Hobsons Choice.

"It is impossible to begin to learn that which one thinks one already knows." ~ Epictetus.

Have you ever felt really stupid? You know the feeling I'm talking about. The ~ "Man I'm Dumb" ~ kind of stupid. It usually hits home when a wiser person says something really simple and we didn't even think of looking at it that way. We get caught up in our own endless loop of viewing things a certain way. When we look at challenges and try to solve them the same way we always do ~ We give ourselves the veritable "Hobsons Choice" and wonder why...

Hobsons Choice was named after a stable owner who had many horses but when selling to a customer would bring them into his barn and allow them only to buy the horse in the first stall. Essentially they could purchase that first horse from him, or none at all.

There was a time I was building a fish pond and waterfall in my yard. This meant getting some very large boulders, to construct the waterfall, through the front gate that led to the back yard. I thought about all of the ways to get the rocks around the gate, over the gate and even considered only getting small enough boulders that would fit through the gate. Finally, at my wits end, I asked a very old (over eighty years old) friend what he would do? Kenzo turned to me and quietly said "Dan ~ You really love that gate don't you?"

Duh...

Hobsons Choice.