Results Matter—Pick the Fruit, Don’t Just Study the Root

A bit of humor and an important point.

A guy goes to see a psychiatrist and says he can’t sleep because he has a fear of monsters under his bed. The man realizes it’s an unreasonable and irrational fear, but he can’t seem to shake it.

The doctor says that it will take some time, but once the man realizes the source of his fear, he’ll be able to overcome his fear of the monsters under the bed.

The man asked how long that would take and the doctor says a year or two of two sessions a week. “And how much do you charge for a session?”

“A hundred dollars”, the doctor replied.

“Well, I’ll have to really think about that”, the man said. “That’s a lot of money.” And he never did return to the psychiatrist.

A year or so later, the doctor runs into the man on the street and asked why he never returned to overcome his fear. “Oh, a bartender fixed that for me for $10.”

“How did he do that?” asked the doctor, with some visible skepticism.

“He told me to saw the legs off my bed,” the man replied.

I think it’s a funny story, and also I think it has a few things to teach us.

Not the least of which is that results matter. And we don’t always have to get to the bottom of something, we just need to fix it.

I don’t want to take anything away from the value of understanding what’s behind our fears and phobias, our motivations or lack thereof. But I don’t think it’s always necessary. We don’t always have to study the root in order to pick the fruit.

It might be helpful to understand how electricity actually works, but we don’t need to in order to employ its power. A basic understanding of our air conditioning system may be useful, but knowing how to operate it and how often it needs servicing is probably enough.

I’m a big believer in having a strong enough why for our goals and intentions, but questioning why and how something works or doesn’t work is often counterproductive.

Sometimes, we’re better off “sawing the legs off the bed”.

I love helping people get great results. It’s why I started SuccessNet over 25 years ago and it’s why I still do what I do. If you would like to embark on The Path to Your Best Life, I invite you to explore the Best Life Book series (6 books) available on Amazon for a nominal price.
www.amazon.com/author/michaelangier           


Michael E. Angier
founder and CIO (Chief Inspiration Officer) SuccessNet.org

Michael is the author of over a dozen books on living your best life. Available on Amazon at www.amazon.com/author/michaelangier

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