Friday, February 20, 2009

stuck 3

Well, Dr. Therapist sir, what makes you so special that you can go about writing how other people get stuck in mind traps of their own making? Look at your life, look how repetitive and stuck you are, how you make the same mistakes over and over, each time thinking you have figured things out, when lo and behold, you haven't.

I have been doing my taxes over the last few days, and it's not fun. First I always hate the tediousness of going through all the stuff. I've been running this business for years and it's basically the same stuff with minor various in each line, from income to supplies, to answering service expenses.

Then look at my stock market returns. Of course, this year they were miserable, I guess that can be forgiven, but should it? I had years when I was doing marvelous, but that was when they moved the target in front of my arrow. Now I make the same mistakes over and over. Stuck. I chose the right stocks to buy, I buy them at the wrong time and then wait until just the wrong moment and sell them. I use the same logic to make these decisions, and each time I do I tell myself I'm not, but it really is the same.

And other things too. Each year I start a new project, but it really the same project over and over. I vary the way it sounds or looks, but I work on it for a couple of months and convince myself that I have found the right way, and then I take a month to re-consider, and I see that it really isn't that different. Then I stop, and shrug it off, and put it away. Two seasons later I get an inspiration and start over again, convinced that this time I can do it differently.

Is this the insanity that comes from doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results, or is it the dogged persistence and tenacity it takes to succeed.

We won't know until it's over, and I guess it's not over yet.

Half the fun is in trying, but half the misery is in being stuck.

3 comments:

Amanda said...

I think it's dedication and persistence if you try to do the same project differently each time around.

KathyA said...

When I look at our investments, I can easily understand why people jump out of windows! So, I'm not looking; there's nothing I can do about it, but hope that things will turn around in the next 10 years.

Patty said...

Word on the street is the reason we do the same thing over again, even with slight variences, is because we havn't learned the lesson it has to offer. The next time you dig out the project try asking it exactly what you are suppose to be learning from it and maybe this will change things up a bit.