Spark2Flame

Yesterday, I talked about failure as an option and I thought today it might be fun to consider some of these expressions that may need a rest (or the old yeller treatment).

If you can't let go of them, then maybe we can revamp a few of these that either don’t make sense, aren’t very accurate, or could use some spicing up.

We’re all probably tired of hearing these things after ten billion times (hyperbole is the best. thing. EVER!) so this is an important public services we’re performing—someone alert the Nobel Peace Prize people. They are gonna want in on this.

Of course, a good place to start would be “failure is not an option.” If we made this more relevant or accurate, we could say, “giving up is not an option.” I could get behind that one.

Here’s a list of a few others I thought about,

• Fake it ‘til you make it—what a strange thing this one is. Can I fake being a doctor and then one day wake up to find I’m a trained physician? Can I fake being a Christian (say right things, do right things) until one day *poof* I’m just like Jesus? I accept it’s a learning, growing process but I don’t want to fake it—that’s just bad advice.

• My suggestion to fix this would be, See it ‘til you be it. Hear me out! My grammatical inconsistencies notwithstanding, keeping your eyes focused on what you want and who you want to become will produce actions consistent with achieving that.

• If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it—this one just denies the need for advancement or improvement. Now, if you’re talking about the gospel message or truth, you can’t fix it (though you can distort it). What if innovators throughout the ages had said, “that idea is good enough why improve it?” We’d all still be walking everywhere and reading by candlelight and this blog wouldn’t exist (grab a paper bag if that thought causes you to hyperventilate).

• How do we spruce this one up? If it ain’t perfect, keep improving. Now, this one could lend to confusion too because I’m not talking about being perfectionistic about everything. Instead, I’m talking about life and the things we get to work with. If we don’t see any room for or possibility of improvement, we'll be stale and lifeless before we know it.
  

• Practice Makes Perfect—this doesn’t make much sense, but correcting it by saying, “perfect practice makes perfect” isn’t a lot of help either. How can I ever practice perfectly? If I call something practice whether it’s helpful or not, will it make me perfect? Highly illogical, Captain.

• Instead, maybe we could go with “Consistency makes better.” I realize that doesn’t have the same ring to it, but consistently working at something will make us better if not perfect. Maybe we should philosophize about this expression and say that people are yearning and looking for the perfect and that can only be found in God, not practice. Sure that will work.

• Everything’s Bigger in Texas—this is just nonsensical and should be put to rest. I just want to say, “Yeah, tell that to the Grand Canyon” or “How big are your glaciers there in Texas?” I’m not meaning to offend any Texans, but saying this doesn’t up the intelligence quotient any. Plus, as a resident of Alaska, it is my duty to point out that we are the largest state, not Texas. Just because we’re always shoved in the little corner of the map, doesn’t mean that it’s accurate.

• How would I change it? Everything’s Texasier in Texas. Hey, you can’t argue with that one and it makes about the same amount of sense.

Okay, so I don't really know if I've improved anything (or made them worse), but I tried and hey, "consistency makes better" as they say.

Now it’s your turn! Give me a variation on one of these or supply your own over-used expression and you way to spice it up or fix its inaccuracies. Remember: see it ‘til you be it! Yeah, that could catch on…