I have sometimes felt that "lack of planning is the best planning". I can give a number of instances in my life when I did not have any agenda, took a decision based on instincts at the crucial moments and being successful.
The first instance of this would be when I was a 4 year old when my parents took me to Holy-Angels convent supposed to be one of the best private schools in the area/city at that time. I guess, I just didn't feel right there (Don't know what is planning at that age anyway!)and I cried and tried to run away from mother superior and other nuns. So my parents send me to Arya Central School(another private school), which I felt was one of the best outcomes, destiny had for me.
Again doing pre-degree course at MarIvanious college; my medical entrance, coming to UK etc. In fact, though I wanted to do higher medical training overseas, I never thought of coming to UK; I felt that I should go to US and so planned to do USMLE. Getting a quick place at Hyderabad (through Ramesh, one of the librarians at British library) for IELTS was another unplanned coincidence and subsequently meeting Michael (1996/97), who invited me to come to his place in London and take PLAB exam. A lot of people at that time 'advised' me to take PLAB in India (where it was supposed to start from 1998). Somehow felt 1997 is the right time and so flew to London without any major planning; but that turned out to be one of the best decisions in life.
Another instance is meeting Andrea at the Oxford PICU who advised me to meet Sue to pursue my Genetics training. Infact getting into Oxford training rotation was sheer coincidence.
People say you cannot plan three things; Your birth, death and marriage. The first two you don't have any control, but may be third one you have a certain degree of control. But still we know a lot of instances where love/ marriage just happens between 2 individuals when it is least expected...so is life a coincidence and full of coincidences?
Ancient Indian/Vedic or spiritual and other mystical teachings insist on the fact that there is absolutely no coincidence in the world. That everything that occurs can be related to a prior cause or association, no matter how vast or how minute and trivial.
Generally when faced with a difficult decision, we try to come up with the best choice by carefully considering all of the options, maybe even resorting to lists and some people having lots of sleepless nights. Yesterday I read (from an article forwarded by Anju) that there is a scientific basis to all this...Recent studies have suggested that the best way to deal with complex decisions is not think about them at all—that unconscious thought will help us make the best choices.
So probably 'decision and planning' should be a combination of prescriptive( of what actions to take based on Logic), descriptive( ie the flaws in the way people do make a decision) and most importantly your gut feeling.....Trust your instincts, you will be right...
About Me
- PCV
- London, Leicester and Kerala
- I am a Medical Doctor, born and brought up in Kerala, settled in England for last 27 years. Interested in almost any and every field under the sun. I believe in 'Simple living and simple thinking'and try to follow this principle in life...This is a snapshot of what I wish to write; but many of the things I want to write are still under the iceberg! Lokah Samastha Sukhino Bhavanthu
7 comments:
"Trusting ones instinct" works with me.
I love doing what my instinct suggests. But many times others may not agree with me or have some other plans. Then I think why to trouble them and eventually retreat to what others want from me. In general, I normally stood with my gut feeling.
Its a good idea to take on life as it comes. But there are no guarantees that unconscious decisions are always good or vice versa. If things looked really nasty, we would have blamed it on lack of planning. After reading "Journey of souls" - which implies our life and death here on earth are pre-planned, I agree with the ancient Indian wisdom - that there are no coincidences. And I feel ashamed too, that I had to understand this through Michael newton.
cool post. it may be a coincidence or it may lack empirical backing, but i think there's a clear connection between the so called unconscious decisions and planning. though we may classify it as a decision out of gut feel, we may have quickly assessed the pros and cons which again has an element of planning, which would have been nurtured by experience of similar sort. again, a philosophically logical element would have gone into quick decision when one realises; "those are anyway my options. some are not bad really. why don't i try one of those"
Yes, I do agree...."Take life as it comes" is the cool option. If you feel something is not right when you are doing it, its probably not right and better to re-think it again.
Sometimes one may not have much control with the 'happenings' then the best option might be to go with the flow.Unconcious decisions as Anju said may not be truly unconcious...it may be that it is a concious one, just that it is assembled and planned in the mind in no time....
It is true that a lot of original Indian ideas and teachings are now being propagated not by Indians but by 'Western' writers/ philosophers....
Nice article, although one has to consider the "Butterfly Effect"! A small thing, which we might consider as so irrelevant, which we have done long time ago, have changed our lives considerably. For my part I certainly believe in that.
Decisions, whether conscious or not, whether gut feeling or thoroughly thought one, the righteousness or foolishness of that decision will be known only after a long time.
There are instances when we wonder why we did what we did, but ultimately one can deduce it and assess the effectiveness of that decision, but it takes some time.
Will it be too late then? Depends!
So does it all boil down to luck?
Perhaps?!?!
I wanted to write on 'Chaos theory' in this blog,but felt I should do that separately. Yes everything is interconnected and only time can tell whether a decision we took today is right or wrong. Then again its difficult to say what is right and what is wrong!
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