It’s okay to be clueless about Life when every plan of yours is over-written by the Master Plan.
Earlier this week, someone asked me what do we do, on a daily basis, when we are “living through” a bankruptcy. He was keen to know how a typical day in our Life looked like. I liked the question. But I must confess I don’t have an answer that may necessarily appeal to everyone.
To be sure, we do have a plan. And we work to a plan. But a pattern that we see in our Life, over the past decade is that, every single time, our plans are over-written by Life’s Master Plan. So, our days are typically adventurous, where we start all over again with undiluted enthusiasm and curiosity – “Okay, let’s see what Life has in store for us today!”
On an operational level, we wake up every morning feeling very, very grateful for another day. We both thank Life for keeping us physically going – there aren’t any apparent manufacturing defects, yet, on that front!! And we get down to dealing with the day – there could be court appearances on some days, there can be legal reviews, there can be Talks that I deliver, there may be meetings with prospective clients, there are times when we are curating future editions of the public events we host that ‘Inspire Happiness’, there is my daily Blog I write, there are housekeeping chores to be done and errands to be run. We truly believe each day is a miracle. And Vaani and I face each day with enthusiasm. We don’t complain. We share our frustrations alright but once we get it out of our system, we keep moving on. Borrowing from the title of Mark Tully’s famous book, there are no full stops, really, in our Life, only commas!
The gentleman pressed on. “How does this help,” he asked?
I told him that by filling our days with a lot of meaningful action, in line with our Life’s Purpose of ‘Inspiring Happiness’, we ensure every moment is lived fully. We literally keep postponing worrying from moment to moment. We believe that only if you have an idle moment, when you are not immersed in the present, will you worry. So stay immersed in the now, be happy in the present, keep chipping away at whatever you have to do regardless of the outcomes, and through all of that, postpone worrying!
Our experiences have taught Vaani and me that when you don’t know what’s happening, or don’t know what to do, when you are clueless, you must just go with the flow. You must simply accept your experience as part of your learning curve. We often have had to deal with such situations – especially in the context of having to address claims from creditors wanting their money back. And each time, we have laid the cards on the table. Whether it is to my family, or to our various stakeholders who are connected with us personally or professionally or with our business. But sometimes people expect us to know all the answers. They demand that we come up with a solution. They push us to a corner and tell us that we have to find a way out. It can be very intimidating. It can be very draining. What do you do when everyone wants something that you don’t have – which is money? And what do you, when despite your best efforts, you don’t get what you badly want – work and money? You are then truly clueless. Each time, we have felt this way, we have let our awareness guide us. This has ensured that our spirit, our enthusiasm, is not crippled. We have learnt that to be clueless in a situation is to be human. Because sometimes, our problems are beyond the immediate realms of human imagination and resolution.
When you trust the process of Life and believe it will sort situations out for you, your problem may not vanish magically or be solved miraculously. But you will survive one day at a time, with all your needs being provided for by Life. Well, that’s a miracle by itself, isn’t it?
PS: If you liked this blogpost, please share it to help spread the learning it carries!