Sunday, August 8, 2010

Are you insane?



Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. 
Albert Einstein 
I told this to my friend who was doing just that and suggested she try something different. We laughed as she tried once more to get the computer to do what she wanted. 
Have you ever done this? I know I have. You’re tired; it may be the end of your work day and the printer is jammed. You could be trying to get your car started in the morning, flooding it as you will it to start. That is on the simple end of the scale. The heavier side of the scale may be weighed down with shoulds. I should host the bake sale because they need me or, worse yet, I should do this job because it pays the bills. You keep going to the same job over and over, day in and day out, expecting to be happy because you are paying the bills. 
The vivid color of life is dull, you are uninspired and maybe even numb. Life seems full, you are living the American Dream. You make good money, have a nice home, pay your bills on time, are a respected member in your community, maybe you have a couple of “well adjusted” kids. You are a weekend warrior and take exotic vacations to extraordinary places. It takes a lot to get you excited and you find yourself wondering why you aren’t as excited as you know you can be. You look for connection on Facebook; an adrenaline rush in a video game, escape in a good book. Maybe you aren’t able to afford those things, in fact, you have no interest in being a weekend warrior but you still find life grey, dusty with long forgotten dreams and wishes that never came true. Hell on earth or, maybe limbo. You keep trying the same thing over and over, hoping to feel something like inspiration.
It takes a lot of courage to release the familiar and seemingly secure, to embrace the new. But there is no real security in what is no longer meaningful. There is more security in the adventurous and exciting, for in movement there is life, and in change there is power. 
Alan Cohen
The only real valuable thing is intuition. 
Albert Einstein