Seek and you will find.

We’ve all heard that before. It’s been a rally cry for perseverance. If you search long enough and don’t give up you’ll find what you are looking for.

WRONG!

No matter how long you search you won’t find anything unless you are looking in the right place. Thebreward for seeking comes to the persistant but to the one who persists in the right place.

The other day we were in Madrid and decided to go on one of those double decker tour buses. We paid the person at our hotel reception and got directions. I understood that the pickup point was near the bullring we had visited the night before. So off we went map in hand looking for the double decker MadridVision bus.

The problem was I misread the map and turned left toward the bullring instead of right. We waited for the bus for thirty minutes. I asked a couple of people where the bus stop was but my limited Spanish gave very little help.

In the end I reviewed a street map for quite awhile until I realized we were in a completely different part of the city than where the bus stops were. So after walking another twenty minutes we finally found the right bus stop.

My point is this: it didn’t matter how long we searched for the bus we couldn’t find it because we were in the wrong place. We could have persisted all day and never found the bus.

So many people do the same thing in life. They look for answers in all the wrong places. They ask for advice from people who are no farther ahead than they are. They want someone to confirm what they already think not challenge them. If you want to find the solutions in life you need to ask someone who has already found some solutions.

Before you start searching, consider where you will look.

What do you think?