What I learnt from a bunch of angry birds

Albert Einstein once said insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.

But for those of us who play Angry Birds, we know this isn’t true.  If you’re anything like me, you don’t want to just clear the level.  Pfft.  We want nothing less than THREE STARS.  YEAH!  We want to go in there, kill every ugly green pig there is and cause major destruction.  They did steal our eggs after all.

Getting three stars is pure haul ass dedication.  I have often launched the damn birds more than a hundred times just to get it right.  Even when you do the same thing over and over again, it is often difficult to get it just the way it’s supposed to be.  Each time, the tension is different, the angle is off by the slightest degree, you end up letting go too soon.  Or too late.  And just when you’re about to fling the phone across the room because there is just no way humanly possible to get three stars for that stage, everything suddenly falls in place and you hit the sweet spot.  And nothing tastes sweeter than hard-earned success.

But .. and here’s a huge BUT.  If you’ve played enough of Angry Birds, you will also know that strategy is key.  While there can be many ways to clear a stage, you still need to be smart about it. Once your strategy is off, even if you keep at it until your finger drops off, you won’t smell the stars.  This is when you need to stop and ask, “what if we do things a little differently?”  And then I promise you, it will be like finding the right key to a locked door.

So when it comes to dealing with obnoxious pigs and life:

There is a very thin line between perseverance and pig-headed stubbornness

And there is a huge difference.

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