The Story of the mother and her car...

John who is 20 years of age needs a vehicle to head downtown for shopping purpose. John who is still a student obviously do not own a vehicle so he ask his mum to lend him the family Toyota Corolla. Mum decided to lend him the car but instructed him to have the vehicle back by 10pm. John assured his mum he will be back before 10. So John now has the vehicle and drove out of the apartment at 6pm.

At 9pm, Mum was a bit agitated why John had not come home yet. She kept saying to herself, "John might be late for home today".

At 9.20pm, Mum was getting impatience why John and the family Toyota Corolla have not come home yet. She is now seen pacing back and forth at the Balcony.

At 9.45pm, Mum is clearly angry and she was very sure John is breaking the promise of 10pm home coming. She is already cursing and swearing.

Finally at 9.55pm, Mum had already prepared a mental script of lecturing to John for coming home late. She is now a volcano ready to explode.

9.59pm she heard a screeching sound at the car park and the next moment John appeared with shopping bags. John exclaimed, "Mum I am back home on time as promise!". Do you know what is mum response even though John came home on time?

1) Why are you speeding!!!
2) You nearly cause an accident!!!
3) I waited a long time!!!
4) Can't you be back earlier??!!!

You see, from the time John drove out till he came home...what goes on in Mum's mind was negative conclusion and more negative conclusion. She already had an initial mental model of John coming back late and reinforcing the mental model was the recurring affirmation that John will be late. Finally it all exploded in a barrage of scolding at the conclusion of the story. Even if John came home before 10pm, mum came out with all sorts of excuse to lecture his son and vent her anger.

In life, when met with challenge or embarking on a plan of achievement, never begin with a negative assumption that its not gonna work, it will fail , I might give up or it will just fall apart. When you initiate that thought, it will snowball easily and everything will fail in the end. When you start with a negative mental model about a person or object and don't open your mind to look at everything as a whole but kept reinforcing that mental model by picking up more flaws while ignoring the good aspect, a person or an object will be unfairly judged.