Seize the Day

If life gives you a lemon, make a lemonade!!

Sounds so nice but so Utopian, isn’t it? Well, it certainly does sound a bit ideal but it’s not as one comes to think about it more seriously. It’s quite true that we may feel defeated and not energetic enough to get up again with the same enthusiasm but still, there are certain things we can draw energy from, certain things we can do which won’t ever let us feel that we couldn’t do it. And all it requires it to have a look at the life from some other perspective, to have a non confirming attitude towards victory or defeat, success or failure.

To start with, I would like to mention a small experience of mine yesterday morning. I got a bit late for the swimming lessons today morning and since the slots are limited and it was Saturday, I was just unable to make it. I say just because I was the first one in the queue when the entry closed. What a bad luck!! And what a mood off for the entire day!! So how did I have a different view for my bad luck today morning??

Well, I took as an opportunity to run around the LBS Stadium. And believe me, I was not less pleased after the running session when I came back to my room. No regrets for not been able to go to swimmingJ. Had I not decided to run instead of swimming, in all probabilities, I would not have been happy and would have given the kind of start to a weekend which nobody wants to.

Though this was a small incident but the same can be applied to the biggest problems and worries of life. Sometimes, despite our hard work and labour, we don’t get what we want and this is when is the time to think in a different way so that we don’t feel defeated or lost.

Is it always possible to think in a different way? I mean does life offer us those many options? Some would promptly say, “Come On!! There are only a few who get one option after another”. But I would say that all we need to sit down, relax and start thinking with a slightly different mindset. To illustrate this, I would like to quote a simple example from the classic movie ‘Dead Poets’ Society’, where John Keating (played by the actor Robin Williams) asks his students to stand on the teacher’s table and have a look at the classroom. And all this was done to make them view the classroom in a different manner. So, if viewing a room from a different height can give a different idea about the scenario, why can't thinking from some other angle do the same?

If we talk in terms of social psychology, there is a term called ‘mental set’ which is ‘the temporary readiness to perceive, think or act in a particular way’.  And mental set is quite a big obstruction in the process of problem solving.

So, all we need to do is to come out of our mental set, have a different and positive take on most of the things in life and finally ‘Seize the Day’.