Trying Again

Several days ago when I powered up my computer, I could not access the Internet. I tried and tried with no success. One computer technician advises that nine times out of ten, just turning it off and back on will solve the problem, so I re-booted the system. When that didn't work, I remembered what my service provider had told me once: turn off the power to the system, wait a few minutes, and then turn the power on again. And thankfully, this worked!

Now I could have tried for the rest of the day to get online by clicking again and again on the Internet icon. Finally in sheer frustration, I might have phoned tech support—a lengthy process usually—and would have been embarrassed by their first question: "Have you tried re-booting your system?" There is something about these electronic gadgets that needs to be re-set sometimes before they will work smoothly again.

From that experience, I began thinking about Albert Einstein's definition of insanity: "Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results." That might be a little harsh, but it certainly does make a point! It doesn't make sense, it's foolish and it's disregarding reality to do the thing over and over again that is not working. We learned, "If at first you don't succeed, try, try again." And so sometimes, we do try and we try again—but we simply repeat what didn't work in the first place. Sometimes we need to stop and re-think the situation; maybe we need to "re-boot" the system before we make another attempt!

Thomas Edison, we are told, tried over a thousand times to devise a light bulb that would work; the secret of his success was that he did not try one single way a thousand times. When it became obvious that what he had done would not work, he tried something different until at last he accomplished what he had set out to do. If you're dealing with a knotty problem right now, consider whether there may be another way to approach it. Eventually, the light is going to come on!

MaryMartha

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