20 Feb 2012
Power of the unknown
Today, I spent nearly S-I-X hours cramped inside a budget flight, as dense fog brought air traffic in Chennai airport to a stand still. Looking back, I have no idea how I sat there wide awake through all of that 6 hours doing absolutely nothing. However, I did not simply sit and wait out a pre-determined 6-hour block. Throughout that wait, I kept thinking that the fog will lift any moment, as I was just desperate to get out. It did not, and on hindsight, it was probably stupid of me to expect such a sudden change in the ways of nature.
I am sure that if I had known at 4.30 AM today (when I boarded the plane) that I would be sitting in a stationary flight till 9.30 AM, I would have ended up feeling far worse than I eventually did. People often talk about the fear of the unknown, and how we’re afraid to undertake something when we don’t know what’s in store for us. What we seldom realize, or don’t appreciate enough is that the unknown could also be a powerful weapon. Sometimes, by just being ignorant of the exact amount of work something is going to entail, we can stop ourselves from giving up in despair.
“I’ve always been fascinated by comb-overs, especially the extreme sort that make a man look as if he’s wearing a beret made of his own hair. How does the comber-over not see how odd he looks? He got to look that way incrementally. What began as combing his hair a little carefully over a thin patch has gradually, over 20 years, grown into a monstrosity. Gradualness is very powerful. And that power can be used for constructive purposes too: just as you can trick yourself into looking like a freak, you can trick yourself into creating something so grand that you would never have dared to plan such a thing.” http://paulgraham.com/essay.html
So very true. Micro actions are very powerful, you should read this:
http://dreamsongs.com/Files/PoemADay.pdf
That’s a beautiful thought expressed very simply..
Keep writing
Thanks