As you'll recall, Susan Boyle is the 48 year old, never-been-kissed, style-less, desperately-in-need-of-an-eyebrow-wax woman everyone took one look at as she walked onto the stage last month and were embarrassed for her. When I say everyone, I mean the live audience, the television audience, the judges, and everyone who saw her on You Tube, including you and me. We assumed she was about to be humiliated as she stood there in her white shoes, dark colored hose, and tan dress and had the audacity to sass Simon Cowell. And then she opened her mouth to sing and nothing less than the voice of an angel was heard. The joke was on us. We had judged her on the most shallow of criteria: her appearance. We had judged the book by its cover, when I'm sure that we each knew better.
Earlier tonight, Susan Boyle appeared on the semi-finals of Britain's Got Talent and once again, completely wowed the judges as she sang Memory from Andrew Lloyd Weber's Cats. Turn up the volume and prepare to be moved . . . again.
Will Susan make it to the finals next Saturday?
Showing posts with label assumptions. Show all posts
Showing posts with label assumptions. Show all posts
Monday, May 25, 2009
Tuesday, April 14, 2009
You Can't Judge A Book By Its Cover
Raise your hand if you've never looked at someone or something and made a judgment about who they are, the quality of their character, or an assessment of their abilities by some completely arbitrary and superficial factor. I see that every hand is raised. So we've all done it. None of us are proud of this, but it's something we've done.
Now, raise your hand if someone has looked at YOU and made a judgment about you. Maybe you're a bit overweight and someone has said that makes you entirely undateable. Maybe people snub their noses at you as they look down on what you do for a living. Maybe people make assumptions about you based on a family member with a disability. Maybe someone told you that you couldn't achieve your goals because you aren't smart enough or pretty enough or some other crazy factor. I see that, again, every hand is raised. Interesting.
How did it feel? It was a blow to your ego, right? It may have pushed you off your game and played some mind games with you. Did you let go of a dream because of some catty comment that hurt you to your core? It may have made you question the person you know yourself to be.
Finally, have you ever had the experience where you got to prove all the haters wrong? Where they'd judged you and you got to wipe the floor with them? Remember how THAT felt? I don't know about you, but I think it's the world's greatest feeling.
In case you've never had that experience of getting to prove everyone's judgments wrong or reach your dream anyway, watch this video and imagine yourself as Susan Boyle for just a minute. It's powerful and it will change you.
If you're reading this on your iPhone and can't watch that video, watch the You Tube version here. You Tube won't allow embedding, sorry.
You can also visit Susan's fansite here.
Oh, and yes, she really did say she's 48 and never had a boyfriend and never been kissed. But she dreamed a dream and she never let it go. Susan Boyle is my new hero.
And thanks to Brad Meltzer for starting my day with this video. He always finds the most inspirational and uplifting stories. He loves the rooting for the underdog. Friends like him are priceless.
UPDATE: Check out this article on Jezebel about Susan Boyle. Fantastic!
Now, raise your hand if someone has looked at YOU and made a judgment about you. Maybe you're a bit overweight and someone has said that makes you entirely undateable. Maybe people snub their noses at you as they look down on what you do for a living. Maybe people make assumptions about you based on a family member with a disability. Maybe someone told you that you couldn't achieve your goals because you aren't smart enough or pretty enough or some other crazy factor. I see that, again, every hand is raised. Interesting.
How did it feel? It was a blow to your ego, right? It may have pushed you off your game and played some mind games with you. Did you let go of a dream because of some catty comment that hurt you to your core? It may have made you question the person you know yourself to be.
Finally, have you ever had the experience where you got to prove all the haters wrong? Where they'd judged you and you got to wipe the floor with them? Remember how THAT felt? I don't know about you, but I think it's the world's greatest feeling.
In case you've never had that experience of getting to prove everyone's judgments wrong or reach your dream anyway, watch this video and imagine yourself as Susan Boyle for just a minute. It's powerful and it will change you.
If you're reading this on your iPhone and can't watch that video, watch the You Tube version here. You Tube won't allow embedding, sorry.
You can also visit Susan's fansite here.
Oh, and yes, she really did say she's 48 and never had a boyfriend and never been kissed. But she dreamed a dream and she never let it go. Susan Boyle is my new hero.
And thanks to Brad Meltzer for starting my day with this video. He always finds the most inspirational and uplifting stories. He loves the rooting for the underdog. Friends like him are priceless.
UPDATE: Check out this article on Jezebel about Susan Boyle. Fantastic!
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