December 3, 2025
There are certain Thoughts of the Day that come in quietly, asking for your attention with soft hands and patient nudges. Then there are the ones that walk in like a Jersey diner waitress who’s worked the night shift for 40 years and isn’t afraid to slap the truth onto your table. Today’s Thought is absolutely the latter.
“Don’t lick the bottom of the dumpster and call it food” is one of those reminders we don’t want but absolutely need.
Because here’s the thing. We all have a weird talent for convincing ourselves that the things hurting us are actually helping us. We tell ourselves the self doubt keeps us humble. The negative self talk keeps us motivated. The fear is just us being realistic. And the heavy emotional junk we’ve been carrying for twenty years is somehow a personality trait instead of, you know, junk.
But call it what it is. A scrap at the bottom of a dumpster you keep treating like it’s something nourishing.
Most of the painful thoughts we swallow every day didn’t come from us in the first place. They came from a moment when we were tired, or scared, or too young to know better. They came from someone else’s bad day. They came from a story we misunderstood. They came from a time in life when survival felt more important than truth.
And then, because we’re human and creatures of habit, we kept eating from the same place long after we were allowed to walk into the front door and sit at the actual table.
I’ve learned something over the years. You can’t think yourself into a new life if you’re still chewing on old lies. You can’t expect joy, peace, clarity, or purpose when the thoughts fueling you are the mental equivalent of questionable leftovers. And you definitely can’t grow if you keep reaching into the same dumpster hoping that this time, magically, it’ll taste different.
It won’t.
Your brain is going to offer you all kinds of options today. Some will be beautiful. Some will be honest. Some will be loud. And some will be the same old garbage thoughts that pretend to be familiar so you’ll trust them.
You do not have to eat them.
You are allowed to want better thoughts. You are allowed to reject the narrative that’s been holding you down. You are allowed to ask yourself what’s true instead of what’s familiar. And you are absolutely allowed to stop pretending the dumpster is the only place you can find something to get you through the day.
Your mind is capable of serving an entirely new menu, one built with hope, strength, truth, self respect, curiosity, creativity, and the small quiet confidence that you are allowed to think better of yourself and your life.
So today, try this: when your mind hands you something that tastes like the bottom of the dumpster, set it down. Step away. Remind yourself that what’s familiar isn’t always what’s true. And choose something you’d actually be proud to consume.
You deserve better than mental trash. And your day will feel different the moment you stop pretending otherwise.
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