Confident honk is a bizarre name for a blog post. But hey, stick with me and I’ll show you why I’ve chosen this name. Have you ever noticed how bigger cars have more aggressive sounding honks? Some car horns sound out a confident honk saying, ‘Hey, I’m right behind you. Or, ‘Hi, did you know the traffic lights just turned green?’ Others (usually larger cars) have honks that say, ‘You fool, can’t you see I’m here?’ Get out of my way right now!’ Smaller cars have honks that say, ‘ I hope you’ve seen me.’ Or, ‘I hate to jump in right when you’re examining your teeth, but the lights just turned green and I’m in a bit of a hurry.’ 

Confident honk

I’m not a fan of honking my car horn. I think they’re quite rude and feel ‘told off’ when people honk at me. I’ve thought for some time that car horns should have two options; one for confident honks and another for nasty honks.   This morning as I was walking my youngest to school, a young mother drove into the side lane we were on and waited for another car to move out so she could park her car and go into the shop. I don’t think she looked in her rear view mirror because she didn’t see that another car was trying to turn into the same street. Because of where she’d stopped (and there was lots of space for her to move up), the other car was stuck in the middle of the main road from which they both turned off.

The car behind this young mother was larger and more powerful than hers and when the driver honked her to move on, it sounded like someone shouting profanities in the street. The honk was no confident honk. It was big, bad and aggressive. It visibly shook the young mother, so much so that she had difficulty parking. When she stepped out of her car and entered the shop, I could see her face twisted with stress and anxiety, and I have a feeling that stress will stay with her all through the day. Of course, she should have used her rear-view mirror. We’re not addressing her faults. However, does her little mistake merit the aggressive honk?  By this I’m illustrating how a small, random, spontaneous action can have such a powerful effect on other people. Be aware of this.

What about you? How’s your honk? Do you have a meek honk? A confident honk? Or a nasty honk? And we’re no longer talking about car horns here.

When you go about your life today be concious of how your random actions affect other people. Take your aggressive honks and lay them aside. Be aware that confident honks  can get you the result you desire without taking away other people’s self-esteem. You can have a great day, sounding off your confident honks while giving others a chance to live their lives too.

Give others a chance to shine. Their glimmer doesn’t make your gold less bright.

Have you got a confident honk? How do you help others with it?

My take -ten has just been published. This is where I was asked 10 questions about my inspirational book and my writing by readers all over the US. You can access the take-ten here, and my book here.