Dear friends,
It happened to me around 7.5 years back. I had to drive down to Kansas City from Omaha, where I was staying. I promised my friend that I will be there positively that weekend, and reserved a car and complimented myself for planning well in advance and getting a very good deal on the car. But as we all know that man proposes and god disposes, suddenly snow was predicted for that day and I started from office early so that I can reach my destination before the snow starts. We started at 70 mph and continuously increased speed to 100,110 mph. I was in full control and was happy to cross Nebraska and entered Missouri .It was growing darker. After some time I could see lights flashing behind my car, in the rear view. A Cop stopped me. He gave me two tickets, one for speeding and another for not buckling seat belt to the child. He was very pleasing and took around 25 minutes, then fined me 225+60 dollars. Now, it started snowing. I traveled the next 1.5 hrs in heavy snow (of course with heavy heart, as 300 dollars was very high for me as it was my first trip to the US and used to see every dollar as 47 rupees).I knew that this was a serious damage and was going to blow up my insurance costs also for next 2-3 years, on top of the monetary loss. I tried my level best later for 10 -15 days to avoid the fine (thru driving classes etc.), but in vain.Now if I think of the same problem I don’t feel pain with the same intensity, of course I don’t feel heavy at all even if I forcibly try to feel the same. I don’t know where it had disappeared.
Later our .net project was under tremendous pressure, as the proof of concept that has been shown by Microsoft guys did not work with the amount of data we have in our database. We had a real tough time as we were not sure what would happen and where to go. We tried all options under tension. Every day we tried and exhausted a new option ,but without a solution. My friend started thinking the impact of this on our career. What would happen next? How would our superiors take this incident? Will we be held responsible for this problem (though this problem is basically with the Microsoft product and their initial assumption that the product would be compatible)? My friend has gone to the extent of saying the impossible. I remember him saying this to me with fun ’if only god takes a few days of my life and gives a solution to this problem, I am happy to accept it.’ This is our normal tendency .We tried to maintain cool-heads and I told him lot of incidents that the life of any problem is short and we will eventually come out of the problem soon. Anyway within 2 weeks he found a solution. (He might even get a royalty from Microsoft for this)The above two incidents clearly convey a message, that the life span of any problem is much shorter than what we imagine. During the troubled moments we think that we have reached the end of our life. If only we could control our emotions (tension) in the initial days by trying not to think too much of the problem.Think about the problem without getting tensed. Do not think of the future consequences too much. I know everyone will have his/her own method to have their emotions under control.I happened to watch a movie around 10 years back (a stupid movie of course). There is a good learning experience from the movie though. Heroine asks hero“How come I never see you tensed up? Don’t you feel tensed up at all?”Hero answers with smiling face “biggest tension in life is the death; can any tension/problem supercede it?”I suddenly recollected my mom’s sayings ‘Don’t ever feel tensed up for any problem, as the age of the problem is smaller than your life’The consequences of the unnecessary thought process are countless. But the health takes the precedence amongst them all. Every positive and encouraging thought makes you healthier and vice versa.We face lot of problems and we eventually find a way out of it. Just look back at your life spent by you so far, the countless number of problems and every time you came out of it. But maintaining composure by avoiding demoralizing thoughts during the problem phase will help you to be energetic, healthy forever.To sum that up,Here’s a typical life cycle of any problem.
1. The ‘Problem’ itself
2. Unnecessary thoughts about future consequences
3. SolutionFor phase 1 – You have to work your way out of the problem, plan accordingly (as you always do)Phase 2 - This is what we need to avoid, till you get a solution to tackle the issue, as this is the killer.Phase 3 – This is your plan to find your way out – lots of beer if that helps ;-)
Finally, one word. When you want to enjoy the money you earned by sacrificing your health (as we are young now, we really neglect our health), you end up in using the money to save your health in later part of life. Think twice before you feel tensed up.
Tip of the week: Smile is the curve that keeps everything