Never Never Try to Teach a Pig to Sing

Listen Up, Buddy! Mind Your Own Pigsty 

Ducunt fata volentem, nolentem trahunt...

'The Fates guide those who go willingly. All others they drag.'

....And an annoyed pig will surely drag you through the mud!

Don't Mess with Me!

E-I-E-I--OH NO.....Are You Trying to Teach a Pig to Sing?

It's a drag--that person who does things so differently from you who really irritates and annoys you. So you take it upon yourself to fix her and show her how to do it your way--the right way. It works, right? Wrong.

If you like rolling around in the mud and muck, and annoying others, go ahead. But if you want to be effective and build competent people around you, help others find their own way instead.

Annoying the Pig

Stop wasting your time trying to make you or others into something you're not.

As Robert Heinlein said:

 "Never try to teach a pig how to sing, it wastes your time and annoys the pig."

   The Hummer Flies

 The Iguana Swims 

                                                                                The Horse Gallops  

Accept Others Differing Gifts with Grace

'You can put wings on a pig but you don't make it an eagle.' Bill Clinton

Does this mean people can't grow and change? No. It means there are many ways to accomplish things and we need to accept the differing gifts in ourselves and others with grace, compassion, and understanding.

A pig can easily learn to hunt for truffles but try as they might--they can't learn to sing.

The Happy Pig Grunts

A Happy and Competent Pig is 100% Herself

It never never works to attempt to make people over to be like you. It always works to encourage others to stretch to become their own best selves. 

Help people find their own way forward. The more each of us tap into our own path to excellence, the more competent and happy we'll be in life.

'I'm very happy to be called a pig--it stands for Pride, Integrity, and Guts.' Ronald Reagan

Accept the Realities of Life 

"Never try to teach a pig how to sing, it wastes your time and annoys the pig," means we need to accept the realities of life. You can't make a pig sing no matter how hard you try--and no matter how annoyed the pig gets.

'You can put lipstick on a pig, but it's still a pig.'

Let Me Do it!

So the next time you try to take on another person as your make-over project, know 'that little piggy' doesn't want to learn how to sing your tune or dance in step with your timing--so stop wasting your time and annoying her!  Let her learn her own dance and tune.

'I learned long ago, never to wrestle with a pig. You get dirty and besides the pig likes it.'  George Bernard Shaw 


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For more than 35 years, Susan Meyerott has been helping people lighten up and step over invisible barriers to change one step at a time. She speaks to your heart, puts you at ease, and makes letting go and moving forward with life easier than ever before.


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