Keep calm and things will fall in place!

It was a Sunday morning, and we planned to have much-awaited dosas for our Sunday lunch. We planned to make the typical delicious chutney and realized we didn’t have coriander at home. The pandemic has changed a lot of things for us, and most of us rely on vendors to do home delivery. I have one such vegetable vendor nearby who is very prompt in service. I called him up and sent the list of vegetables, including coriander. I called him and asked by what time he would deliver vegetables to my place, and he said, in the next half an hour to 45 minutes. It was 10:30 AM. Thus, if we get the required stuff at 11:30 AM, it would also be well in time for the lunch preparation. I completed the rest of the chores and realized it was already 12:30 PM, and the vendor hadn’t come. I called him again; he didn’t pick up. I didn’t stop trying as chutney was a must for the dosas, so I called again around 1:15 PM, and he said there was some issue, and he will come in some time. I kept fretting, losing my cool, and finally, at 1:30 PM, we decided to ignore our usual chutney. We looked at a youtube video for an alternative recipe and prepared the chutney with different ingredients. It came out well and, in fact, better than the one we usually prepare. 

This little experience made me think. Is it appropriate to sweat for such trivial things in life? When we are presented with situations, there are always ways to make things happen and still enjoy the time. Instead of focusing our energies on what will make it better for us in the given circumstances, we spend time just looking at the problems and crib about many things that are not happening our way. 

Covid-19 pandemic made all realize that no matter how we plan things, it may not always happen the way we want. We never thought working from home for a long duration could have been an option, primarily from the HR fraternity. If someone had told me in 2019 that I wanted to work from home for the next 1 year, I would have thought about how someone could even ask for it. In addition, I would have also explained to the person that how badly it will impact productivity. Now, we realize it’s been like this for quite some time, and everything is working perfectly fine. Right from the beginning of our career, we start planning, we set goals for ourselves, and when we cannot match up the pace, we become frustrated. We need to realize that planning is in our hands; the rest of it isn’t. Setting milestones and execution plan is essential. What we forget is that it may not exactly happen the way we are planning. Therefore, it becomes vital that we become compassionate and say that it’s ok; let me come up with plan B if plan A didn’t work out. This is just like, the medical or term insurance policies that we plan for. We budget that expense thinking we may need it in the future, and it’s only so much we can do.  

One more life lesson I learned from reading various books is “Universe keeps changing, and life is happening when we are busy making other plans and feeling stressed about how we will make it happen the way we want with so many things not going our way.” Realizing that living in the present moment and doing your best is what makes people successful and contended. We as human beings wait for that one day when everything will be perfect, we will have money to buy all we want in life, we will have an expensive place to stay, etc., but sadly we don’t enjoy the present and wait for THAT DAY. We keep worrying about what will happen tomorrow and mostly encounter evil thoughts. As Mark Twain has rightly said,” I have been through some terrible things in my life, and only some of which happened.” We all must practice keeping our attention here and now. I am sure the efforts will pay great dividends. To connect the same thought to the present day, last year during the March time frame, we all became anxious even doctors didn’t know how to handle the Covid-19 situation. Still, as days passed, everyone, including doctors, engineers, and other people, came up with newer ways to improvise. Nature always builds solutions before every problem, and we need to trust and have good thoughts. 

To stay calm and achieve the essential goals in life, we must also choose our battles rightly and understand that life is not an emergency. Prioritizing and understanding what is necessary for us and the bigger goal in life will make us think methodically. 

Practicing humility and helping someone, even in the tiniest form, is one of the best ways to keep ourselves cheerful and peaceful. We must try to think, have I done well for someone in my recent past? The regards and good wishes which we get by doing small little things for others are extremely valuable. 

In the end, I would like to sum it up with “Life is not about a storm to survive but learning to dance in the rain.” Be happy and make others happy!

Author: Neha Chadha