MikeyM™ grew up in a not so affluent, working class environment, spending a lot of time with his grandparents to enable his parents to work to provide for him as an only child.
He was upset one Christmas because his family couldn’t afford to buy him a new home “pool table” (having avidly watched snooker on TV with Granda Stew which was a mightily big thing in those days).
One morning at his grandparents they set about solving this dilemma.
There was a big flat rug in front of the burning fire and there was the starting point - a ready made table.
In the back kitchen was an old bag of marbles. Balls - sorted.
Both grandparents were smokers and there were no shortage of ashtrays – pockets, check.
Finally, Nanna Betty located one of her numerous brooms and ripped the brush end off. Et voila – a cue, albeit 3 times the breadth of the balls!
MikeyM™ played happily in front of the fire on that marble rug pool board for days on end at zero cost 😆.
And as a result of the practical limitations of the solution, when MikeyM™ eventually graduated up to playing pool on dedicated tables at the Snooker Club, he was twice the player of anyone else he encountered.
The exercise of finding a solution where there appeared absolutely none, albeit some form of solution was in fact right in front of us all along once we opened our mind to seeing it, filled the entire family with satisfaction that Christmas and is a vivid memory that has resonated with MikeyM™ since.
Those were the old days when, because everything wasn’t quite so accessible, solutions had to be creative.
And they were.
We could all take a little bit of something from this old way of solution solving and let it be a lesson that with effort and a willingness to compromise, almost any obstacle can be overcome in some way.
The key, however, is to be willing to compromise and self teach - a commodity that is becoming a far more rare in the modern world, despite the plethora of excellent free courses available online (look out for more specifics and recommendations in a future post).
Those who do embrace the importance of compromise and continued learning will enjoy a far richer life experience than those who live their life entrenched in their own fixed way of thinking which does not account for a radically changing social environment and which is ultimately circular, lends itself simply to duplicated errors & frustration, and leaves no room for improvement or self growth.
So be confident enough to become the measured compromiser (and by “measured” we mean not to a point where you are manifestly put upon, as that is plainly unacceptable), not the toxic, defensive type.
And reap the deserved benefits accordingly.
Much love, LouLoU&MikeyM™ 👏❤💙 xxxxx