For Wednesday, March 20: Change

Consider how hard it is to change yourself and you'll understand what little chance you have in trying to change others. Jacob M. Braude

BOY HOWDY! Isn't this the truth?! I have enough trouble trying to change things about myself much less trying to change another person. Besides, it's not my job to change others. If I focus on others then that means I am not focused on myself and myself is the only person I should be working on. Same goes for *you*. What could be or would be different if we all focused on ourselves and the changes we know we need to make in our own lives? Improvements to our self usually means we settle down and quit nitpicking on others. What a relief for them and us!

Comments

Call it a Day

The literal use of this phrase hails from 1838 when the phrase originally was "call it half a day" to mean leaving work early. (source) The modern use of the phrase is to indicate ending something due to false sense of accomplishment.

More bang for your buck

This phrase was used a lot in 1953 but an earlier citation puts it at 1940 in a Metals and Plastics Publications advertisement. Read about it here . The phrase means you get more for your money.

Butter someone up

There are two probable origins for this idiom and I think both are equally plausible. The first one is that when you spread butter on bread you are buttering it up like one would do when trying to flatter someone. The second is in ancient India there was a practice of throwing balls of butter at statues to ask for favor, i.e. buttering them up. ( source ) When we use the phrase today we generally mean that extreme flattery is used to gain information or favor. It's not always necessarily a compliment.

Search This Blog