"Wanna fight?"
The hardest fight isn't with another person. It's with the person you no longer wish to be.
Lela and I were walking the beach in Tamarindo about thirty minutes after another stunning Costa Rican sunset.
It gets dark fast.
There weren’t many people around.
I noticed a shady-looking guy ahead and felt an urge to scoop up my sweet seven-pound Yorkie.
I didn’t.
Before I knew it, he was standing in our path.
With the tip of his fishing rod, he poked Lela.
She didn’t seem to mind—gotta love dogs.
But I did.
I scooped her up, looked him in the eyes, and said,
“Don’t poke my dog.”
He started walking away.
Then calmly turned around.
“Wanna fight?”
I laughed.
It felt like a scene from a movie.
“No.”
I kept walking.
He asked again.
“Wanna fight?”
With Lela tucked tightly against my chest, I kept moving.
I didn’t want to fight him.
I wanted to kill him.
For a few seconds, my mind vividly imagined how.
Every fantasy ended the same way:
He’d be lying in a bloody heap, his broken fishing rod beside him.
I’d look down and say,
“You picked the wrong dog to poke.”
Thankfully...
None of that happened.
I watched until he finally sat down on a rock.
Lela and I slipped through a nearby hotel, walked through a crowded outdoor food market, and took a different route home.
No one got hurt.
No one went to jail.
No one got stabbed.
No one got shot.
No one died.
It had only been a few minutes, but Lela had already forgotten the entire thing.
I hadn’t.
On the bright side, it turned out to be a pretty inexpensive lesson.
Stop getting lost in your phone. When intuition speaks... listen.
Yet, for hours, my mind attacked me.
You’re a pussy.
He fucking poked your dog.
You’re really going to let some asshole decide where you can walk?
It was relentless.
Until it wasn’t.
I no longer wanted to be the man my mind was defending.
The hardest fight isn’t with another person.
It’s with the person you no longer wish to be.
I don’t know if twenty-five-year-old Mike would’ve walked away.
Forty-four-year-old Mike did.
Not because I was afraid.
Because freedom finally mattered more than old programming.
Safe at home, I kissed Lela on the head.
And felt grateful...
Not just for the man I’ve become.
But for the one I continue leaving behind.
If this resonated, share it with someone who could use it today.
Until next time, Freethinkers… stay present, be pleasant, and have an amazing day 🙏
Mike Messeroff
Founder of The Carpe Diem Company
Personal Freedom Coach and Creator of Self-Hospitality™
Author of Dogs Get It: Advice I learned from my best friend