I'm currently living alone in a small apartment provided by the school I work at. When I first moved in, I noticed that one of the handles of the tap in the bathroom was broken. It was the handle that controlled the cold water. It had been set aside on the basin since it was broken. I tried to fix it by putting it back in its place and then turning it. Although it would stay in its place, it wouldn't budge an inch no matter how hard I tried to turn it. At that time, my geyser wasn't working. So, even when I turned on the hot water, the water would just be cold. Hence, I didn't have much of a problem with the broken tap. My bigger problem was that I didn't have hot water! Eventually, the geyser started working but I still couldn't fix the cold water handle. In order to get cold water, I would usually collect the hot water in a bucket and then wait for it to cool! As guilty as I felt for wasting so much energy, I didn't have any other choice.
Finally, I was able to get a hold of the plumber. I told him what was wrong. He showed up the next day, with a bunch of tools and a helper. I guessed fixing a broken tap handle was a lot of work. He took one look at my tap, turned the handle to the left, and voila! there was cold water! I stood there dumbfounded for a second, completely embarrassed for being so dumb. The tap wasn't even broken. I had just been turning it to the wrong side this whole time!
I couldn't believe that it didn't occur to me once to turn it to the other side. Since the first day I saw the handle set aside, I had it fixed in my head that the tap was broken. So, I guess I did not even try that hard to fix it. That was the perception that I had in my head this whole time, so no matter how hard I "tried", I was not able to change it.
I realised that maybe, I was doing the same thing in life. If I believe that I am dumb and that there is no way I will be able to solve a "hard" problem, then no matter how hard I try, I won't be able to solve it. Even if the solution is just something as simple as turning the tap to the other side. Once we have made up our mind about something, that is what we tend to believe, which leads to our actions and further solidifies our belief.
This situation reminds me of the quote, "If you think you can or you think you can't, you are right." It is really amazing how much our minds can actually control and predict our actions. This "broken" tap situation, especially getting embarrassed for being a dumbass, is something that I will probably never forget. I promised myself that I will try to be more open minded and believe in myself more.
It's kinda astonishing how a simple everyday problem like a broken tap handle has taught me a life lesson. That just goes on to show how much we can learn not only from the people, but also from our environment.... or maybe I'm just becoming crazy from being in quarantine for so long.