I recently watched the movie – ‘The boy who harnessed the wind.’ If you have not had a chance to see it, I highly recommend it. There is a scene between two brothers in the movie which caught my attention.

TThe village they live in is getting ready to face a spell of famine/drought. The elder brother is trying to convince the younger brother not to sell his piece of the forest to the government. The government going to cut the trees and that means there are higher chances of flooding. Younger brother tells him that he needs the money. Elder one tells him to stop gambling, instead.

Younger one looks at him and says, ‘Gambling! What do you think you are doing? Hoping it will rain next year and then praying enough sunshine for harvest.’

That got me thinking. When we look at it that way, we are all gamblers. We don’t realize it. Don’t believe me – let’s walk through a few scenarios.

Scenario 1: You wake up late in the morning and miss breakfast hoping you can make it to the office on time. You are gambling right here – thinking that if you skip the 10 minutes on breakfast, you might get to the office on time.

Scenario 2: You are having a meeting with your peers, and you say what you think is a profound insight, and they ignore it. You gambled on that statement hoping that it will increase your popularity.

We make lots of such bets and gambles throughout our lives. Who we marry? Having Kids? Most of the time it turns out the way we want, and that gives us a false sense of control. And when things do not go our way we get upset. Does this mean that we never hope for things or wish for events to turn our way? No, a different way to approach it is via probabilities.

There are many ways something can turn out. And what we choose is what we want – but it is not necessary that it has the highest probability of happening. What we want and the chances of it happening are not always aligned – this is where we need to bring awareness. And it will contribute highly to our emotional stability.

If we are aware of the fact that what we want is just one of the many possibilities that can happen, then it prevents our mind from being attached to that one possibility – helping us maintain our emotional equilibrium when things do not go out way.

Let’s say you placed your bets on roulette – it did not turn your way. What’s the next best thing – move on. If we realize that what we want to happen in our lives is also a gamble – and if it doesn’t happen, then we should also move on. Know when to quit.

Prof. Rao from Creativity and Personal Mastery states that – if you have to place a bet on life/universe or yourself – always bet on the universe which always wins even when you think you are winning.

What are you gambling on currently in life?