Has it ever happened to you that, while you were worrying about a problem or a challenge that seemed unsurmountable, suddenly something else happened that completely changed your perspective and made you realize it wasn´t that bad?
Sometimes I remember the beginning of the hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy, a book of mostly nonsensical humour that I read many years ago (thanks Hernán for lending it to me), and of which I don´t remember much, except for a couple of details I thought were full of genius geeky wisdom🙂
El caso es que el protagonista llega un día a a su casa para descubrir que están a punto de derribarla para construir una autopista. Supuestamente habían puesto un cartel de aviso unas semanas antes, pero él no lo había visto, y lógicamente, se pone muy nervioso; empieza a gritar a los obreros de la construcción y a intentar impedir por todos los medios que destruyan su casa… Pero resulta que todo eso acaba dando igual, porque luego se entera de que todo el planeta Tierra está a punto de ser destruido para construir una mega autoestopista intergaláctica (¡y también había un cartel de aviso que nadie había leído!).
How often do we get obsessed with a specific thing as if our life depended on it, and it doesn´t occur to us to take a step back, change the way we look at it, and that way get to see the big picture?
Another good example, this time from real life, was the beginning of the pandemic: many of our worries from before March 2020 suddenly disappeared, as we realized that what was truly important at that time was being healthy and safe, and everything else was an additional luxury.
And I´m not saying that our previous worries were not valid, on the contrary: every single thing that happens to us generates certain thoughts and feelings, sometimes alongside physical symptoms, that we should process; we should pay attention and give them their space, because they´re here to tell us something, to deliver a warning, or maybe a teaching.
Lo que digo es que la importancia de las cosas es relativa, y cuando no tenemos algo grande por lo que preocuparnos… A veces nuestra tendencia es a preocuparnos por algo pequeño como si fuera grande.
Or sometimes we´re so deeply involved in a specific situation that we find it difficult to see it clearly, and as the saying goes, "we can´t see the forest for the trees". That´s when we can benefit most from seeking a different perspective, and a variety of techniques can help us with that, either working individually or with help from a friend, or a professional.
For example, when we´re stuck trying to make a decision for fear of choosing wrong, it may be useful to remind ourselves that in this life, the probabilities of a decision of ours causing irreversible and irreparable damage are very slim. In the majority of cases, regardless of the outcome being "good" or "bad", the consequences are perfectly tolerable, so we can afford to decide, take action, and above all, learn from our results.
Por cierto, lo de «bien» y «mal» lo pongo entre comillas porque como ya sabemos, todo es relativo… Salvo en the hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy, where they were able to find the ultimate specific answer to the Big Question on Life, the Universe, and Everything 🙂