Right, before we get into the article let me say something overarching about almost all the posts that I write – that we all have a belief or a mental model of how we live our life. We might think we don’t but we do, the fact that we think we don’t is a model too.
In this post I am discussing a fundamental belief about Control, the belief being that we are never in control, control is the biggest illusion of all. That being said, let’s move on.
How did I get the idea of this post? Give credit where due.. [Drums roll].. and the credit goes to Aki
How you ask? Let me give you an example,
When we go on a walk, I usually lead Aki but for some mysterious reason he doesn’t want to walk on the right side of the road anymore. And I being who I am tried to do it a few times forcefully, sweating, waiting every few minutes for him to sniff every blade of grass on the way and getting very annoyed in the process. Until one day I decided to go where he wanted to go – he looked straight ahead, we crossed the road and walked happily or rather sprinted on the left side of the road.
So the moral of the story or rather example is that if we align ourselves to the will of the universe then we can sprint along life easily, effortlessly, and enjoyably. On the other hand, if we decide that we who are like tiny specks of dusts in this otherwise perfectly managed universe know better and go our own way it can be a little frustrating at times.
And I cannot help but post this cartoon here.
You can argue that by taking the left side of the road I am being lazy and taking a cop-out route. Is it really being lazy? I am still doing the work just not in the manner I envisaged – that’s the key “I envisaged”. We think we know it all, we know where we are going and how to get there? But what if we lived with the belief that the universe or another overarching force knows what’s best for us and all we have to do is to listen and follow it wherever it takes – be it cleaning toilets or living in a mansion.
Living in a mansion sounds great, cleaning toilet doesn’t but what if cleaning toilets led you to living in a mansion except you just don’t know that. And what does living in the mansion really mean.
It doesn’t mean that you quit your job and wait for the universe to give you a lottery ticket, it means having faith that things happen for a reason. Next time your flight is delayed or you are stuck in a traffic jam – maybe you will think of this post and wonder…And in summary I leave with a quote:
If what you want happens then good,
If what you doesn’t what happens then even better,
Why? – because that’s the will of god or universe.