then, because it takes me 20 minutes to get the message across. I do not succeed when I express doubts about my credentials as radiator of mauve light, or when I describe my adorable kith and kin but when I say I do not have £500 to invest in such worthy adventure anyway.
That switches off my light… and the conversation.
Moral of the story: I am not sure I have one. But if I had to give you one: accept your limits. Challenge them, work around them, don’t let them defy/define you, but acknowledge them. What works for others, does not necessary works for you and when something looks too good to be true… it usually is.
Here’s to the light that comes from us all, especially if you stand next to a Christmas tree these days… Here’s to taking ourselves seriously, but not too much. Here’s to laughing at life and ourselves!
Marella Albion 