Have
you ever come up against a problem that you just couldn’t solve? Where
it felt like you were simply banging your head against a brick wall -
over and over and over again - without making any “headway”? Sure
you have. And can you remember how you finally came up with a solution?
You most likely took a step back and approached the problem from a
different angle, with a new focus which enabled you to find a simple
solution which was there all along. Consider the lesson of the moth
which was discovered in Joe Lake’s garage one day. As Joe was
preparing to travel to his office, he opened the garage door and
startled a large moth which immediately tried to escape by flying to the
circle-topped window of the door. It tried frantically to exit through
the invisible wall of closed glass. Joe tried raising the garage door
higher in hopes of aiding it’s escape. That caused it to fly higher
and become entangled in a spider web. Fearful that it would remain
entangled in the web, Joe took a long-handled broom to assist him in
helping the moth escape the tangled threads. The moth then returned to
furiously pumping his wings and banging into the glass, which was, in
his perspective, the pathway of escape, but instead, the moth remained
captive. By simply turning his focus to one side, he would have easily
exited his prison. Rather, due to his intent on one direction, he
remained confined, captive and perhaps doomed.
People are quite the same as the moth in this
story. Too often we come across individuals who are so sure of them self
that they refuse to change their focus. The would rather continue in one
direction without changing focus or giving consideration to other
alternatives. How often we have witnesses failure, when a simple change
of direction would have resulted in success.
It is very much like the old farmer who had
plowed around a large rock in one of his fields for years. He had broken
several plowshares and a cultivator on it and had grown rather morbid
about the old rock. After breaking another plowshare one day, and
remembering all the trouble the rock had caused him through the years,
he finally decided to do something about it. When he put the crowbar
under the rock, he was surprised to discover that it was only about six
inches thick and that he could break it up easily with a sledgehammer.
As he was carting the pieces away he had to smile, remembering all the
trouble that the rock had caused him over the years and how easy it
would have been to get rid of it sooner.
Next time you find yourself facing a “brick
wall”, before you spend too much time banging your head needlessly
against it, remember the moth banging into the glass. Remember the
farmer who finally decided to put a crowbar under the rock and
discovered a simple solution. Try to change directions and refocus on
the problem. By approaching the problem from a different direction and
viewpoint, the solution may be easier than you thought.
Have a
good week!