Friday, July 5, 2013

Inspiration: Cockroach Wisdom

Recently I came across this story, which gave a different perspective. I would like to share it here. I call it the "Cockroach Wisdom".

At a restaurant, a cockroach suddenly flew from somewhere and sat on a lady. She started screaming out of fear. With a panic stricken face and trembling voice. She started jumping with both her hands desperately trying to get rid of cockroach.

Her reaction was contagious, as everyone in her group also got panicky. 
The lady finally managed to push the cockroach away but... it landed on another person in the group.

Now it was the turn for this other person to continue the drama. The waiter rushed forward to their rescue. 

In the relay of throwing the cockroach  it next fell upon the waiter. The waiter stood firm, composed himself and observed the behavior of cockroach on his shirt.  when he was confident enough, he grabbed it with his fingers and threw it out of the restaurant.

Sipping my coffee and watching the amusement, few thoughts came to my mind and I started wondering was the cockroach responsible for their histrionic behavior? If so why was the waiter not disturbed? He handled it near to perfection, without any chaos. 

It is not the cockroach who created the problem, but the inability of those people to handle the disturbance caused by cockroach is what disturbed those people. 
I realized that, it is not the shouting of my teachers or parents at young age or my spouse that disturbs me, but it's my inability to handle the disturbances caused by their shoutings that disturbs me.

It's not the traffic jams on the road that disturbs me, but my inability to handle the disturbance caused by the traffic jam that disturbs me. 

More than the problem, it's my reaction to the problem that creates chaos in my life. 

This is what i learnt from the story - 
I understood, i should not react in life, i should respond. 

As in this story other people reacted whereas the waiter responded.  reactions are always instinctive whereas responses are always well thought of, just and right to save a situation from going out of hands. One should avoid taking decisions in anger, anxiety, stress or hurry.

2 comments:

  1. Understanding that we can choose how to respond to events is one of the most powerful lessons we can learn. If you're interested in this line of thinking I highly recommend reading "Don't Sweat the Small Stuff" by Dr. Richard Carlson.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thanks Justin. Read abstract, sounds an interesting book. Will be on my to read list.

    ReplyDelete

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