I’m not a tailgater and I don’t like being tailgated.  Years ago, when a car would come up on my tail, I’d slow down in an attempt to get the other driver to back off.  It never worked.

My then-husband bought a GMC Typhoon.  Whenever someone came up on his tail, he’d accelerate and say “eat my dust.”  His attempt to get the other driver to back off always worked.

I assumed it worked for him because the Typhoon was just so fast.  But one day, I decided to try the same maneuver in my VW Cabriolet.  It worked, where my slowing down never had.

Sometimes, we just have to try something different.  Even if we think that it can’t work, because what we’ve been doing should work and will, if we just try hard enough or long enough.

At the Equine Affaire, Tina Konyot got on a young horse who didn’t want to completely accept the leg or the contact.  The horse fought.  Tina was persistant.  The horse continued to fight.  Tina insisted.  The discussion didn’t go on long, maybe seven minutes or so.

Then, she gave him rein.  He stretched into the contact and came over his back, accepted her leg and went forward beautifully at all three gaits.  He was happy.  And when she shortened her reins again, the fight was over (it was always all his own fight, anyway).  As she told the audience, sometimes you just have to try something different.

You can’t always trust your instincts, even if they’re honed by years of experience, the way Tina’s are.  Sometimes, you have to be creative.  And that means being brave, because if you try something different, you might fail. Of course, if you never try anything different, there will be many times when you would have succeeded, but won’t.

That’s why I love this Chinese proverb: “It’s what you learn after you know it all, that counts.”  And you’ll never learn anything new, if you never do something different.