I have an eleven year old Boston Terrier – that makes her seventy-seven in people years. Her name is Olive, and she is a boss. She is the queen of the dog park – she struts her stuff like she owns the place. I admire this quality in this feisty little girl. She doesn’t seem to realize she is a small dog, and I’ve finally figured out why. It’s all about perception.
Olive doesn’t see herself as a Boston Terrier wearing a Mickey Mouse t-shirt when we take our walks – what she sees is a big black dog. She walks into the park with an attitude. More than that, she doesn’t just think she is a big black dog, she believes it. I think her belief is so strong that she convinces all the other dogs that she is, in fact, a force to be reckoned with.
It is said that you are what you eat. But I disagree. I think you are what you believe you are. Olive is the perfect example. We humans may have a hard time taking a Boston Terrier in a Mickey Mouse t-shirt seriously, but her own kind, all those dogs at the park, only see her attitude. To them she is big, she is black and she has arrived.
I think a lot of us could learn a lesson or two from Olive. Nobody doubts Olive, least of all Olive – she is a boss because she is a boss, period. She has no qualifications for boss-hood. Her size plays no part in this perception. Her Mickey Mouse t-shirt screams anything but boss. She is so blatantly un-boss like that it’s surprising she doesn’t have a complex. And yet, she bosses like a pro. I think we could all use a little ‘Olive’ in our lives – a little attitude.
I’m going to try and take a page from Olive’s book. When I look in the mirror I’m going to try and see beyond the grandmother staring back at me. I’m going to look for my own big black dog – I’m going to find the boss inside me. And then I’m going to put on a Mickey Mouse t-shirt and take on the world.