You’ve heard the expression: ’What’s the definition of idiocy?’ It’s doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different outcome. Duh!!!
This expression has a number of takeaways. First doing the same thing over again is a career killer. The old joke is that a person had 20 years of work, but only one year of work experience. Yes, the person had one year of work value, doing the same thing for 20 years.
Doing the same thing over and over again is called n-trial learning. You want to be a one trial learner. A friend of mine calls a one-trial learner having the attribute of a genius. This person learns after one-trial that something didn’t work and tries something new. Most of us try the same thing time after time expecting a different response. This is a human reaction. We take the path of least resistance. We do what we know and have succeeded in the past.
What you want to do is to recognize what you are doing is not working. It’s not working for a number of reasons. So, what should you do? Try something new. Try a new behavior. Frame the issue differently. Look at the process and the outputs differently. There are a number of things you can do.
Life Lesson Earned: Be a one-trial learner. If something is not working for you, do something new. You may be surprised by your success.