Straight lines are overrated

Why rigidity is a killer of achievement and how adaptive intelligence is the answer

Adaptive Intelligence*, it is something as simple as this: You are moving in a straight line, you see a lamppost in your way, you digress a bit to the left or the right, and you keep going on. That’s something almost all of us already do, when we are walking on the road. But, more often than not, in our daily life, when the lampposts in our path are not that literal, we actually don’t. Well, I don’t, for sure.

When I face such a lamppost, I would first of all, want to have a discussion with it to resolve the issue — to show it that it’s in my way, and it reflects bad on all lampposts. It’s being immoral or selfish, and it should do the right thing, and give me way. If my persuasive powers fail, I would start coming up with innovative ideas like how to mount over the lamp-post, or physically shift it a bit to the left or the right, or find some system of levers and pulleys that could hoist me up and across it. The third thing I do is, sit and meditate. To let go of my need to move past that damned lamppost and try and find peace in the here and now.

In my mind, the only way ahead is the one where I can keep going on in a straight line, the path that I had started on.

Until very recently, I had no realisation of my typical style of dealing with lampposts. It was the game, Candy Crush that showed me. I kept ‘giving up’ on failing a level, and starting the same level again and again expecting to win by the sheer force of perseverance and good old hard work. I would keep at it, and stubbornly refuse to use the extra aids or get credits for ‘watching ads’.

I would refuse to do the easy way. Same as what I do with the hypothetical lampposts in my life. I keep at them, and I keep at them. Ignoring that the easier way would be to side-step, use the extra credits and move on.

There are three very disturbing beliefs that were making me do this:

1. Only hard work pays. At times, hard work, too, doesn’t pay. You just work hard anyways. It is the right way.
2. Finishing things by using some extra credits is cheating. It undermines my integrity and commitment. It is the wrong way.
3. I am a good girl only if I work hard and don’t use extra credits to finish.

And I had a recipe for ‘screwed for life’.

Things changed when I decided:

• Hard work should be complemented with all the help that you can get.
• Integrity is about commitment to the ultimate goal, not the rigid path.
• Straight lines are over-rated. Just as good girls are :)

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