Don’t Be A Crab

Nothing beats a delicious and fresh surf ’n’ turf dinner.

A perfectly grilled steak with steamed crab legs dipped in hot butter with seasoned roasted veggies and garlic mashed potatoes on the side…I could probably eat that dinner every night for a long, long time.

Besides tasting amazing fresh out of the pot, crabs are a favourite family find when we get the chance to head to the ocean.

When the tide is out, we usually spend hours searching the beach for washed-up treasures and we collectively turn over every qualifying rock to see if any crabs are hiding underneath.

Crabs are funny little creatures.

They offer a lot of entertainment, are hard to catch, group together to hide, eat rubbish, come in a variety of sizes and colours and are found all over the world.

One characteristic of crabs that many may not know about is that they don’t like it when another crab opposes the ‘crabcode’ of proper and required crab behaviour.

When a crab enters a trap or bucket, it stays there. But the purpose of a trap is to catch not one but many crabs. Over time, more and more enter the trap and remain together, ready to be harvested and sold to the market (and onto my plate for dinner ;)

Sometimes, however, a daring crab gets the idea or perhaps sees that there is the possibility of escape. And so it goes for it.

As the adventurous soul is trying to escape and climb out, the remaining crustaceans try to pull the escapee back into the trap or bucket. The other crabs will go as far as killing the bold and hopeful rebel so as to not allow it to move outside of the trap to freedom.

While I haven’t hurt anyone physically, in the past out of jealously or envy, I have had the attitude of a left-behind crab towards others who I perceive are more successful than me.

Conversely, I have also enabled myself to be pulled down and influenced by other crusty, hopeless miserable ‘crustaceans’. For years I allowed doubt, fear, a small sarcastic remark or an unsupportive word of criticism derail my goals, dreams and aspirations.

There is a common phrase in business that says, “put your blinders on”.

This widely-used saying is an important one to hold close in your everyday operations in life and business. It can be easy to allow one little word, the indifferent tone of a statement or an ‘innocent’ joke said by someone we value manifest false self-evaluation and uncertainty in our hearts and minds.

While it is necessary to heed constructive criticism and feedback, and even request it, paying too much attention to the naysayers, the Debbie Downers the non-action takers and the Negative Nellies will take a toll on your joy and, if we allow it, derail the drive toward our passions and objectives.

So put those blinders on and keep pushing and earning your way out of that trap. There will be people who doubt you, people who don’t like you and there will always be people who want you to fail in everything you do…because they have never had the courage to do what your’e doing.

Keep going, keep climbing…and remember, don’t be a crab.

-B