It is better to light a candle than to curse the darkness. Chinese proverb
As we go through life each of us will face our shares of troubles and challenges. How we respond to these hiccups in life has a major bearing on how our future pans out. Most of us will attempt to put on a brave front and tackle issues sometimes successfully occasionally failing and feeling despondent. A few of us will, at the first signs of our inability to cope up seek help from others. Some of us resign to our fate and simply give up and surrender to our fate. What is common to all these approaches is that our initial reaction is to get annoyed, irritated and frustrated that the smooth flow of our life is disturbed.
Fate hands us many pleasant surprises and a few shocks too. When faced with a some of these unexpected shocks the easiest reaction and the most common is one of absolute helplessness and frustration. The next step in this line of thinking is searching for a convenient event, person or things to put blame on and deflect attention from our own inadequacies. If for example we have been careless and lose our wallet in a crowded train we will quickly abuse the poor policing system, the overcrowded trains, the growth and mushrooming of undesirable elements in society and of course the administration in general. Only the really balanced person would attempt to study our own culpability in the event.
The balanced person takes a more calm and realistic approach first pinning blame on self for not taking adequate precautions and for being negligent. They would view the tragedy as a wakeup call to be more careful and aware instead of the normal reaction of panic and over reaction. Through this approach they reorient their thinking to focus on getting results rather than apportion blame. Blame merely transfers the responsibility without any serious attempt to rectify the situation. Instead of blaming one would achieve more by making attempts to fix the problem and taking steps to mitigate a recurrence. In the long run this is what each of us wants ; plugging the problem firmly and avoiding recurrence.
To ensure that one has the right cure for the disease it is important that one identify the problem correctly. This is to be followed by scanning the environment for appropriate solutions. Sometimes the solutions may be cumbersome to implement, resisted by certain sections for selfish reasons and may become too bureaucratic to implement. Yet one must be prepared to swallow the bitter pill. More than anything else one must be proactive and willing to shoulder the responsibility to overcome the problem with standard solutions or if forced to search out creative options. We must be passionate about overcoming the problem and if possible implement a long term solution.
Remember: “There is not enough darkness in all the world to put out the light of even one small candle” Robert Alden
Try this:
- The next time you don’t get rail tickets for a long term travel what kind of approach will you take? Jot down all that you will do to light the candle ( reach the destination) than curse the railways.
- As a dutiful citizen of this country you would definitely be concerned about some of the ills that plague this nation. Eg Rampant poverty/ growing population etc. List out at least 5 such problems. Now what steps will you take to make a positive impact to solve each of these problems ?
This post is courtesy www.actspot.com
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