Coach's Corner - What are you choosing now?

[resmi_ks]

I have been seeing a black drongo outside my window from April. With its high-pitched calls, it attracted my attention very often. Along with its partner, it was building a nest then. I am not an avid bird watcher, but this one took my fancy and I started reading about drongos. It seems they lay eggs close to the first rains of April, so that eggs hatch at the right time when insects(feed/food) are abundant.  This time the rains in this part of the world were delayed. April went with no summer showers. In May we got too few. Though monsoon made its entry, it was late in reaching our village. It made me a bit worried about the small bird family. Also made me think about the choice or lack-of choice in everyone's lives. As of the birds, the nestlings flew off the nest. We see many more drongos around the house these days.

Black Drongo - Picture Credit : Wikipedia

From this experience, what I noticed was that we humans have a lot of choices. Though in some ways we are programmed genetically,  practically we can choose pretty much everything about ourselves. We can choose to be happy, we can choose to be focused, we can choose to laugh, we can choose to reach out and connect.

On one side these choices are liberating, knowing that there is a way out from everything. On the other side, the sheer volume of choices one has to make in day to day life can get daunting.

How do we find a balance here so that the power of choice is liberating rather than daunting ?

Here are some tips which can be helpful.

Know your values - your values are your compass which will help you take the right path every time you are in cross roads.

• Would you rather wait for your friend who is late and go to the party late than not wait for your friend and be on time?


• Would you rather tell your boss that you are taking off to watch the game than call in sick?

Know your goals - understanding of your goals will help you make the right choices too.

• Would you attend the Cloud Native course or Machine Learning course?


• Would you accept the offer from an energy efficiency startup which pays less or accept the offer from leading embedded system firm which offers good pay?

Choose your battles - if something is not really important for you or not your cup of tea, let someone else make the choice.

• Should the font be Arial or Calibri?


• Should I watch the movie Coco or Smurfs?

Here is a Zen story I would like to leave you with.

A horse suddenly came galloping quickly down the road. It seemed as though the man had somewhere important to go.

Another man, who was standing alongside the road, shouted, "Where are you going?" and the man on the horse replied,

"I don't know! Ask the horse!"

Please let me know how you connect this story with the choices you make.

 

Check out more blog posts in this series: Coach’s Corner.