Make the Wall Disappear!

Many times in my life I come to a wall. It's a huge wall, at least 40' high, miles long, smooth surface, and I have no conceivable way to get past it. It is something I need to learn, but don't want to or don't feel I have the energy or time to learn it, or I feel I'm not smart enough, cool enough, wise enough. When I reach one of these walls, I know I need to get over it, around it or through it, but my most common thought is, "I want someone to do this for me."

The first time I really recognized this wall was when I needed to learn how to be able to effectively use a computer. This was when computers were brand new and MS-DOS was the protocol. All that stuff to remember. I kept asking the fiance manager next door what to do. One day, he said, "enough! You have to learn this. I'm not helping you anymore." After a day or two of whining, I made a decision to learn it. I bought a book and started down the path of learning enough about MS-DOS that I could effectively make good use of the computer. The wall disappeared almost immediately. It was much easier than I was imagining. Now, people were coming to me asking me how to do it. What a change of events.

It happened again when Microsoft came out with Windows. I thought that I didn't need that because I was getting so good at MS-DOS. Over time, all the cool programs I was using went away because they didn't work on Windows. The wall again. Finally (slow to be sure) I began to learn Windows when it was version 3.1. The wall disappeared.

Some of these walls are really high, others not so high, but always what makes the wall disappear is not actually learning the thing I need to learn, but making the firm decision that I am going to learn it. As soon as the decision is made, the wall just begins disappearing until there is nothing stopping me. I could go on and on with events that have been walls for me. I have them all the time. This I have learned: If I just face it and decide that I am going to learn it (even if I don't want to), then I can. And, when I do learn it, I am always amazed at how much easier it was than I thought.