Not sure if I have mentioned this before, but I used to have this question on how I should integrate what I learnt from the books and interviews and podcasts into my work. I was not able to make sense of those learnings in the past. Like for example, how does reading the biographies and business stories help me in my own work? I was not sure. In fact, I don’t even have a hint of it. But I keep on reading them and learning, soaking up all these knowledges along the way.
Turns out, as Steve Jobs famously put it, the dots connect only when you look back. The skills and knowledge that you acquired, be it so far fetch like how to stay calm and controlled in the most chaotic situation, would actually be proven useful in work.
In life, really terrible things could happen without any forewarn. And if you live a life that’s worth living, aka living on the edge, you will experience a lot of these because you are constantly falling forward. This is great. Here are some tips that might help you along the way.
First, try not to make quick judgments on things. That is, try not to immediately jump to conclusions when you see things happen, especially do not point fingers to someone even though to you, it is obvious that if not for his XXXXX behaviour, this terrible thing would not have had happened. Sometimes we all are very inclined to do so and a lot of times we might not be correct, as we do not know the full picture. Plus, to that other person that you are pointing your finger at, it might hurt a lot more than you think or intended to. It is not worth it. Try to take a step back and observe. First try to figure out what’s the problem is first, and then instead of pointing fingers, try think of solutions for the situation. Solve the issues first. If there’s nothing that you can do and improve the situation, just wait and observe. Only after so you can start seeing if anything can be done to improve the situation in the future. Again, focus on the solution, not the person.
Secondly, try to be more empathetic to people. In life we can only stay with someone for a limited period of time. Everyone got their problems that they have to handle, and while it is frankly not your job to understand all of their issues, try to be more empathetic and kind if possible. There are situations that this might not be possible to you as you have to balance other considerations but that’s just the general rule. Having a good understanding of how humans think will be proven useful in the future.
Thirdly, learn to let go. In a lot of cases, we do not know how to let go. This leads to suffering inside ourselves. Let go. Understand that nature gets the last laugh and all we could do is just let whatever be be. This is just life.
I hope the above helps. Good luck.