Thursday, April 19, 2012

Response Vs Reaction

At a  restaurant, a cockroach suddenly flew from  somewhere and sat on a lady. 
She  started screaming out of fear.   With  a panic stricken face and trembling voice, she started jumping, with both her hands desperately  trying to get rid of the  cockroach.   Her  reaction was  contagious,  as everyone in her group also got panicky.

The lady  finally  managed to push the  cockroach  away but it  landed on  another  lady in the group. Now, it was the turn of the other lady in the  group to  continue the  drama.

The waiter rushed forward to their rescue. 

In the relay of throwing, the  cockroach next fell upon the waiter. 
The waiter stood firm, composed himself and  observed the behavior of the  cockroach on his shirt. When he was confident enough, he  grabbed it with his  fingers and threw it out of the restaurant.

Sipping my  coffee and  watching the  amusement, the  antenna of my  mind  picked up a few thoughts and started wondering, was the  cockroach  responsible for their histrionic behavior?
 If so, then why was the waiter not disturbed? He handled it near to  perfection, without any chaos.

It is not the cockroach, but the inability of the ladies to handle the disturbance caused by the cockroach that disturbed the ladies.   

  I  realized that, it is not the  shouting of a father or a boss or a wife  that disturbs one, but it’s the  inability to handle the  disturbances  caused by their shouting  that disturbs. 
  
It’s  not the  traffic jams on the road that  disturbs,  but it’s the  inability to handle the disturbance caused by the  traffic jam that disturbs.

More than the  problem, it’s our  reaction to the  problem that creates chaos in our life.
   Lessons learnt from the story:

We should not react in life.
We should always respond. 

The women reacted, whereas the waiter responded. 
Reactions are always instinctive whereas responses are always well thought of, just and right to save a  situation from going out of hands, to  avoid cracks in  relationship, to avoid taking wrong decisions in job, to avoid  taking decisions in  anger, anxiety, stress or hurry. 
 

So next time something happens and you want to immediately react .... PAUSE .... take  a deep breath .... WAIT ... THINK ..... UNDERSTAND .....  and then RESPOND in the well thought manner ...
 
  EASY  TO  PREACH .... UNDERSTAND ... DIFFICULT TO PRACTISE .... 
BUT  TRY  WE  CAN ... ('-')....BEST OF LUCK !!