Self

5 Lessons Donald Trump Taught Me About Being A Better Man

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5 Lessons Donald Trump Taught Me About Being A Better Man

I make no bones about it. I was with her. Yes I’m a devout Democrat and Hillary Clinton fan. But that doesn’t mean I didn’t watch The Donald all this time. Hell, who’d want to miss that sideshow? Right? I watched, I observed, and I learned.

As painful as that might be to admit, I believe in the phrase, "When the student is ready, the teacher will appear." I guess I was ready, and the teacher came dressed as President- Elect Donald Trump, and here’s what I learned from him:

1. Bullying and fear mongering do not make the man.

It may have worked for him to get followers, votes, and the big prize, but it’s not ever going to work that way for me. I’d rather get people to like me because they like me, not because I was able to shove them into a corner of fear to get them to puppet show their way into following me.

That’s not who I am, and that’s not the man I choose to be.

2. My narcissist was hiding.

Being raised by a narcissist, I knew I was predisposed to that behavior. It’s in my behavioral DNA. However, the constant display of Donald’s narcissism caused me to spend more time looking in the mirror.

That time caused me to look deep into my soul and ask, "Why would I act like that man?"

Yet, as much as I hate to admit it, I found my inner narcissist and decided, unlike Trump, my narcissist is not going to be given life, nor invited out to play…never, ever. That’s not who I am, and that’s not the man I choose to be.

3. Being irrational is not rational.

Regardless of how irrational his behavior was throughout the campaign, Trump somehow found a way to make his irrationality a rational state of being.

As I observed this, I became intimately aware of some of my own irrational thoughts, actions, behaviors, and characteristics, that I caused me to say, "Seriously? You actually believe you’re behaving in a rational manner?"

That’s not who I am, and that’s not the man I choose to be.

4. Speak before you think.

I admit... This is where Trump and I have the most in common. It’s also where I found myself getting most charged by orange top. It’s when I realized, "What I see in someone else that most irritates me, is the thing I need to most work on in myself."

Just ask my daughters and husband. More often than not, I have verbal diarrhea of the mouth, and then find myself, with my tail between my legs, having a verbal apology of the mouth.

The old "monkey sees, monkey do" adage sure has a way of showing me that speaking before I think makes a monkey ass out of me, much like it does our soon to be Commander-In-Chief.  

That’s not who I am, and that’s not the man I choose to be.

5. Bullying is the weakest form of humanity.

On the opposite end of the spectrum, this is where "The Donald" and I have the least in common, or so I thought. No, I didn’t go shout indignities at a someone of another race, or make fun of someone handicapped, or call a woman "Miss Piggy."

However, from my position as an armchair commentator, in the privacy of my own home, watching debates and news, I realize now, how many times I said some things that if they’d been said in public, in front of other living, breathing, humans, could have been interpreted as bullying.

Just the thought of it disgusts me. That’s not who I am, and that’s not the man I choose to be.

Now that he’s soon to be our POTUS, our Commander-in-Chief, and to some, the savior that will "Make America Great Again", I’m choosing to let him continue to be my teacher, and I the student.

I’ll continue to let him teach me about the kind of man I do not want to be, and will also wait for the opportunity for him to show me if he can teach how to be the kind of man I want to be.

I doubt it, but that would be unfair to not give him the benefit of the doubt. Not giving someone the benefit of the doubt, once again, is not who I am, and that’s not the man I choose to be.

Time will tell.

God Bless America!

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