A quick web search will tell you that that was said by Albert Einstein, Benjamin Franklin, Oscar Wilde, and Arthur Fonzarelli.
I made up that last one.
But still. Couldn't nail it down, but I'm guessing it was an Einstein quote, for no other reason than that was the first one Googled.
The first time I heard the quote was at a business conference in a speech delivered by a Regional Director that I was not, nor ever became, very fond of.
The kind of person that uses terms like Paradigm and Synergy.
You do have my permission to use those terms . . . but only if you know exactly what they mean . . . and only once per speech.
Anyway . . . what struck me the first time I heard the quote was that the Regional Director whom I was not, nor ever became, fond of, was talking about the company that was both growing and successful and I couldn't help mentioning to the person sitting next to me that maybe she had the wrong room.
Cause the quote swings the other way too.
A better definition of insanity is futzing with something when it already achieves perfectly wonderful results.
Sure you can focus on getting "Better" results, and for that . . . yeah, I guess . . . go ahead and change things, but if your current results are pretty good, you might wanna consider this idiom first:
"A sparrow in the hand is worth a thousand sparrows flying"
which is the 6th Century BC equivalent of:
"A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush"
Which is attributed to J. Capgrave in the 15th century AD, though I could've sworn that that was a Benjamin Franklin quote.
Poor Richard and his Almanac.
If you heard it, then you probably heard it there first.
Anyway, a third definition of insanity might just be chaos.
And by chaos . . . I mean clutter.
My garage is insane. The emails gathered up in my Yahoo account is insane. The amount of love, time, money, effort, sweat and actual blood that I've spent in trying to grow a tomato . . . off the hook.
So this summer I'm on an Un-Insanity mission.
Clear out the clutter and find Nirvana.
I don't mean the state of mind, I mean their '92 album: Nevermind.
It's here somewhere I just know it.
I started this morning with Unsubscribing from all the telemarketing emails that go to my Yahoo address.
There were 356 unopened ad campaigns from companies like Shutterfly, DIY, and of course my favorite, Atlantic E-Cigarettes:
Little do they know.
Turns out the 356 emails were the result of only eight highly aggressive groups, and it really took less than ten minutes to remove myself from their lists.
Yahoo!
Last week I tackled all the papers that were waiting to be shredded, and shredded them.
Now I can concentrate on my tomato plant.
I really don't know what it is about home grown tomatoes. I've hated tomatoes most of my life, and yet now I have this yearning to raise the perfect BLT.
It's true. People can change.
We had one good year for tomatoes. It was 2007, and ever since, we've failed.
We've failed by doing everything we were supposed to do. It's insane, but nothing we were supposed to do worked. So this year, I basically said "Screw the wild outdoors" and have begun growing a few plants in my kitchen.
Which is not something your supposed to do. Not enough light. Not enough humidity. It'll make your house smell like poo. Can't do it. It'll undermine thousands of years of agronomy knowledge. Your father in-law is disappointed in you.
But it's been a week. And the plants are looking pretty damn good. Buds are popping out all over.
It's working. I won't have the definitive answer until I bite into that sandwich, but I will keep you posted.
So here's the "How To Tuesday Lesson"
It's short, so pay attention.
Sometimes the best way to Un-Insanity, is to do something you're not supposed to do.
Maybe a little insanity is the quickest way to the sanest you.
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