Thursday, September 11, 2014

Solve this problem, given the situation.

Driving from home to office can be extremely frustrating. It can also be the best time of your day. It all depends on what you want to make out of it.
After having listened to unending stories of frustration, anger, helplessness and blaming others, I finally decided to intervene the discussion with my friends and asked them a very simple question.

"All of you are telling me the current situation or the problem you face. Has even one of you thought about what is in your control and how best this journey from home to office can be utilized?"

There was a pin drop silence. Everyone was looking at each other and then staring at me as if I have thrown a nuclear bomb in the group.

"What do you want? Should we go and manage traffic out there now? Thats the job of the government which it refuses to own." a friend of mine almost shouted.

"No, no..i am not asking you to do anything extraordinary like that. Managing a traiffic situation is not in your control. Just forget about it. Just halt the thought process of your mind, and think how best you can utilise your time while in a traffic jam. THINK. I am asking you to think on the possibilities and the solutions, having being given a particular situation."

"What do you mean by that?" asked one inquisitive mind.

"Go back to your school days and remember how you used to handle mathematics or physics numericals. You were given a situation, and you were supposed to solve the problem without, of course, changing the situation."

"I remember. But what has that to do with this traffic jam?" asked a puzzled friend.

"Everything. It is the same mathematics and physics now applied in real life - we call it as life skills."

"Means? Please elaborate."

"You have been give a situation of a traffic jam here. You are not allowed to change the situation. Having given this situation, you have been asked to deal with this time effectively. Tell me how would you solve this problem? Just like in school, brooding on the given situation does not give you any marks. Only a proper solution, after having accepted the given situation will give you marks."

"Hmmm...I dont know. May be we can listen to some songs." someone shot with an idea.

"Wonderful, and what else you can do?"

"May be listen to some inspirational stuff?"

"Wow, you all are geniuses. What else?"

"May be, we can do some relationship building by calling up someone we have never called for ages."

"Wow !! look at that idea. Think more."

"May be, we can set our task list in the car, and prioritize the tasks, so that we hit the ground running as soon as we reach office."

"Super Duper, "And what will happen once you start doing all this? Will the traffic situation change?"

"No." they all nodded in unison.

"Then what will happen?"

"We will still reach late to the office, but we will be better equipped to handle the office situations, because we will be in a better frame of mind. We will be more prepared." they had the answer now.

"Wonderful. What a statement - "You are more prepared". Thats the key. The control is back to you. The control of how you were feeling was with the traffic till now. It is back to you now. Isn't it a great feeling to have the control back to you? You are now a master since you control how you feel." I continued...

"You all gave such superb ideas within 2 minutes. Yes, you need to prepare yourself to implement these ideas like you might need a series of audio tapes to listen to, you might need a task list, pen and paper or your smart phone enabled for that. But these are all possibilities to handle a situation which is not in your control."

And what has been stopping you from doing all this till date?" I inquired.

"Don't know. I mean it was so simple. I dont why we never thought about this." said a few of them.

"I will tell you."

"It is because we stopped realizing the fact that whatever happens, happens for a reason. There is nothing in this Gods world that happens without reason. If there is a traffic jam, there has to be something good in that. You are getting delayed - may be - this prevents you from an accident, may be - this is a nudge for you to listen to some motivation tapes - which may even inspire you to chase your dreams. We dont know why this is happening, but we must keep the belief that this is happening for a reason."

In ever situation, if we can just remember this simple fact that there is a strong reason for everything that is currently happening around us, we will be able to accept the situation much more easily. And once you accept, you are a much happier being. Always remember the way you solved school numerical, and it will be easier to accept the given situation.

Acceptance is the key. Accept everything around yourself, and think how best you can handle the situation thrown at you. There is something good in this situation for you. You just need to discover that goodness.

Destiny Cards help you prepare yourself every day, every hour. You can visit the Happiness Portal to find more about how you can order your own Destiny Cards and start changing the way you think and live your life.

Cheers

Manoj Arora

About "Happiness Unlimited"
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