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Leap Before You Look

Look.. for the right job. Look.. for the right product. Look.. for the right relationship. Look here. Look there. Is life all about looking around? When will you stop looking and start doing?

You know what, sometimes it’s more exciting, when you have a good look.. RIGHT AFTER you’ve done something! So what if you end up saying “Look! What a mess I’ve created!” No problem. The world will respect you more for creating a mess and learning from it, than just fooling around watching other people create their mess!

True, life’s more unpredictable this way, you don’t know what might hit you! Well, you won’t know what might hit you anyway and life will always be unpredictable anyway, whether you look or you don’t. So why not skip the ‘looking’ part and straightaway cut to the ‘doing’ part? At least you’ll free up more time to DO more things!

Sure, when you just jump into something without really looking hard, you risk hurting yourself and making mistakes. But at least you’ll stop spinning around like a roulette wheel. And get down to making mistakes. And as long as you don’t hurt an arm and a leg, any mistake is worth making!

There is this ugly thing you may have heard of. It’s called ‘Procrastination’. It’s a more accurate way of expressing what you’re doing when you’re looking.. and looking. Looking for the right shoe to buy.. before you start jogging. Looking for the right gym to join.. before you start exercizing. Looking for the right day.. before you start Yoga. And when that habit bites you, you’ll realize that a month has passed away and you’re still looking.. and looking.

You might say, you need a little motivation before you start doing things. Till then you’d prefer looking. You need some adrenaline to get going. Right?

WRONG! You get the adrenaline by DOING, not by thinking. You DO things first and THEN you get excited about them. Let’s say you’ve been wanting to wash the car and vacuum clean it too! And you’re not too excited about the prospect. How do you get yourself to do it? Simple. DO IT! Don’t think. Don’t wait for the weather to be just right. Doing it will give you the energy. Doing it will break the inertia. Doing it will build the momentum. Doing it will give you the motivation to KEEP DOING IT!

Let’s say all you want to do is take your family out for a special dinner. But you don’t know where to take them. The choices are too confusing! There are over 25 places to choose from and they’re all over town. And they’re all very good! And you still don’t know if it’s better to do this next weekend or this weekend! Use the golden rule. Stop thinking. Stop looking. And START DRIVING! Just keep driving. As you drive you’ll start feeling good about the plan. And the place you’re going to spend the evening at will just emerge!

Or maybe you want to ask your classmate out for a date. And you’re thinking.. Should I? Should I not? Should I.. The roulette wheel begins! And before you realize, you would’ve thought of a hundred different ways of approaching her. Forget it Dude! Don’t think. Don’t rehearse. Just dial her number! She comes on the line.. just blurt your heart out.. spontaneously! There are only two things that can happen. Either you would’ve just hit it out with her. Or you’ll have one less way of approaching someone for your next date.

When we were in school, we were taught something else “Look before you leap!”. Sure, suit yourself! In real life we learn teamwork is indispensible. In school, they called that cheating. In real life mistakes are invaluable to learning. In school we were penalized for making them. Most exams in school were based on how well we memorized the answers and the methods to solve the problem. Real life on the other hand is one big open book exam!  School did teach us a lot of valuable things, but sometimes it helps to improvise on that learning and also learn from what the Classroom of Life has to teach us.

Just remember one thing. Life is always a Win Win game. Always! You do something. It works out. YOU WIN! You do something. It fails miserably. You become wiser. YOU STILL WIN!

by Milind Jadhav