RIGHT TURN
Mould your attitude to cruise through life
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It decides whether you should be bitter or beaming. Success lies in getting the better of a given situation. Try to see things a bit differently
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Photo: N. Sridharan.
IN DRIVING SEAT: Don't expect life to be a smooth ride. So, being rigid never helps. Photo: N. Sridharan.
What is the greatest handicap in life? Physical disability? Mental hindrance? No. It's attitudinal handicap. It is always better to `happily achieve' than to feel that you must achieve in order to be happy. We can accomplish this happiness, only when we understand the importance of `time'.
Harvey Mackay, author of interesting titles such as "Swim with the Sharks without being eaten alive", "Beware the naked man, who offers you his shirt" and "Dig your well before you are thirsty", all being the New York Times #1 best sellers, in his latest book, "We got fired and it is the best thing that ever happened to us", elucidates efficiency ratio as the "Time doing real work" to "Time spent at work".
If we prepare a `time-log book' and make an entry of every detail in it, we find that we spend only ten percent of our time on the job that we would consider to be the actual work. The remaining time we spend on socialising, entertainment, gossiping and other non-work tasks. According to a survey, an average full time office worker executes only two hours work per day.
Approach to time
We leave many important things at the mercy of things that matter least, just because they give us the temporary pleasure. And ultimately we are not happy with our style of living in the long run. Many times we have looked back and felt disappointed that we did not do our work as anticipated during the day, either quality-wise or quantity-wise. I read a quotation, `discipline is the ability to do things out of free will, much before they become a compulsion'. Let others not indoctrinate our mental encoding. Look at the shampoo or burger advertisements.
The slow motion splash of water on the silky hair or the colourful slices of tomatoes on the steaming pizzas followed by the catchy tune lures us. Instead of letting others programme our desires we should take charge and mentally reprogramme ourselves.
At times we are unable to choose between useful and fascination alternatives. In the same fashion we hesitate to jump into a risk zone from a safe segment though it is for our betterment. Sun Tzu, in his classic book `The Art of War' introduces the concept of `burning the ship'. He says that soldiers fight most fiercely when they know that they are fighting it to the death. According to the author a good General creates an illusion of an escape route to the opposite force to flee, so that they don't fight hard.
This concept acts as a strong antidote for hesitation. Suppose your lecturer unexpectedly announced a class test for the next day. You could not decide whether to study for tomorrow's examination or go to a movie for which you have already purchased a ticket in advance.
Will power leverage
Instead of brooding over the matter, just tear off the ticket. This is the concept of burning the ship. Many of us keep our escape routes open. They continue to lure us. It is not true that a student turns to his TV when he is bored with his studies. It is the attraction towards the TV that makes him feel tired quickly. Our interests thus play a vital part on our "Will Power Leverage".
"Attitude is more important than facts and failures. The remarkable thing is we have a choice everyday regarding the attitude we will embrace for that day. We cannot change our past, people surrounding us, and the inevitable. The only thing we can do is playing on the one string we have, and that is our attitude. Hence the famous quote, "Life is 10% what happens to us and 90% of how we react to it."
Yandamoori Veerendranath
yandamoori@hotmail.com
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