"The Million Dollar Forum,"

When we first read the following story, we had just begun
teaching a course called "The Million Dollar Forum," a course
designed to teach people to accelerate their income up to levels
of a million dollars a year or more. Early on we discovered
people get locked into a rut of trying harder without trying
smarter. Trying harder doesn't always work. Sometimes we need
to do something radically different to achieve greater levels of
success. We need to break out of our paradigm prisons, our habit
patterns and our comfort zones.

******************

I'm sitting in a quiet room at the Milcroft Inn, a peaceful
little place hidden back among the pine trees about an hour out
of Toronto. It's just past noon, late July and I'm listening to
the desperate sounds of a life-or-death struggle going on a few
feet away.

There's a small fly burning out the last of its short life's
energies in a futile attempt to fly through the glass of the
windowpane. The whining wings tell the poignant story of the
fly's strategy : TRY HARDER.

But it's not working.

The frenzied effort offers no hope for survival. Ironically,
the struggle is part of the trap. It is impossible for the fly
to try hard enough to succeed at breaking through the glass.
Nevertheless, this little insect has staked its life on reaching
its goal through raw effort and determination.

This fly is doomed. It will die there on the window sill.

Across the room, ten steps away, the door is open. Ten seconds
of flying time and this small creature could reach the outside
world it seeks. With only a fraction of the effort now being
wasted, it could be free of this self-imposed trap. The break-
through possibility is there. It would be too easy.

Why doesn't the fly try another approach, something dramatically
different? How did it get so locked in on the idea that this
particular route and determined effort offer the most promise
for success? What logic is there in continuing until death to
seek a breakthrough with more of the same?

No doubt, this approach makes sense to the fly. Regrettably, it's
an idea that will kill.

TRYING HARDER isn't necessarily the solution to achieving more.
It may not offer any real promise for getting what you want out
of life. Sometimes, in fact, it's a big part of the problem.

If you stake your hopes for a breakthrough on trying harder than
ever, you may kill your chances for success.

by: Price Pritchett