Fun Robbing Flexibility

Yesterday an unfortunate event happened in my family. My mom crashed her 7 year-old City unto a tall divider near her office and the front bumper dropped off! The steering wheel went out of alignment, so you can imagine how devastating the magnitude was. Fortunately nothing bad happened to her, and thanks to the help of some kind-hearted passerbys and two police officers, she managed to drive back home. The car isn't pretty anymore. Apparently her reason (or excuse) was the new divider was built too high up and she couldn't see it.

Of course not only the car was in a bad shape, I bet her emotion was in paranoia state too. I would never be able to comprehend because I had never gotten myself into an accident. But how does that affect me? Remember in the previous post I wrote about my excitement to join my colleagues for futsal later today after work, and I was supposed to drive the Myvi to work this morning. It would have been more convenient this way because then I can drive back home at night after futsal session. But yesterday everything was different. Everything has changed!

My mom needed to use the Myvi this morning for various purposes such as go to make police report and many other things I can barely recall now. My dad wouldn't want to follow her because he said it would have been a waste of time. Of course for my mom to drive the new City was out of question. She just crashed the old City, no way my dad would give her the permission to crash another one. For me, I wouldn't be able to go to futsal later. My plan was shattered last minute!

I wanted to go! I have been waiting to this day for more than one week and finally the day is here! And you are telling me now I can't go. As quite a rigid person, I couldn't accept. I wanted to go! Some people may not understand this, but playing futsal is more than just an ordinary sport to me. Futsal is more like my newly found hobby but has not been given much attention to, thus my exuberance. To some people, it may just be another sport and can be substituted easily with other sports such as basketball, badminton and gym. Not me.

There are not many things that I WANT, playing futsal is definitely one of them. So I was initially reluctant. I even argued with my dad (again?) and it turned out badly. I blurted out some hurtful words and I immediately felt remorseful. I regretted my action taken purely out of anger and frustration. I was so ashamed and embarrassed I tried to hide inside my room, and eventually fell asleep. I was not flexible at all. I was giving all sorts of reasons to justify why this futsal session is not cancellable. I was being selfish. 

I felt saddened my plan was changed abruptly. Maybe you will feel the same way too. This is not the first time and definitely won't be the last. I bet you would have encountered the similar situation before. You have planned something so meticulously one month before and when the time comes, it turned out to be something entirely different. Worse still, the plan got cancelled! If this is you, your feeling probably won’t deviate too much from mine.

So what do you do? You have multiple alternatives you can undertake. Of course you can choose to ignore the change and proceed with your initial plan. But continuing your way would instantly make you the most selfish and arrogant prick on Earth. You wouldn’t want that. I have learnt it the hard way so I hope you won’t be like me. Or perhaps, you can choose a more diplomatic solution.

Flexibility.

I know I don’t feel comfortable to changes at all. But changes mould one into a better person. I wrote about changes all the time, yet I still feel uncomfortable with changes. I don’t think anyone does. But this is one of the ingredients to success. If you are comfortable with something, you won’t feel the need to stretch yourself any further, then your growth will be stagnant. Of course I’m not talking about physical growth, but personality growth. Character growth!

Nobody can breed success from within comfort zone. Entrepreneurs often have to step out of their comfort zones, march into uncharted territories and build their empires out of thin air. Only by exploring in the uncharted territories your character will grow to weather ever increasing challenges. It is definitely not fun (unless you can make it fun, which is not entirely impossible), but your sacrifices and patience would eventually bear fruits. 

So what did I do? I decided to leave the Myvi to my mom, and I proceeded to work in the morning with LRT. Initially I thought I won’t be able to attend the futsal session later with my colleagues, but after a little discussion, my colleague is nice enough to offer me a ride to the nearest LRT from the futsal court in Setapak, KL. So yes, I will be playing futsal later! Woohoo! 

Here’s the takeaway: To get to Point C, one does not necessarily need to go through Point B from Point A. There are a myriad of alternatives we can opt to achieve the same result. But our flexibility to make adjustments and go with the flow would not only make an impact in our likeability, but also our productivity and efficiency level. How so?

Sticking to our original plan and not willing to make changes when things turn out differently will not only make you unfavourable in others’ eyes, but the seemingly best result will no longer be the best anymore. Now, we tend to anchor to the original plan because we had made the decision based on earlier judgement of circumstances and it was supposed to be the best decision, but when situation changes, we ought to change accordingly as well. 

Most of the things are uncertain and will never be 100% certain, so it is appropriate if we realign our actions when more information is received, to achieve the best result based on our goals and objectives. It may not be fun and comfortable, but it will work well in the long run.