If the mountain will not move, then...

It's really amazing how you can go through life saying, reading, and talking about something important...and fail to apply all of that wonderful analysis to the Really Important Stuff.

I speak here of something that popped up on the radar screen a while back: it is the idea that, to get results that are different from what you're used to getting, you've got to do things that are different from what you're used to doing.

There are several ways of expressing this idea, by the way, and I've heard (and enjoyed) them all. One of my favorite variations is the one that goes: "Repeating an action in the hope that something will happen other than the disaster that has followed in the past is a good definition of insanity." ("Oh, yeah?" I can hear some of you saying. "What ever happened to 'If at first you don't succeed...try, try again'?" Don't get me started, okay? That's a different discussion.)

At any rate, I've been talking this talk at work for a while, and it strikes me that not only do I get lip service in response, but I'm leading the congregation in prayer. If I want different outcomes for myself, I have to do things differently. In fact, I must radically change my approach, else drown in mediocrity. (And the key to this secretive ramble lies in the old cliché about Mohammed and the mountain.)

"Failure," quoting Gene Kranz, "is not an option."

Cheers...