Parodying the success posters seen in corporate offices—the ones with pretty pictures inscribed with a motivational saying—Despair.com sells what they call “demotivators,” posters with a dry and downbeat message instead. One such poster observes, “Quitters never win, winners never quit, but those who never win AND never quit are idiots.” It’s a near corollary to the thought of holocaust survivor, Viktor Frankl. Some circumstances are beyond our control and despite all of our hope for a change, there may be little that can be done about it—except to change ourselves. To do otherwise is like trying to win a staring contest with a mannequin. In the lingo of a demotivational poster, obstinacy to change is idiocy.

Your thoughts? Is there a circumstance you’ve been having a staring contest with?