Elections are around the corner and all voters must not only exercise their right to vote but must also decide their choice of candidates with calm, cool, sensible mindsets. We cannot afford to choose a career or a matrimonial liaison without a high degree of discernment. We can also not afford to decide which way our vote will go without distancing ourselves from the diatribe and vitriol that have vitiated the air.
Life is unpredictable and nobody’s perfect. Once we learn to accept these inexorable dictums of life, we make peace with our own selves. Yet our own innate imperfections prevent us from such acceptance.
We expect others to act in a particular manner and we form an assessment of life’s probabilities according to our own mind-eyes.
Our decision making suffers on account of a spectrum of emotions, rufflements and perceptions. While decisions like the choice of ice cream or even the attire to don on a particular day might not have earth-shaking implications, the tone we use to speak to others might influence relationships.
Elections are around the corner and all voters must not only exercise their right to vote but must also decide their choice of candidates with calm, cool, sensible mindsets. We cannot afford to choose a career or a matrimonial liaison without a high degree of discernment. We can also not afford to decide which way our vote will go without distancing ourselves from the diatribe and vitriol that have vitiated the air.
Being sensible is not an easy trait to possess in a slam bang era. T20 batters appear like kamikaze warriors these days. Anything but calm and collected. Yet, one realises that behind their madness is obviously a method, especially when one watches Surya Kumar Yadav or Rishabh Pant batting. Fearlessness need not mean recklessness, in any life domain!
Decision-making in personal relationships is of paramount importance. Every word we utter, every expression that appears on our visages, every truth, untruth or concealment has repercussions that dent or fortify even lifelong bonds. There is a flippant saying in Hindi that roughly translates to, “The wounds caused by harsh words are extremely deep and thus we should sort out small arguments through fisticuffs!”
The point is that a calm mind will make a decision that is likely to soothe and placate even an aggravated other. A provoked or rattled human being will do or say things that can only worsen matters, perhaps beyond repair. There’s no point in trying to convince a loved one about a significant life decision, like the choice of an educational stream or a change of career, if you or the loved one or both are highly emotional at that moment!
Calmness is a habit but it is also a goal. The ability to overlook certain potential flashpoints or aberrations in one’s landscape is a higher quality at times. Ignorance is bliss in more ways than one! Calmness is enabled through right meditation, right activity and right health habits. Calmness is also the result of a determined mindset which refuses to give in to even a bombardment of provocation.
Parents and children who discuss future plans and the decisions surrounding them also need to confabulate in calm circumstances. Very often we tend to impose not only our viewpoints but also our creeds upon our progeny, and that too in a forceful manner. The kids too tend to follow suit and a slam-door scenario often occurs when much cooler feelings would be in order.
Life is not to be lived in a huff! An attitude of patient understanding and receptivity is a leadership trait that is sorely missing nowadays.
However, incorrect decisions are a part of life’s learnings. We must bear the consequences, but we must pick ourselves up and move on.
Decisions which worsen relations between nations, communities and groups of people are even more important and have to be well thought over before being let loose. I guess it all boils down to the leadership that the world is saddled with at any given juncture of history. An individual might feel momentarily terrible at selecting the wrong ice cream. But the whole world suffers when it selects pernicious leaders to rule it!
