Microstory 157 – Scary
I saw from a distance a person and a small girl together. I was heading towards the washroom. They slowed down and enquired about the washroom. I overheard and got to understand that it was Dad and his young daughter, hardly 6 years old in my view. He showed her the entry and asked her to go inside. I was getting inside the gents’ room and so didn’t hear what she said in return. Inside the gent’s room, I was washing my hands and this gentleman was making a call to someone and was venting his frustration. His lines went somewhere along these lines. ” I am increasingly noticing that she is not listening to me at all, even a few moments back also she was rebutting me “. I clearly saw his frustration nakedly on that half-naked face. But all of a sudden the conversation ended and he started washing his hands intensely. I was about to leave the scene but laughed inside on the plight of bringing up a daughter. He went inside to have some peace of mind but ended up with pieces of his mind. I was wondering what did his wife ( who else he will call ) would have told? I told my wife the incident and asked her what will you tell me? She said, ” You have to deal with it “. That was scary!
Microstory 158 – Act of Greatness
I like drivers who enjoy their jobs and take care of their customers. As I am in the business of taking care of customers, it helps me to get centered throughout the day. So when I travel I have some names of drivers whom I request for duty and If I am lucky I get rewarded with that same driver. The vehicles keep changing but the driver will be the same. So one such driver had impressed me over the last few weeks and I learned quite a lot from him. It was a day when I had my ups and downs and I couldn’t have my lunch. I later learned that he too missed his lunch. Ideally, I ask him to go ahead and have his lunch. On that day I felt guilty. So after office hours, I told him, ” Take me to any nearby good place and let us have some coffee”. He drove for 30 mins and we reached a roadside place. The coffee was nice and as I was enjoying my coffee I saw a poor lady with her child coming towards me. I picked my wallet and to my utter surprise, I noticed that I didn’t have any cash. So I told the shop person to give her a cup of coffee. My driver jumped in and he picked some more food from the shop and offered it to her. I told him that I do not have money and that place didn’t look like they encouraged any digital transactions. I was moved by his gesture. Later that night while I was signing him off I asked him how much should I pay him. Without any hesitation he asked me ” was the coffee good”?. I told him it was very good and I enjoyed it. Again I asked him how much I need to pay. His answer was, ” I forgot “.
Microstory 159 – Paying it forward
It was in two exchanges with some of my old colleagues. There comes a time in life when you hear from others how much things are going well after you have left the firm. Initially, that statement evoked a sense of anxiety. Later in the course of discussions, they appreciated how much of the processes I had the opportunity to implement had stood in good stead. I am a big believer in the words of Elizabeth King who said, ” Process saves us from the poverty of our intentions“. I was happy and proud that those practices are paying dividends. So whenever I have to establish something new in life particularly on the professional front I am reminded of this aphorism, ” How many trees you are planting under whose trees you don’t plan to sit”. I was happy and fulfilled. My way of paying it forward for what I have learned from others in my life.
Microstory 160 – Proved Wrong
I had a very busy week. For a sales guy, in the words of my wife, it was “March madness”. There were situations and events which kept me guessing. I had 3 such events which I had painted a very negative outcome. Some of the symptoms of nervousness when I researched are as follows:
- Feeling nervous, restless, or tense.
- Having a sense of impending danger, panic, or doom.
- Having an increased heart rate.
- Breathing rapidly (hyperventilation)
- Sweating ( with the mask)
- Trembling.
- Feeling weak or tired.
- Trouble concentrating or thinking about anything other than the present worry.
I definitely had those bold ones without a doubt. But the outcome turned out to be positive. All these events were very simple instances of how your mind on autopilot tends to picturise the worst-case scenarios, When we are anxious, we all experience stomach twitching and other somatic manifestations. The one thing I did at this time, as a hack, was to capture it in my journal as it was happening and wait for the outcome. I did a little check on the internet and understood this phenomenon.
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