The Click Of Life: Those sudden insights that shine a spotlight on a new perspective.
You know what I mean, don’t you? I bet, as soon as you read the title you had some idea of what this article was going to be about. Perhaps you’re not so familiar with this particular term, but I’m sure you’ll know very well the thing that I’m referring to. The click of life is so important, such a key to successful living, I’m surprised I haven’t written about it before. To be honest, thinking about it as the “click of life” is something that, ironically, only just clicked for me. As soon as I uttered “the click of life” I knew what my next blog article would be.
I was just having a conversation with my son about finding what works. He’s in the process of improving his tennis serve by getting better at hitting the ball in the same place each time. I’d used different examples and even showed him with a racquet and a ball the area of the ball to focus on, but when I talked about the inside and the outside of the ball (as in the surface closest or furthest away from the server) he said “Oh! That’s what you mean”. It clicked!
We then chatted about the way in which different things make sense to different people. A coach might use an example to explain a particular technique, but that explanation might not click with some people. If it doesn’t click it doesn’t click. Nothing clicks with everyone. A clever coach or teacher will cast a wide net and use different ways of explaining the same thing so that one of the ways might click.
The click is such a common phenomenon we have lots of ways of describing it – “the penny dropped,” “the lights went on,” “an Aha! moment,” “a lightbulb moment,” “it all came together,” and so on. The click is the heralding of fresh perspectives and the announcing of new insights. It’s that “Ahhh! Now I get it” feeling.
You can’t fake a click. Well, not to yourself anyway. Before a click happens it can be hard to understand what someone else is talking about. Then after the click, it’s hard to understand why you didn’t see before what seems so obvious and clear to you now. The click is a byproduct of one of nature’s genuinely astounding gifts. The process that organises and reorganises the mind that we are, constantly tinkers with our conglomerative selves so that we keep on keeping on. When we’re stumped, puzzled, or bewildered, reorganising ramps up and messes around with different connections and configurations. When we’re betwixt opposing goals and in conflict, the same reorganising occurs.
But clicks won’t be forced. Insisting on a click or demanding it occurs will be futile. Giving it a timeframe won’t work either. It doesn’t even help to say the click marches to the beat of its own drum. The click doesn’t march to any drum. The click prefers cavorting to marching. The click won’t be tamed. It is as ancient and durable as life itself.