The Bogeyman Syndrome

The Bogeyman Syndrome: When I was growing up there was a saying you frequently heard adults say, "children should be seen and not heard." At the time, I’m pretty sure I didn't completely understand how that might have impacted children. Fast-forward a lot of years. I revisited that statement that somehow managed to pop out of old memories into my thinking. I was wondering if it really had any impact on me. After some internal deliberation, there was one thought that seemed to surface. "I am more often than not reluctant to make a cold call." Living nearly my whole life as a self-employed person, it would be literally impossible not to make cold calls, especially in my occupation. But I avoid doing so whenever possible, even if it's just for a simple customer service call. 

That saying about children being seen and not heard, probably had little or no impact. But you don't have to be a psychologist to understand that children formulate insecurities and self-doubt from how they were raised, or what they were exposed to. When I was a kid I was always afraid there were spiders inside my bed. I developed that impression because our small mountain home, especially in the winter, had some spiders running around. And like me, they wanted to stay warm on cold winter’s night. You could hardly blame them for wanting to bunk in with a kid in his warm cozy bed. Again fast-forward many, many years; I still don't like spiders. But I don't like killing them, in fact, we often relocate them outside. But I invariably leave that task to my wife who seems to have a tolerance for the little critters.

Is there a man, woman, or child that doesn't have a fear, or a phobia about something that they experienced at a young tender age? Probably not, even if they won't admit to having their own version of, "The Bogeyman Syndrome?"

"While writing, I just saw a brownish-looking spider about 1/4 inch in diameter, hanging out at the far corner of my writing desk. It's fiddling around with its web. It appears that this is going to be its new home. I see him, and he sees me. And I see me getting up and moving away from my desk and calling out to my wife to come and get it right now!" She reminds me, "it's just a little spider, he's not going to eat you." I let her know, both the spider and I would be much happier if it moved to a happier place, like outside!

I would love to hear what Bogeyman taunts you the most. Stop by ThoughtRow.com and make a comment on the blog and check out other blog posts.