Do you qualify for a S.U.M.O. shirt?

I was having lunch with my friend @ronifmatar when he was showing a bunch of books he has just bought. One book looked a bit strange; entitled S.U.M.O. (Shut Up, Move On) with a hand drawn SUMO guy on a unicycle.

The title is catchy, one has to admit. I felt an urge to read it, I was curious to know how the author, Paul McGee, related the SUMO concept to “life” as per the sentence on the book cover: “The straight-talking guide to creating and enjoying a brilliant life”. Reading the book was very interesting. The author found that individuals needed to change their T-shirts from “victims” to “S.U.M.O.”, develop fruity thinking, having a Hippo Time is OK, always remember The Beachball, learn Latin and ditch Doris Day. These six main concepts were essential to wear the S.U.M.O. shirt.

I agree with the author, and find that S.U.M.O. also works fine on the Lebanese culture.

1-      It is very important not to drown in our own problems, we should never admit that this is how life is, there is always a way to change it into a better one, a non-victim one, where we will move on after every bump no matter how big it is.

2-      We need to know who we really are, let’s not underestimate or overestimate ourselves.  There is no run away from the inner critic that everyone suffers from, especially that our culture encourages such behavior, but we MUST overcome it, with better self-confidence.

3-      Hippo Time is OK. Who did not ever feel down and felt comfortable feeling this way. I did for sure. This is not wrong, but what is wrong is turning this Hippo Time into a comfortable zone and living this Time throughout a lifetime. At every hard time, it is ok to mourn but get over it ASAP since you don’t know how many opportunities you will be losing.  

4-      Have you ever looked at the sky searching for different shapes in the clouds? Did it happen that another person, there with you, saw a different shape that the one you saw at the same time, looking at the same cloud? Bottom line, everyone has their own view of the same cloud. This is also true in real life, people have different views and it would make it much easier to take into consideration the views of others. Don’t you think it is better to stop criticizing others for what they have or do and start seeing it from their own way?

5-      The Latin language is very important to understand the famous sentence and movie title “Carpe Diem” or as translated in English “Seize the Day”. Get over all the feelings of distress and fear of failure, trust yourself and do what you have planned to do and have been postponing for many reasons. You can succeed!

6-      The famous singer Doris Day in the movie The Man Who Knew Too Much sang: “Que sera sera, whatever will be, will be, the future’s not ours to see. Briefly, this sentence is not perfectly right unless you allow it to be right; you are the one to shape your future by your own actions!

Hope these words would encourage you to wear the S.U.M.O. shirt and begin shaping your future.

Good luck!