I hate Brussell sprouts. They’re mushy, they smell weird, and they leave this horrible aftertaste that just makes me think more about how much I dislike them. Or, at least I thought I did. One day I was offered fire-roasted brussell sprouts, and it changed my life. Dramatic, yes I know, but the difference really was like night and day. Turns out that it’s not that I hate brussell sprouts, it’s that the first few times I had it it was boiled and probably overcooked.
I hated Brussel sprouts almost as much as I hated okra. Slimy; that’s literally all I can think about when I think about okra. Slimy and bitter. Slimy and bitter and weird, that’s it. Okra was one of those things that I wouldn’t eat no matter who brought them to the cookout. ‘Yes, I know your mom’s okra is different, but I don’t want any,’ that pretty much explains my positioning. But once again, I was wrong. In this case, it was a serving of roasted okra that changed my mind (roasting might be that ‘secret sauce’). But in any case, it was another example of something that I was sure wasn’t for me that turned out was just never presented to me in a way that I could appreciate it.
‘Yes, I know your mom’s okra is different, but I don’t want any.’
There are a few other things that I initially thought that I didn’t care for but either through time or having it presented to me in another way, I found that I very much did care for them. Things like onions, Coronas, and Seinfeld (see what I did there?) were all a little off-putting at first, but either briefly (I mean, Seinfeld wasn’t THAT good) or more permanently (fried onions ain’t goin’ nowhere) these things found their place in my life.
…if this same thing is presented to us a different way […] then that same thing can be a lot easier to chew.
I think sometimes when we find ourselves having to deal with something we don’t like it’s easy to assume that the reaction is valid and that the reason that we don’t like this thing is because it is indeed ‘bad’. Taxes come to mind, haha. But if this same thing is presented to us a different way (ie. taxes are an opportunity to give back to and support the system that allows us to live and pursue our goals), then that same thing can be a lot easier to chew. Going to the gym to work out never really seemed appealing but enthusiastically competing against myself to get better and stronger tastes way better. We can use this idea to re-evaluate some things in our lives to see if we are missing out on value right underneath our noses.
And to bring this all home, it can help us to navigate certain situations with the people we live with and care for, especially children. Green peas may very well be THAT disgusting for a child. It might be worth looking into whether there’s another way to present this thing (green peas in this case) in a way that will be more appealing. Maybe it’s worth being a little patient the next time your child says they don’t want to do something. Depending on what that activity is, it may be possible to re-frame it or present it in a way that is more palatable for the child, and will help them understand the value what it is they are being asked to do. Who know, they may even enjoy it.