Ahhh, the wild, wild west. What a time!
You could just kick open the saloon door, waltz in, walk up to the bar and demand a stable for your horse, a meal, a shovel, a pick, a room for the night and a whiskey. All for the price of a single gold coin.
After that you turn around, spit your 4 hour old chewing tobacco into a jar in the corner, call one of the guys playing poker a liar and start a good old-fashioned saloon fight.
Back then, being an asshole just meant being a man. It signaled you were tough and the tough guys got the women and the gold.
Today asshole-ery won’t open you a lot of doors. But, as usual, a lot of folks haven’t gotten the memo yet.
What can we nice guys do about that?
If you live in a town that feels like asshole-polis, I found a great piece of advice in – you guessed it – a wild west TV show. I haven’t watched a single episode, but Justified is so packed with street smarts, it must be good.
Here’s my favorite quote:
“If you run into an asshole in the morning, you ran into an asshole. If you run into assholes all day, you’re the asshole.” – Raylan Givens
Before you worry about toxic people in your life, make sure you got the memo. Don’t let the assholes of the world turn you into one. Most of the time, when we feel everyone is against us, it’s actually us against everyone else.
The first step to not let assholes destroy your day is to not be an asshole yourself.
So when you giddy up in the morning, make sure you say howdy to folks. Maybe they’ll tip their hat. Who knows, they might even tell you to have a nice day.
PS: Have a nice day!
