Roads we skipped!
Heard during an intense conversation with my colleagues that, there exist a parallel universe. To be precise, if an individual face two or more different paths to choose in his/her life… based on path they choose, parallel universe takes shape, meaning two or more parallel universe will be born.
This “Parallel Universe” may be a paradox or hypothesis, but what is important is to realise that the chain of decisions we take in our life, shapes our destiny.
Few years back I was in catch 22 situation to choose Europe based long term assignment, over India based Sr. Role opening. I had my mom to take care after my Dad passed away. I am aware that my mom will not be able to cope-up with European weather who was at her late 60s. My father-in-law advised to take a decision which will accommodate taking care of my Mom and also he added with a simple suggestion “ Life is like a path in a forest which is pitch dark, you have a lantern in your hand. It shows nearby path, as we move on, it guides us to destiny” — Meaning don’t be anxious about whole journey & destination (take one step at a time), live the moment and take best decision based on prevailing situation.
When we have multiple choices appear in front of us, we face dilemma in decision making. Its like a cross-road, once chosen there is no coming back. Many of us, will overthink about future, what will happen if the road taken ends up being a worst decision. Many times, it crossed my mind and dwell on what could have happened by now, If I had chosen Europe option. It took sometime for me to accept the reality and try to make best out of the decision I had made.
Try to make your decision better by taking corrective action or de-tour. Imagine you typed wrong destination in Google map(draw parallel with your decision), you find it is leading to wrong destination in the middle of your journey, what will you do? you change it to correct destination and take a de-tour. This could have wasted some time in your life, but the lessons you learnt by travelling in wrong route/road could have given an experience or lesson.
Once we choose a path, we need to have a review mechanism on checking whether we are heading in right direction to reach the destination we aspired for? This will give insights to take de-tour/corrective action.
When I was young, my relatives who comes to our home often, used to ask what you want to become in future? The question was always the same during my budding years… but my aspiration & response kept changing. When we become adults and we could have chosen a stream at work, it becomes fixed. We become less courageous in exploring our dreams.
There is no age to change your stream of work and there is no pressure to stick with destination we chose at young age. We can change our aspiration, a dream job even in middle age or mid-career. It is better late than never.
I love long drives, my friends & relatives used to ask how I am not bored in driving for long hours(8–12 hours at a stretch with few breaks in the middle). My response was “ I enjoy the journey itself, not only on reaching the destination alone”.
With luv,
VJ