Brent Redpath
As I mentioned before there are some quotes that stick with you in life. I guess the depth and breadth in which a quote can be understood really depends on the capabilities of the individual perceiving it, too.
Last post I mentioned the importance of persistence and grit – consistently pushing forward to chip away at bad habits and striving to be the best version of yourself. This to me poses the question: when should we give up and re think our strategy? when should we just give up all together? when are we border-lining on insanity?
‘‘Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results” – Albert Einstein
Albert Einsten said the above words and upon reading them they became one of the few quotes in my life that stuck with me. So often I have found myself making the same mistakes day in, day out and yet continuing on the same pattern of sequential failures. One proceeding the other, and yet every day I would awake thinking that for some-reason this day was different. I had within me the optimism that today I would somehow overcome the obstacles that hindered me all the previous days, armed with the same tools I was the day before and the same game plan. Is that persistence, or just plain insanity? this is where the line becomes hazy.
It is at the the aforementioned hazy line where the profundity of Einstein’s words really stand out. Whilst it is imperative that you persist at something in life you wish to change (whether that be a business venture, a fitness goal, fucking anything) you need to be able to realise when your persistence has crossed the line into insanity and that it’s time to rethink your approach and change up the game plan.
To find the perfect balance between persistence and giving up – you need to be able to take a step back and look at yourself honestly and objectively, with-out giving up too soon; you have to be willing to give up on a method or plan you might have invested a lot of time and energy into.
There’s another great quote by Anthony Robbins, who said ”If you do what you’ve always done, you’ll get what you’ve always gotten”. If what you have always gotten is fuck all and you’ve invested enough time and energy into doing what you’ve always done to realise it’s getting you no where, it’s time to start looking at other angles to approach things. Take a step back and look at yourself. Be brutally honest.
I feel as though one thing that stops people giving up on something that they have invested a lot of time and energy into and yet consistently seen failure, is the familiarity factor. Some people have been invested in a way of life so long that although they pretend they entertain the idea of reaching the end goal, the truth of the matter is they find comfort in the pursuit and the constant failure. It’s familiar to them, safe.
It’s easier for them than achieving what they want, or the fear of actually switching their brain on and realising they have been wasting their time for how ever long they have had their blinkers on. These are the types of people in life that you give really good advice to and they nod their head like they are taking it in and will heed your advice. The next day you see them doing the exact fucking thing they were doing the day before. I guess these people just don’t want change, they’d rather a life of familiarity and mediocrity over being self critical and constantly pursing something, growing and evolving.
The take home message here really is, be persistent and have grit – but don’t fall victim to insanity as Einstein defines it here – doing the same thing, day in, and day day out – expecting a different result. Self analyse and be self critical.
