best of us? For example, feeling frustrated when a business doesn’t grow rapidly, despite only working on it one or two days a week. Or getting upset when a car breaks down without ever performing its scheduled maintenance. After all, aren’t these examples of trying to will something into existence without making the needed effort? The year 2020 provided new Corporate Directors 3 Kim and Art McCauley plenty of opportunities to fall for the allures of magical thinking. Like many of us, their year didn’t go quite how they envisioned it. But instead of getting frustrated by unfulfilled expectations, Kim and Art worked hard and made 2020 a year unlike any other. Just a few of the highlights for the McCauleys include that they added three beautiful, new daughters to their family, they purchased their dream home to welcome their girls—and the rest of their family—into, they had an amazing year of business growth as they advanced to Corporate Director 3, and they earned Melaleuca’s Marketing Executives of the Year. Kim summarizes it best: “As hard as 2020 has been for me—and I’ve said this over and over—2020 has given me so much more than it’s taken from me.” And it’s because of her hard work, consistency, and determination. Alina 1 In December of 2018, Kim and Art hosted a young orphan from Ukraine named Alina. Alina came so she could have an opportunity to be with a family for Christmas. It was supposed to be a 30-day stay. However, when Kim first met Alina, that 30- day expectation had to be adjusted. “I met Alina for the first time at the LAX airport,” Kim recalls. “She didn’t speak any English, and I don’t speak any Ukrainian or Russian. But the minute she came down the escalator, I just felt this need to protect her. She just looked so scared. “I took her back to the hotel in LA, and then we drove back home to Sacramento the next day. Within two or three days of her being in our home, Art and I were talking about adopting her. She stayed with us for a month, and then we had to send her back to Ukraine, which was one of the hardest things we’ve ever done. We quickly realized that since there is so much red tape in California with adopting, we had to move. We had already wanted to move to Idaho. So we sent Alina back to Ukraine in January of 2019, and in February we packed up and moved all our stuff to a rental in Idaho. This was also in the middle of the 2019 company-wide Fast Track.” When they arrived in Idaho, Kim and Art immediately began the adoption process. That summer they were able to host Alina again. As with the first experience, expectations were about to change dramatically.
Famed developmental psychologist Jean Piaget noted that children often have a hard time distinguishing between the subjective worlds in their heads and the objective world that is outside of them. Accordingly, Piaget claims that children sometimes begin to believe that their thoughts can directly cause things to happen. In our opening example, the child may come to believe that they can simply will their warm breakfast onto the table. Piaget calls this “magical thinking” and suggests that most children outgrow it by age seven or eight. But is Piaget wrong? Don’t we all indulge in a little magical thinking once in a while? Most adults
Kim recalls, “She didn’t speak any English, and I don’t speak any Ukrainian or Russian. But the minute she came down the escalator, I just felt this need to protect her.”
understand that it’s ludicrous to try to think a warm breakfast into existence. Clearly there are steps that need to be taken in order to enjoy the breakfast—eggs that need to be cracked, coffee that needs to be brewed, etc. Yet how many times might Piaget’s magical thinking still get the
10 JANUARY 2021 | MELALEUCA.COM
These results are not typical. Please consult the Annual Income Statistics on page 58 for typical results.
Made with FlippingBook - Online magazine maker