Saturday 11 March 2017

Against the grain

Sometimes, things just don't go your way. 

Like when you leave the house at a particular time and see the bus pull away. 

But sometimes, these things don't come in a drizzle.  It will rain - and not the garden variety, but cats-and-dogs variety.

So you've missed the bus and have to wait 20mins for the next one.  Of course you had wanted to be early today.  Pulling out your phone, you realise that your phone battery has dies.  At which you point you rummage through your bag and there is no charger in there. Awesome. Then it starts raining. and you have not umbrella. What the....

There are times where I get the sense that some people are just lucky - and perhaps more lucky than me.  Like the guy who doesn't get wet as a bus brings up the gutter water onto the pedestrians, while everyone else is soaked.  Is it really just really good planning and foresight, I wonder?  Or am I just being superstitious?

Separately, reading books like "Outliers" by Malcolm Gladwell were certainly interesting - as a way to understand these outliers and the positive reinforcement select groups of individuals might have due to some circumstance which might be unrelated. While the reverse is also true for those who are not part of that group.  I subscribe to that view that sometimes, the situation which lands one in a particular position helps the next step but perhaps we need to be focused on where we are going more consciously and try to influence that sphere which we can influence and step into, thereby enhancing the opportunities to move forward.