Hot Potatoes and Unconventional Wisdom

Last week as I was going to sleep, my left eye started to itch. By the morning, it was puffed to the point that I could barely open it. 

Frantic to get it checked before shabbat, I hopped in an uber and drove over to a family friend, who was kind enough to slot me in on a busy friday.

His prescription: Put a hot potato on your eye every day for 40 minutes. Oh, and antibiotics will help too. 

“Seriously doc?”. He wasn’t kidding. 

So over the past week, I’ve stopped everything to sit with my potato every day. 

These are my takeaways from the week: 

1. Hot potatoes are a gift from god to heal the eyes.

2. You can’t hit a breakthrough if you’re afraid to look weird. 

Wilt Chamberlain holds the record for the best free throw percentage in basketball. His secret: He shoots underhand, which is statistically proven to have a better success rate than the over hand free throw. It’s so simple, it's silly. Why doesn’t every basketball player should adopt this approach and immediately improve their free throw percentage? The answer is this: 

Most people are not willing to look silly even if it means having a better chance at winning a game or improving their lives. 

I laughed at the hot potato suggestion at the beginning, but my doctor was right. 

Sometimes the only way to get better at something is to be the guy who is willing to put a potato on his eye. 

What is the hot potato in your life?