4 + 5 = 9. Period.
Whether it is written in bold, or in gold, whether it is styled in Italic, it can only be 9. If what you want to make is 10, it's no point shifting around the 5 and 4 as you well know; what is required is to pause, reflect and add that '1' that will make up the 10.
Sometimes it is an application of science. Some other times, it's abandoning science and embracing common sense.
It's often that 'one' thing that is needed to add to what we do that is missing which stops us short of achieving what we are capable of achieving. I see people doing the same thing over and over again, tumbling down and getting up, tumbling down again and getting up, chasing the unseen, yet not pausing to reflect what else should I be doing that if I do can give me a better result, or get me closer.
There are sometimes a misinterpretation about being 'persistent.' Is it about doing it again and again till you get the result? Or is it about doing it again, plus or minus what didn't work in how it was done before ? 'Doing it again' is what I see mostly happening individually, and even in management situations. A very simple example will be the CVs I receive from applicants for various positions - the forwarded message of re-forwarded messages that leaves lines and symbols from previous messages. The belief is, 'I must have applied to at least 23 different hotels and I am sure I will get one of them.' If only they spend one minute to sit down and perhaps reflect, why after the 10th application I am not receiving an answer, and then alter what need to be altered, perhaps the result would have been different. In a hotel scenario, people coming with pre-opening experience is another example. I did this in the first hotel opening, and whether it was successful or not, the same template is pushed to apply in the n'th opening too ! Application of mind takes a back seat, often !
It is also about asking some bitter questions for which answers might not sit well with the desires in mind. What we insist as 'should be done' should perhaps question for why should it be done and what would happen if it is not done. What we consider as a 'must' should be questioned as 'for who that is a must' and what alternatives are available.
What I have also learned in my own life is that it is also about accepting what comes disguised as failure which in fact may just be a change of track that will lead to the right destination. I partnered a business sometime back, and went through adverse situations that forced me to close the consultancy - a period where I was almost pushed to the edge of being insane with the sound of shattered dreams and the face of an uncertain future looming large at me every time I close my eyes. It was then when I struggled with shame from the thought of being labelled as a failure, but when the decision to 'fail' was made, it was a relief that offered me energy to think afresh and look for avenues that would suit the puzzles that will make the big picture. And today when I look back, I realize that in the heat of tears were hidden the elements that strengthened my resolve and character. That acceptance of 'failure' was the '1' I needed to add to make it 10, and no matter what I did with the 5 and 4, wherever I positioned them, however I decorated them, would not have given me the result.
There needed a pause - perhaps an uncomfortable pause at that.
There needed a reflection - perhaps hearing unwanted commandments from the subconscious blue-print.
Because when you want enough, and when every cells and limbs are crushed to the ground enough to crave for success, and success alone as a recipe for survival, you will look for it, and there is no way that you can't have the support from the universe. Life is at times a magnified copy of an Olympic stadium. When you and I are behind that starting line, with all our focus on the goal we want to achieve, the sixty thousand audience in the stadium will join their hands together to sit in silence for that moment, offering us in solidarity the space and means to focus. The moment we start our race, they will join us with roaring applause as we cruise towards the finishing goal. My boss, a university professor, an HR Practitioner in US are all my examples of how universe will conspire towards achieving our goals as Paolo Coelho rightly wrote in The Alchemist.
To 5 and 4, what is the '1' that you need to add, to make it 10?
Shahir
06 October 2011.
