How many of you, if you were the driver of the car on the left, would drive on, accelerating harder? Or would you stop and turn around?
I think a lot of you would agree that the latter is the better choice. Once in a while, if you push hard enough and go fast enough, you’ll probably be able to break through the wall, but you’ll still come out with a dented car. Stopping and turning around would be a better idea.
We accept this very willingly when it comes to situations like this. When we’re lost, or if we hit a dead end when driving, we stop, and turn around. We don’t try to go further in the same direction.
Yet we do that when it comes to life. When we hit a brick wall in what we’re attempting to do, we often want to try harder/work harder. Sometimes, in the right conditions, opportunities come and you can get through it. But there are times when you need to stop what you’re doing and turn around.
Trying harder and putting in more effort isn’t always the way to get out of a dead end. Sometimes the best thing to do is to just quit what you’re doing and try something else.
What about you? What do you do when you hit a problem/dead end?
Reminds me of one of my favorite W.C. Fields quotes:
“If at first you don't succeed, try try again. Then quit. No use being a damn fool about it.”
I agree with you and W.C. – optimism is great, but you have to be able to take a step back, and see when you're being unrealistically optimistic…
Great quote. Too many people stop at the first sentence.
About being optimistic, personally, for me optimism is about the dream, the final goal. Knowing when to quit is about how you get there. You don't give up trying to get to the destination, but you try another route.
Reminds me of one of my favorite W.C. Fields quotes:
“If at first you don’t succeed, try try again. Then quit. No use being a damn fool about it.”
I agree with you and W.C. – optimism is great, but you have to be able to take a step back, and see when you’re being unrealistically optimistic…
Great quote. Too many people stop at the first sentence.
About being optimistic, personally, for me optimism is about the dream, the final goal. Knowing when to quit is about how you get there. You don’t give up trying to get to the destination, but you try another route.
I totally agree that optimism is about the dream – it sort of goes back to what I was writing about Dreamers vs. Visionaries the other day: Being a dreamer is about optimism, and seeing where you're going; in order to be a visionary, though, you have to throw in the realism of how to make that dream happen, and what route you're going to take.
It's hard to make that leap from dreamer to visionary, because you have to face the reality that there are many ways to go about your dream, and there's a good chance that the first few you try are not gonna be the right ones. It's important to remember that the right one is out there – you just have to keep looking until you find it. =)
I totally agree that optimism is about the dream – it sort of goes back to what I was writing about Dreamers vs. Visionaries the other day: Being a dreamer is about optimism, and seeing where you’re going; in order to be a visionary, though, you have to throw in the realism of how to make that dream happen, and what route you’re going to take.
It’s hard to make that leap from dreamer to visionary, because you have to face the reality that there are many ways to go about your dream, and there’s a good chance that the first few you try are not gonna be the right ones. It’s important to remember that the right one is out there – you just have to keep looking until you find it. =)
Really well said, Sarah. I completely agree.
And as for the leap, yeah, it's not easy, but from what I've seen of you, I think you're in the process of making that leap. And going strong, I must say. =). Keep up the awesome work.
Really well said, Sarah. I completely agree.
And as for the leap, yeah, it’s not easy, but from what I’ve seen of you, I think you’re in the process of making that leap. And going strong, I must say. =). Keep up the awesome work.