Sometimes It Takes More Than Willpower.

Sometimes it takes common sense.

I say that because today I was super stubborn and wasn't going to go down without a fight. I had big plans. I was going to take the kayak out to the lake by myself. I managed to haul it up to the top of the Escape and connect one of the straps to secure it. I was feeling pretty good by then. But the other strap just would not work even though I messed with it and fussed with it and fussed at it.

In the shade or in the house. Click. It worked.
In the hot sun where the Escape was parked. Nada. Zip. 

Early on, my husband called and suggested that I just put the kayak in the back of the SUV and let it hang out of the back window. No. I was not going to give up. I liked those jazzy straps, and I didn't want those straps to get the best of me. I wanted to win.

So I kept at it. For two.long.hours.

I finally texted my husband and told him I had five more minutes of patience. After that, I was through. And that's when he pulled into the driveway.

I showed him what a great job I had done on that first strap. It was perfect. It had clicked into place and the back of the kayak was secure. And then I showed him the other one. Slack. Listless. Not performing adequately at all.

And then I watched common sense take over. He moved the back seats out of the way, took the kayak off the roof of the car and slid it through the back window. 

Just like that. Within minutes. My battle was won. Not by sheer willpower and stubborn determination. Nope. By common sense.

Amazon.com founder and CEO Jeff Bezos summed it up pretty well for me....

"If you're not stubborn, you'll give up on experiments too soon. And if you're not flexible, you'll pound your head against the wall and you won't see a different solution to a problem you're trying to solve." 

I met that wall today, so thanks, Jeff (and hubby). I'll try to remember that.