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Was Murphy a Pessimist?

I’m sure you have heard of Murphy's Law.

If anything can go wrong it will.

And you’ve probably referred to the common interpretation of this Law at some stage.

However, the correct, original Murphy's Law reads: “If there are two or more ways to do something, and one of those ways can result in a catastrophe, then someone will do it.”.

Murphy was a test engineer with the U.S. Air Force in the 1940’s and was misquoted at a press conference by one of his test subjects (Major Strapp) after a particularly uncomfortable experience involving human acceleration tolerances.

It involved a set of 16 accelerometers which were mounted on Strapp’s body. There were two ways each sensor could be glued to its mount and somebody had glued all 16 the wrong way around. This resulted in the test and poor man’s efforts being a complete waste of time.

Strapp’s version of Murphy's Law, “Whatever can go wrong, will go wrong” soon spread and just like a Chinese Whisper, through word of mouth, many variants subsequently developed.

“Anything that can go wrong, will” is also referred to as Finagle’s Law and Sod’s Law.

In the engineering world Murphy's Law is obviously useful in creating an awareness for correct procedures, safety checks etc. however it’s derivative is, as far as I am concerned, nothing more than plain old pessimism.

Unfortunately, it has become part of the modern vernacular and most of us never consider the ramifications that repeating negative adages like this have on our lives.

Just as we need to feed our bodies with healthy and nutritious food for optimal physical performance, so too, we need to be more watchful of the thoughts we allow ourselves to think and the words we allow ourselves to say. This is so important, not only for our own mental health, but for the mental health of our families.

So I decided to create a new law, which is completely the opposite and I’ve called it Gary's Law.

Gary's Law states that

“If anything can go right, it will”

and of course, is wonderfully optimistic.

By applying Gary's Law you immediately think of all the positive things that can happen. This positive expectation invokes the Law of Attraction and you have a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Of course, it would be Pollyanna-ish to believe that nothing could ever go wrong and so when life gets in the way, always remember another of my favourite sayings –

“no matter what, something good comes out of everything”.

Once again, saying this directs your mind to thinking of the positive side of a situation, which in turn helps you overcome it more easily.

Here are a few tips to ensure that Gary's Law is the one that works for you.

1. Believe in yourself. If you only put a small value on yourself, you can be assured that the rest of the world won’t raise the price. And believe that things will work out for the best. The darkest hour is always just before the light of dawn.

2. Develop a positive expectancy. It draws to you, positive circumstances and opportunities. (By the same token negative expectancy creates negative experiences and more of the same, so be careful what you ask for).

3. Write new goals for yourself and your family. When you have written specific goals the magic is switched on, your servo-mechanism springs into action and points you in the direction of the right opportunities.

4. And keep at it! Remember, you never fail, you only have temporary setbacks and there are always new opportunities tomorrow.

We’ve got a big month ahead of us, let’s tackle it with positive belief and a good dose of Gary's Law – and remember …

Success is only a thought away!

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