Can you afford to sleep it off? Go sleep!
World is a Classroom
Lessons from the wonderful world around me – The world is a classroom and everyone and everything a teacher.
The Kite and the String
A lovely story I read today:
A Father is flying a kite. His son is watching him carefully.After some time son says, Dad because of the string the kite is not able to go any further higher.
Hearing this, the father smiles and breaks the string.The kite goes higher after breaking of the thread and then shortly after that it comes and falls on the ground.The child is very dejected and sad.
The father sits next to him and calmly explains ” Son, in life we reach a certain level of prosperity and then we feel that there are certain things in our life that are not letting us grow any further like Home, Family, Culture Friendship etc. We feel we want to be free from those strings which we believe are stopping us from going higher.
But, remember son. Going higher is easier than staying at the higher level. Friends, family and morals are the things that will help us stay stable at the high heights that we have achieved. If we try to break away from those strings our condition will be similar to the kite.”
Waiting – getting over the frustration
I get frustrated when I wait for someone – I get stuck in a negative state. Maybe I have more to lose in such situations and I’ve tried to find ways to get comfortable with waiting.
- Wait in a comfortable place: I try not to wait for anyone at a bus stop, outdoor area or market! Rather wait for them at a more comfortable place – say a cafe. So the plan is never – “Let’s meet by that road corner and walk over to my favourite cafe” but its rather “Meet at my favourite cafe, call if you are lost”.
- Have something to do: I carry a notebook and some 10-15 min task that I can complete. Switching my mental state from “can’t believe he is making me wait” to “oh yay, 10 mins to do XYZ” helps. Or play a game 😛
- Prepare for a grand opening: Most late-comers will start with “Sorry I am late”. That means you can also plan your response and shape the rest of the meeting, here are some curve balls to give you an idea.
- To surprise – “That’s ok, you must have run over and its a hot day. Here’s a lemon aid to cool down”
- Get a free meal – “Thats ok, the least I could do is wait, you are going to pay after all!”
- For sarcasm lovers “Oh I love waiting for you”
I think the big lesson is to move from thinking of the waiting time as an annoying experience to celebrating the extra “me time”.
Do you have other tips?
Treat people as they ought to be
Never understood the quote until I watched Viktor Frankl explain it.. Now to find ways to live it…
“If we treat people as they are,
we make them worse.
If we treat people as they ought to be,
we help them become
what they are capable of becoming.”
— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Understanding Solitude
I’ve been trying to get a better understanding of solitude and what it means to me. My grandfather seems to have an explanation that I buy into:
Solitude: for some this is a comfort zone. for others it is a nightmare, a state which one will try to run away from. if one (with sanity) enjoys solitude it is a God given gift. Discoveries and revelations of truth have occurred to explorers and seers mostly in solitude.Multitude – if it is the correct antonym – in contrast gives knocks making the person to act and react. Multitude creates puzzles and questions while solitude gives solutions and answers.To my mind, one has to enjoy both states. In multitude one is the Victim / Hero of contemporary circumstances. In solitude one is the master of himself. The self within the self is activated.
His explanation hit home. I’ve been confused for long with the concept of energy and how one gets recharged – belief is that introverts recharge in solitude and extroverts recharge in company. But I seem to gain energy in both scenarios and this always confused me – am I an introvert or extrovert?
But grandpa’s explanation seems to make more sense,whether I gain energy from solitude depends on my state of mind and phase of life I am in. If Life has plateaued a bit, then I am probably looking for more ideas (and perhaps more problems). In such scenarios I might get energy from multitude or from being around more people. On the contrary, if I am facing loads of problems all day then I look for answers in solitude.
I guess it really is about the balance…
Quotes of the day
Our attitude towards life determines life’s attitude towards us
A different stroke for different folk
A key works better than a hammer – a key adapts to the lock, the hammer continues to bang hard
Take care of your pennies and the pounds will take care of itself
Anyone can tell a story, only you can tell your story
Change your words
Change your words, change your world.
Often we don’t think through our words, like the person offering you a lift in his car – asks the fat one to sit in front. Innocent statement perhaps, but hurts a person.
Words are powerful, think before you speak. As they say, taste your words before you spit them out 🙂
“It was fate” – a tool for peace?
Over the last week, I’ve had two bad wallet episodes.
The first involved me carelessly dropping my wallet and after a long search, finding it the next morning. I was furious with myself.
The second happened a week later. As I got off a flight, I found that my wallet was empty – perhaps room service had taken my money. I discovered this only after a long flight – 20 hours after checking out. I resigned to the idea that my wallet was meant to go – perhaps it was fate!
But what really is fate? At the first incident, i fought fate and the latter – i gave into it.
We often resign to fate when we want to make peace with ourselves. But i think it’s important to think of fate as a tool for temporary truce, than as a tool for for permanent peace. The truce is required so we can calm down and react logically to the situation at hand. The search for peace has to continue – perhaps a deeper reason exists somewhere and the temporary truce allows this search without beating ourselves up.
Update – Post the second incident, I followed up with my hotel and insurance. Insurance refunded my money. So the truce mentality does help.
Learning Antenna 