One At A Time

"How do you eat an Elephant? One bite at a time"
-Quoted by some guy clearly not aware about the concept of binge eating


The above line is something I picked up while reading Mark Owen's  "No Easy Day". The story about the SEAL team that went on the mission to Abbottabad (and makes me think twice before ordering pizza at night).
The line however which the protagonist says pushed him was something that stuck with me. No not because it is an elephant. Well kinda. It is because those small words carry some big meaning. Of course those words at first go did not make much impact. Like most things we read, or hear or experience, their relevance got highlighted only when I found myself in a position to appreciate their depth. For a better part of my life, my athletic achievements have been limited to retrieving the TV remote from one room within an hour or reaching across the bed for it, and while my physical prowess is spoken with awe among sloths, among the social animals such as ourselves it is more at a value mathematicians would like to denote to be just a scrap above zero.

Will shortly be arriving.

However, in my final year there was just a push that sort of motivated me to probably cross the threshold of exertion to the limit that you can at least beat a spider trying to make a web around you. So I set out to battle my first foe, running. It has been chronicled by great many a minstrels that there was a mother who wanted her son to run, but the son preferred to watch Pokemon and that's why his tryouts for the Olympics were undone. 

Ain't no one taking me away from Kanto.

                 

Basically my years of being a politician about running around came back to bite me (yeah they ran their bit) and I finally had to push myself to at least not collapse into a human puddle. Or like collapse either. I'll spare you the details of that, but it was during one run on a particularly trying day that those words about consuming an Elephant struck me. Every step I was taking, every millimeter I moved ahead, every panting breath, gasping for oxygen (or like the light at the end of the tunnel) was one step more than what I had previously done. Every movement ahead while barely a dent was in fact a movement ahead,  and that pushed me. Every run henceforth, every length of the pool, every  skip, every extra sweet dish at Barbecue Nation, encouraged me. Just one more, just one ahead. just take the large challenge  and break it down into small pieces, till the waiters at an all you can eat buffet look at you like the physical incarnation of world hunger.         

What happened ultimately was that the run wasn't about how far I ran the race, it was about HOW I ran the race. Whether I ran it like a chore, or if I ran it as a battle. If I ran it as a compulsion or I ran it as a challenge. If I ran it, convinced that I'd have a better chance of completing the circuit if I flew or if I decided to cut the self expensed  humour and actually do something I had aimed for and that made all the difference. 

That year, those month of running imparted me the wisdom which I think actually pushed me into adulthood. Don't get me wrong, I am still in denial about maturity, but I actually feel that achieving anything isn't about conquering the thing you target. It is about conquering that part in yourself that thinks it can't. It is about shutting down your opposition. It is about taking that huge trek and breaking it down smaller and smaller till every step and breath is charging you towards your goal. 

I took that lesson with me, for this last year that I spent betwixt and between. Correction, that I continue to spend betwixt and between a lot. Aims, aspirations, cuisines etc etc. Every mammoth task that befell me at work, or every change that had to be induced was done one twirl and spin at a time.All I had to do was ensure that I did my small bit towards myself and just maintained that flow. 

While that book might've not been the pinnacle of literary achievements, or my running around been the peak of human fitness, that phase, that mindset gave me a bigger and better gift just short of the best one (life) I ever got. It taught me the best way to deal with it. To deal with life.Simply, one bite at a time. 

The Honourable Leader Of The Opposition

 "A house divided against itself cannot stand."
-Abraham Lincoln


The former President and exemplary leader used these words to describe the house while addressing the issue of slavery. He goes on to state how this meant not that the house was to collapse, but that it would cease to be divided.

The lines which he used had a huge implication on the future of his country, his world and countless lives now lost to time and those yet to exist.I think somewhere down the lines, he had great wisdom here which probably would be applicable to all of us. It is essentially the struggle in most people till they finally choose themselves. 

We live in times of great options, in times of freedom. What this entails is that more options translates to better choices for people right? Not really, not always. For most of us who are trying to find our way, or how to proceed this gives the increasingly delicious but onerous choice of being a one hit wonder. Why?

Simply, because we have set that expectation for ourselves. We have taken choices to mean not that there is freedom, but that failure should be restricted which could not be further from the truth.We all have the right to succeed and do the thing we love but to expect that you won't have to iterate to get there is delusional. Some people fail to realise that those who do achieve a lot at a young age, simply iterated earlier. We all have the same avenues to go into. It is a matter of choice when you decide to stroll those unfamiliar streets.

Now coming to ourselves. They say matter and antimatter share the role of being each others "annihilators". That if you were to shake hands with your corresponding anti-matter twin,there would be a release of pure energy, and both of you would cease to exist.

(No, Republicans, anti-matter does not need "freedom")

I think those battles are always inside of us. When giving a speech or a debate there are several times when the Speaker realises, the holes in his/her argument, What they fear is someone picking up on it and questioning them relentlessly on it. Now imagine that only for every single thing you have ever done. That is kind of what happens inside you. Moreover that anti being inside you isn't capable of giving the right answers either and is far from being a rational being. Hence the questions posed to you might not be relevant but their function are just to stop you.

Ladies, and gentlemen, that is the most important house divided. That is your biggest battle and like most battles there emerges a winner and loser but at a cost. Often a huge cost. However like stated earlier in this article it doesn't have to mean that you will fall, rather that you will cease to be divided. You will be able to silence that opposition inside you, that the paralysis will cease to hinder you. You'll realise your path may not be perfect but is probably the most sensible one. Not to say it WILL be the right one, but it will appear as the most sensible one for you. It'll be the one which might not seem the easiest but will seem to be the one most aligned with your own values and objectives. It might be the toughest road you travelled (even tougher compared to the one time you had to save that slice of cake for your brother) but will be more rewarding and satisfying than any experience (even compared to the one time you ate that last slice of cake).
It is about having faith in yourself to succeed and not the absence of fear or opposition but to act on despite their presence making best of the information at hand because that is all you can do.
(Side note: it is insane the amount of things you cannot do. Like you cannot fold a paper more than 7 times across among many others)


So instead of being cowered down by opposition you need to do something, because like that Speaker on that stage, you're the one there to make a difference and get something done. You're the voice to encourage yourself to move down that unfamiliar road or sail into uncharted waters. Yes you will face opposition  but change has  a tendency to be opposed. In fact even when you're still you're facing constant opposition in the form of static friction. So why not take the battle to  a situation where you are doing something.

Courtesy :http://deutsch.physics.ucsc.edu/

If I were to further take that example of static friction, you'll notice how greater the force you apply for movement the tougher the opposition you'll face but after a threshold, it gets easier. They rightly say physics holds the answers to a lot of mysteries because what could be a simpler analogy. Not that it makes it any easier but it is a truth we have to embrace. Once you start the motion it will become easier to be in that groove and definitely more productive than just being still and not moving.

So it is probably best, to take that sky-diving class, start that start-up, take that year break for life assessment, because nothing will beat that sense of achievement you'll feel once you emerge on the other side, a winner, a champion. Having bested your fears and emerged the leader to help a divided,warring nation emerge as a superpower in its own right.
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(Don't you just love the way that metaphor ties up?)