‘We spend a lot of time looking for things in the wrong places’
I went to the departmental store with a list of things to buy.
On more than one occasion, I have been guilty of being restricted by a blinkered vision and this day was no different.That is, I go into something with a ramrod vision and don’t veer off course even a little to see if I am looking for something in the right place.
I was looking for mozzarella cheese and for some reason, I expected to find it in a particular shelf. I looked around and didn’t find the cheese. I immediately took my phone out, called my wife and told her that the cheese she asked me to get wasn’t available. She then asked me which shelf I was looking in. On hearing me out, she told me to check with the shopkeeper. By then, I had walked a couple of steps to check in the next shelf. You should have guessed by now — the mozzarella cheese was there, waiting for me.
A couple of takeaways from this:
a) Focus in life is important but it’s very different from being stubborn. I went into the shop thinking the cheese was in one shelf (a wrong assumption to begin with). I didn’t even bother looking in another shelf which was a couple of feet away.
b) We spend a lot of time looking for things in the wrong places.
If I hadn’t called my wife and been prodded to ask the shopkeeper, I would have in all probability gone back home assuming that the cheese wasn’t available. I would have been partly right in my assumption — it wasn’t available in that particular shelf.
This behaviour also occurs in a larger context.
Looking for acceptance and fulfillment in a culture where you don’t fit.
Looking for happiness in social media.
Looking for validation from critics.
Looking for direction and encouragement from an indifferent boss.
And when we don’t find it, we keep banging our heads on the wall.
Many times, all we have to do is just look around a little, open our eyes and minds, and what we have been looking for is right there, waiting for us.
