Sometimes, you just gotta try something else
Photo by Marc Noorman on Unsplash
Like some humans, there are vending machines that don’t work.
You see your favorite candy from across the room, and decide you no longer need that one dollar bill in your pocket. That bag of peanut M&M’s has your name written all over it.
You take the crisp bill out of your pocket that looks like it was minted yesterday and insert it in the machine.
Boom.
It immediately spits it back at you. Without any good reason, you are once again standing there with your $1 in hand. You try to smooth it out a little bit and shove it back in.
It shows no mercy. The giant hunk of metal destroys your dreams of candy for a second time. Still determined, you put the bill back in for a third time.
This time it accepts the bill. The circle ring inside starts to swirl and your mouth starts to salivate. However, the vending machine Gods are not done with you yet.
The ring stops to swirl and your yellow bag of goodness hangs by a thread.
How is this possible?
Now starting to get a little pissed, you place both hands on the side and try to shake the candy loose. Finally, it drops down and you can satisfy your hunger.
The moral of the story is simple. Sometimes you can do everything right and it’s still not good enough.
In these situation, you have a few options.
- You can give up and let the machine (or life) kick your ass.
- You can get too upset and overreact and do something drastic. Maybe break the glass or try a different machine all together.
- You can keep trying until you get the desired outcome.
In the mini story above, you did everything perfectly. You had a fresh bill and put it in the right way. You had no control over the machine spitting it back out despite you doing nothing wrong.
Despite your best efforts, you didn’t get the desired result.
This is true in many areas in life. You do everything the best you can and life doesn’t give you what you want. It’s these times that you need to try something different or take that extra step to secure the outcome.
Sometimes even if you keep trying you still won’t win. I’m not going to sit here and feed you lies. Even if you work hard and keep trying, you still might not get what you want.
But at least if you keep trying you will have a chance to succeed.
Shake up life like you would a vending machine. Keep trying so you don’t get cheated. If something doesn’t work, maybe it’s time to change strategies.
