This morning I awoke tired again. It was my fault I didn’t get to bed early enough. While brushing my teeth I wondered what sort of day I’d be in for. Fridays are usually quiet because few people are onsite. But… when problems do occur on Fridays it becomes manic for the same reason. I then idly wondered what I would say to myself 12 hours from now if I’d had a really bad day.

It would be along the lines of; [i]‘don’t go in. Just take a day off. Never mind that you’re using up premium days, just save yourself the stress.[/i]’

Well, it turned out to be a quiet day. However, if it had gone the other way and became manic, I could have said to people later [i]‘You know what? I just knew it was going to be a day like this. I had this premonition about it’. [/i]

The point is that I’m glad that I remembered that toothbrush moment, because those thoughts are usually forgotten unless the worst does occur. I think this is probably what happens when people say ‘I knew this would happen’. It’s surrendering to pessimism after the defeat. More importantly it’s a way of lying to yourself, and the more it happens the more credence the lie gets. It’s a sort of dysfunctional form of self protection. To deal with the possibility of failure, I prepare for it by artificially expecting the worst and calling that normality.

Behavioural Scientists say that us humans are very good at lying to ourselves. They say we develop habits of self-deception as a way of coping with problems and challenges.
It’s as good a reason as any for brushing my teeth regularly.

When the bathroom is finally finished I can resume flossing too. More insight? More bleeding gums? Like most bathrooms, it’s white. Why are there no black bathrooms? After all, black tiles would show up white dirt just as well as white tiles show up black dirt.