If Your Tool Is A Hammer, Don’t Make Everything A Nail
40. If your tool is a hammer, don’t make everything a nail.
As I started writing about this Tool, I kind of had to chuckle a bit. I didn’t realize how similar it was to the title of the first chapter. By now we have all agreed we want to be hammers because we use this as a metaphor for us to start building our lives. If you also recall, I said hammers can’t build alone; they need other Tools to help complete the job and you are learning those Tools right now.
The lesson we want to understand here is that every challenge cannot be handled the same way all the time. If you always use the same approach for every challenge or goal you encounter, you leave little wiggle room for the best option to present itself.
An example I like is that working harder is not always the right approach. Sometimes it is beneficial to adapt to a particular problem and work smarter. Sports teams that are successful do this all the time. They come up with different game plans for different teams and different situations. If you’re a football team and your game plan is running the ball, you may come up short if you are not willing to throw the ball once in awhile. What I am saying is that if you only have one way of approaching things and looking at things, it may be the reason why you are being held back in the growth department.
Another example involves people who are very systematic in their approach to all issues. Everything to them has to fall into an algorithm. If A happens, then go to B; and if A doesn’t happen, then proceed to C and so on. Now I am all for systems. I’d better be since this book is presenting you with one. A system provides an approach, but sometimes a solution or goal requires you to just go with the flow a little bit. This approach may yield different results for a particular challenge.
Describe it any way you want, the lesson I am conveying is when you keep doing it “your way” and “the way it’s always been done,” you really limit yourself and “your way” may be holding you back. Dealing with situations the same way each time limits outcomes.