I was reminded this morning of a time in London when I saw a man trying to get through the ticket barrier at an Underground station. Nothing unusual in that perhaps, however I noticed him because he wasn’t just swiping his Oyster travelcard to get through, he seemed to be repeatedly and increasingly agitatedly, hitting it on the swipe pad of the ticket gate.

Several attempts later, he still hadn’t gone through the gate and he was quite stressed about the situation. Fortunately, a member of staff soon came over to suggest he try a different gate, which he swiped and then went through without a problem.

Albert Einstein once said ‘The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results’ – in times of stress, this can sometimes be difficult to overcome, but if we keep doing the same thing, why would we get a different result?

Whatever it is, a job interview, a relationship, a holiday or getting through a ticket barrier for example, if we really want a different result, what’s stopping us trying something different from the outset?