Don’t Take The Bait
September 23, 2013
It has been more then 25 years and I still vividly remember Mr. L’s class, especially his outfits. Typically he wore cream-colored short sleeve button down shirts that were neatly tucked into his outdated brown plaid pants that rested high above his oversized waist. His classroom lessons, however, were far less memorable and I cannot recall one curriculum-based piece of information taught by this middle school teacher. What I do remember are Mr. L’s stories about his frequent fishing excursions.
On an almost daily basis he would dramatically (and humorously) reenact the casting of his rod and the struggles that ensued to reel in the fish that he caught. Perhaps the class should have been called The Strategy of Fishing rather than 7th Grade English. To my surprise, all these years later, I am still reflecting upon Mr. L’s unofficial lessons taught through his fishing stories and the wisdom he imparted about ways that you can work toward achieving desired goals.
For Mr. L, his goal was to catch fish so he thought about what bait to use in order to increase the likelihood that fish would latch onto his hook. The fish however were not so smart as they did not stop and consider the impact of gulping what was before them; rather they instinctively took the bait and ultimately faced the consequences.
This “Don’t take the bait” message has many lessons. Simply put, don't be impulsive, forgo the drive for instant gratification and know the possible consequences before deciding to do something. It’s the former cocaine addict’s decision to not use again when feeling stressed and the unhappily married wife addressing her marriage in lieu of having an affair. It’s the recent college graduate not automatically taking the highest paying job at the expense of finding one that offers professional growth and career opportunities and it’s the boss who doesn’t do all of his staff’s tasks despite knowing that he can do it better and faster.
“Don’t take the bait,” is the short-cut way of saying that people benefit from pausing and considering options before doing something. The impulsive feelings-based decisions are avoided and higher maturity decisions are made. Even if you decided to do exactly what you would have done, the process of not taking the bait offers the opportunity to experience greater satisfaction and confidence with both the process of deciding and the act of doing the very thing you decided to do.
Now that school is back in session and curriculum based learning is underway, I can only hope that my children’s teachers, who also might be wearing outdated and funny outfits, have the ability to impart the wisdom that Mr. L did in my class. The stories may seems silly today but at some point, even if it is 25 years from now, my kids will hopefully find value in the stories that were shared with them by their teachers.