Be careful what you wish for.
There's an old joke you might've heard:
Three guys scale a mountain and stumble upon a magic lamp. They give it a rub, and whaddaya know, a genie pops out! The genie tells them they each get one wish, but here's the catch: they have to make the wish while leaping off the mountain.
The first guy runs, leaps, and yells, "A billion dollars!" and he lands in a giant pile of cash. The second guy does the same. Runs, jumps, and shouts, "Beautiful women!" and lands in the arms of a bevy of beauties. The third guy runs, but right before he jumps, he trips and exclaims, "Shit!" and lands in…well, you get the joke
Be careful what you wish for.
October's rolled around, bidding summer goodbye and ushering in the cool, crisp, autumn vibes, and with it, one of my favorite times of year: Halloween!
To get in the spirit, I'm diving into one of my all-time favorite episodes of the iconic TV anthology, "The Twilight Zone” for a Life Lesson.
Season two features an episode called "The Man in the Bottle." In it, a couple running a quaint trinket shop discover a genie in a bottle. The genie appears as a man in a snazzy suit, and offers them three wishes. Their first wish? To be rich. They soon find themselves rolling in the dough—only to find themselves hit with taxes, owing more than they have left. In a desperate move, the husband wishes to be a powerful, untouchable leader—only to turn into Adolf Hitler at the brink of Berlin's fall.
In the end, the couple’s final wish is that they never found the lamp, and end up back where they started, having learned the lesson: Free lunches—and free wishes—are a dangerous myth.
This episode is a variation of the eerie short story "The Monkey's Paw" by author W.W. Jacobs. In this tale, the titular monkey's paw grants its owner three wishes but at a devastating cost. The protagonist wishes for a big payout, only to find out his son dies in a gruesome work accident, leaving him an insurance windfall. A second wish resurrects their son, but he comes back as a mutilated horror, prompting the husband’s final wish to undo it all.
As you can see, whether it's a horror story of a genie in a bottle or a cursed monkey paw, or a classic joke, the idea of wishes gone wrong is a timeless theme.
But there’s another way to look at the lesson, which is you have to know what it is you want in life, and you can have those things, but you have to specify precisely what they are.
Like a well-made wish.
So, the question is what would you like from your career? What about from your longterm mate — a wife or a husband? From your children? What about from yourself? Are you in the shape you want to be in? Are you financially where you want to be? Are you living according to your values?
You have to know the answers to these questions. Then, you have to take clear, definitive, steps toward your goal. Like the lesson of the W.W. Jacobs short story, “The Twilight Zone” TV episode, and the classic joke all make clear: Think hard about what you really want, pay attention to the path you take to get those things, and be prepared to work diligently to achieve them.
Don’t be the man in the joke who takes off without thinking, leaps without looking, and gets tripped up because he isn’t clear about what he wants... so, he ends up in a big pile of crap.
⭐️ The Twilight Zone had so many great lessons! Most of them are still relevant today. I haven’t read Monkey Paw yet but it’s on my list. I agree- it’s important to be specific in what you ask for and to know how you want to achieve it.