text: Once I got into a discussion with a friend of mine over the origin of the expression, “raining cats and dogs.”
  We argued over what it meant, so we looked it up.
  Turns out that nobody really knows. There are a few sort of plausible explanations.
  My favorite was from back in the day when English people were pretty filthy.
  They would just throw their garbage out onto the street, and wait for the rains to wash it away.
  So when it rained particularly heavy, they would see all the garbage flowing down.
  Often times, mixed in would be dead animals. Cats and dogs, specifically.
  So people would joke that it was “raining cats and dogs.”
  Now, whether or not this is the “correct” “meaning” for this particular expression doesn’t really matter.
  The English language is FILLED with metaphors like this where EXPERTS have zero clue where they come from.
  Sure, everybody’s got their own pet theory, but they are really just guesses.
  Kick the bucket, buy the farm, sell somebody down the river, and on and on.
  Stephen Pinker, a famous linguistic tells our that our brains don’t really need to know WHY they mean what they do. All we need to know is that both “kick the bucket” and “buy the farm” means to die.
  So when somebody uses it, we understand what they mean. If enough people around us are using it, we’ll start to use it to, usually subconsciously.
  Most of our beliefs are like that.
  We picked them up without really questioning what they mean or how they got there.
  Public speaking is scary, talking to pretty girls is horrifying, making money is difficult, losing weight is hard.
  But since SOME people on Planet Earth live their lives in direct OPPPOSITIION of these beliefs, that CAN’T be objectively true.
  Only true for US. And only true because we don’t question them.
  The good thing about beliefs is you can CHANGE THEM.
  Sure, it takes effort. One MUST go through the natural learning process.
  Unconscious incompetence, conscious incompetence, conscious competence, and finally unconscious competence.
  Imagine getting to the unconscious competence level of the following beliefs:
  Money is good.
  Making money is easy.
  Talking to attractive people is fun.
  Persuasion is easy.
  Staying in shape is easy and natural.
  What happens to your life then?
  Few are willing to question their beliefs, let alone do the work to change them.
  Just like few people willing to get a black belt in a martial art, or take the time to learn something complicated like Photoshop or a foreign language.
  But all it takes is effort, and consistency.
  What are you waiting for?