Liz Baumann

I don’t seem to follow the Law of Attraction.

It’s not about believing it, or choosing to believe it, or even wanting to believe it. It’s rather an observation.

Twice in the past year I’ve found myself drowning in negative thoughts. The Law of Attraction would seem to imply that only more negative things would come my way during this time. But, these times were precisely when some wonderful people stepped into my life and, with time and a little effort on my part, really cheered me up. I didn’t ask for them, it was more as if they fell out of the sky unexpected, at the right moment, with the right combination of traits.

I suppose I could thank these people directly. One of them already knows, she is family and I’ve told her. But rather than single anyone else out publicly, I think I’ll be a tease and keep who those other people are to myself. That way, maybe even more people get to wonder if they’ve put a smile back on my face.

Besides, I’m pretty sure it would embarrass them.

Albert Einstein defined insanity as “doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.”

Sacrilegious as it seems to question Einstein, I have nevertheless been pondering the point.

It started because I wasn’t liking the results I was getting on something so I decided to change my approach. But I got the same result, making me ask, somewhat jokingly (albeit with a hint of seriousness that accompanies many jokes): “what does it mean when you do different things and get the same result?”

Last night I gave it another pair of tests, but this time asking: “so, if I do the same thing over again, I should expect the same result as before, right?”

I biked from my home in Lafayette to Boulder yesterday and was hoping for a repeat of my ride home from a few weeks ago. That night I heard an owl hoot, met and raced a train, and was serenaded by a pack of coyotes. So yesterday – same day of the week, same time of night as before – I hoped for at least some of those 3 things to reoccur. I got none of those 3 things.

Also, back in March I remember having really strange dreams after eating chili two nights in a row. Last night made it two consecutive nights of chili. This morning I awoke to find I couldn’t remember a single dream.

It’s true that the situations were not exactly the same, but I figured they were similar enough to at least get some commonalities.

So, am I to believe from all this that “doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results” is NOT insane after all?

Of course not, that’s ridiculous, I’m missing the point(s) completely. For one, he was probably talking about controlled experiments and the quote shouldn’t be extended to everyday life. But also I think the keyword is “expecting”. Just because you expect something doesn’t mean it will come to pass. I should know that, Statistics minor and former Actuary that I am. There may be measurable and reliable probabilities or it may be a black swan event.

In my cases I was probably chasing things resembling black swans. Which is probably stupid since they’re just as likely to break your arm as the white ones. Or so I would expect…

Maybe I should have considered the Einstein quote alongside the old adage:

“If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again.”

It sounds more positive, anyway. I forget to laugh sometimes.