Thursday 21 February 2008

Focus for breakthrough

My nephew once challenged me to break an egg by putting it in my palm and squeezing it by tightening my fist.  I thought, sure, because of the shape of the egg, it might be harder to break this way than cracking it, but it shouldn't be that hard, right?  Well, I was shaking from overexertion and the egg was still intact, as if mocking my great effort.

I finally broke the egg by applying uneven forces to my fingers.  It was a fun lesson for me.

Most of us think of eggs as being fragile, and it is.  We don't need much force to break it.  Just crack it on a corner or an edge and it's done.  But, by applying even forces over the egg, it becomes rather resilient toward outside forces.

Sometimes our problems are like eggs.  If we cut through complexities, narrow down our point of attack, we can make a breakthrough using less effort.  However, for the same problem, if we lose focus, it might be way harder to solve.

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