Once upon a time there was this guy on a ship. He was scared of traveling by ship, since he didn't know how to swim. He even bought some subliminal tapes to help him get over his fears.
So he was on the ship when a big storm hit. Suddenly the ship started tossing and turning, like some guy who couldn't sleep for some reason.
Maybe he had a big test or something coming up, which is unfortunate because if you wait until the last minute to study for a test, you're not really paying attention to what's going on.
Like the story of the grasshopper and the ant (or maybe it was the ant the grasshopper). One prepared for winter, one just played his fiddle. When winter came, the guy who prepared was good to go. Lots of firewood, lots of cans of spam, and lots of water to help him make it through.
He even downloaded a lot of kindle books.
But the guy with the fiddle didn't have anything to eat. Except his fiddle, which doesn't taste very good, although it has a lot of fiber.
Anyhow, as the ship started tossing and turning, the guy grabbed onto the anchor. As the other passengers were flung off the ship left and right, he was safe because he was holding on to the anchor.
But then the boat finally made it to calm seas, so they stopped, and dropped the anchor.
Only problem was our poor hero was too terrified to let go of his anchor. He figured it saved his life, so if he let go he might die.
Our brains tend to work like that. We tend to do too much of the same thing over and over again, since it helped us once. But sometimes it's much better to simply let go of those old anchors, and try to find some new ones, since our situations are always changing.
Anyhow, the captain of the boat dropped the anchor without checking to see if anybody was hanging on to it. Why would he? What kind of idiot holds on to an anchor after they need to?
So the anchor dropped, and our poor hero was suddenly in a no win situation. If he let go of the anchor, he would die (or so he thought). If he held on to the anchor, he would drown. So he chose between dying and dying.
Not a good choice to have, in any situation.
