Deep Thought; the answer maybe 42

I’m a fan of the Douglas Adam, author of the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy. At least I was a fan until I met him. Age 16 waiting in Dublin’s Shelbourne hotel, my boyfriend’s father had taken us to meet him while in Dublin promoting his latest book “Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective agency”. He asked my name grunted and signed the book. Gutted! But that’s a story for another day.

The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy trilogy (of five books) are my favorite of his books. In the books there is a super-computer called Deep Thought and this is a phase I have been going through lately, a phase of deep thought. It’s preventing me from blogging because I fear this deep thought will bring no answers, but if it did the answer may be 42. (For non-hitchhikers nerds 42 was the answer the computer gave to the Ultimate Question of Life, The Universe, and Everything.

Where am I going with this?

I suppose what I’m trying to say in an obscure manner is that sometimes we try too hard to do things the way we think they should be done. I’m not blogging as much as I would like to be because the things I’m thinking about and want to write about and not in keeping with the reason why I set up this blog in the first place. But should that matter? My thoughts are that it shouldn’t matter, that if we are trying too hard, trying to be perfect or being too rigid maybe it’s time to make some changes.

Trying too hard

There are many things in life that we really want but never seem to attain. Some say if you have to try too hard maybe it’s not for you. Others say if you don’t persist and keep trying you will never get what you want. I believe there is a happy medium, and usually if we are trying too hard it because we are trying the wrong things. Remember Einstein’s words “Insanity is doing the same things over and over and expecting different results” so if you are trying too hard maybe take a look at what you are doing. Could you change it in any way?

Trying to be perfect

Doing a good job is very important but doing a perfect job can often be a bad idea. I often observe people working who put too much attention on the wrong things. Over preparing for meetings or putting too much work into design for an internal presentation. It’s important to know when enough is enough. Don’t waste time on the unnecessary. Never do work that doesn’t have to be done or while we are on the subject that someone else could do for you.

Being too rigid

Do you like to do things the way they have always been done? To use more of Einstein’s words“If you keep doing what you have always done, you will keep getting what you have always gotten” So if you are not getting the results intended it may be a good idea to do things differently. To be more flexible and open to new ideas, traditions and practices.

And as the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy reminds us “Earth is an utterly insignificant little blue-green planet far out in the uncharted backwaters of the unfashionable end of the western spiral arm of the galaxy”. Knowing how insignificant we are in the bigger picture of life, the Universe and Everything, how all the things we stress and worry about are mere specs of dust in the greater picture. If we look at life from this perspective it may just remind us not to try too hard when we don’t need to and definitely not to sweat the small stuff!

Have a great weekend