I learned an aphorism from my father-in-law that goes, "Close only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades." When I first heard this, I chuckled of course, but then I started to analyze it deeper to figure out why that is even a saying at all. I often find myself looking for answers to problems that seem too big to be solved. Leadership is like that sometimes and it leaves me feeling inadequate and small because I'm supposed supposed to have the answers right? I'm in this position because I can problem solve, use past experiences I've had, and leverage the power of getting the right people together to figure out what the issue is and how to solve it. But, what if the problem has too many variables and the solution is that is decided upon only solves part of the problem? To be honest, there are times where I feel like I have been put in an impossible spot searching for a needle in a haystack.
I'm not a fan of pity parties. They are a party of one that no one else is invited to, but everyone that has one expects others to join so they can see just how hard the current situation is. People that are stuck often seek out others to help them find the needle in the haystack because it is really hard and can't be done by just one person. They rely on others to help them find a solution to a problem because they know that people close to them will help them out even if the problem doesn't directly impact them. One by one, a search party is assembled to find a needle in a haystack that no one really needs at all.
Ultimately, it boils down to the question of whether we actually need to find the needle in the haystack or if we can solve the majority of the problem and leave the rest for another day? Some might argue that if you are going to put in the time, effort, and energy to do something, you might as well do it right and try to solve the whole thing. Others, myself included, might take the advice of my father-in-law and accept that close is enough because we aren't playing horseshoes and we aren't dealing with hand grenades. We are simply trying to solve a problem and we are doing our best to be intentional about making the best decisions we can with the information that is available. We don't need to find the needle in the haystack because more times than not, we aren't going to find it and we are going to get so frustrated that we will make the lives of those around us miserable in the process. We might just be better off taking the advice of "You get what you get, and don't throw a fit." By accepting this aphorism, Dr. Amy Johnson states, "We’re going to feel pain. Pain is fine—it’s human, safe, and naturally pretty short-lived. But suffering is different. Suffering is the byproduct of arguing with reality. When we cling to what our mind wants and tell life that it messed up—it wasn’t supposed to be this way—we suffer."
So the real question you need to ask yourself is are you going to learn to accept the pain of close enough or suffer trying to find that needle in the haystack? The choice is yours.
#OwnYourEpic #Embrace
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