Magic bullet

In our world of connectivity, as never before we are assaulted from all sides with products, advise and general fixes to our personal and professional worlds. It's hard to ignore. They come at us from television, radio, books, movies and the internet. We are all tempted.

One of the things I began to understand as I grew older was that there are no magic bullets, no one-trick ponies, no simple answers to most issues that we think of as hard to overcome. Think about what those are to most people. They include weight loss and other medical issues, money problems, professional (work) issues and family issues plus a whole lot more.

What we see pushed to us on a daily basis are one-shot products and answers to fix those nagging issues. How many have reached out in a moment of weakness to try one of these answers? Most problems we deal with are much too involved to be solved by a magic bullet. A pill won't cure those who are overweight. A patch won't make you stop smoking (I gave up cigarettes over ten years ago and it wasn't easy). One of the problems with the medical fixes is the dependance we have all given to popping a pill. Here, this pill will fix the problem. Likely, the pill only fixes the symptoms.

Although medicine has made great strides in the past decades, that pill-popping fix notion has worked its way to other avenues. The 'hawkers' on the television commercials are the most visible spokesmen for this type of fix. They 'hawk' products that are one-time fixes for everything from soup to nuts to leaky faucets. I'm here to tell you, 'magic putty' doesn't fix a leaky faucet, it only covers up the problem.

Most issues worth overcoming properly require work and dedication to fixing the cause. Fix the cause, not the symptom. It will take longer but you'll be happier in the long run.