The Lesson Repeats

You miss your forecast one quarter. You call it an aberration.

You miss it again the next quarter. You blame the product.

You miss it a third time, and something stirs. Is there something I am not seeing? For the first time, instead of looking outward for a reason, you look inward for a mistake. You realise you have been chasing the wrong customer segment. You adjust. And almost immediately, the numbers start to move.

Similar pattern, different setting.

You and your partner keep squabbling over small things. You are sure you are right. Your partner is just as sure. It goes on, until one tense moment when it hits you: you are as much a part of this as your partner is. You step back. And the arguments quietly stop.

Notice what happened in both scenarios.

The situation did not change first. You did. And the moment you did, the problem dissolved.

Life seems to work this way. A lesson repeats itself, in one form after another, until you finally learn it. Only then does it let you move on to the next.