Successful people see opportunity in a problem

  Avoidable troubles:Lack of time management, anger, selfishness cause trouble to others.  

    “Opportunity knocks your door only once” says an old proverb. But unless a door is provided, how can opportunity knock it? Some people do not look for opportunities as they are always busy with problems and in the process of solving them, lose time, interest and enthusiasm in life. Successful people see opportunity in a problem. They also understand that many of the problems are self-made. Troubles arise in three ways.

By us for us

A student, who could not reply to a question due to tension in an interview in spite of knowing the answer, should blame no one but himself for not practising public speaking and developing communication skills during his college days. A person becomes obese because he cannot control his food habits, and this obesity makes him lazy and thereby he is prone to procrastinate things. 

Ultimately, procrastination itself becomes an insurmountable problem for him.This category of problems includes fear, tension, insecurity, laziness, lack of communication etc. These are not problems but our weaknesses which in turn metamorphose into problems. A crisis may be unavoidable, but a weakness certainly can be fought upon and defeated. If this simple fact is known, half the battle is won.

By others to us

When you want to say ‘no' but say ‘yes', sometimes it creates problems.

A friend calls on a newly wed couple without a prior appointment, notices that the couple are about to go out for a movie, but still engages them in a conversation. The husband is unable to ask him to leave or at least tell him about their movie programme. It is called “gentleman's syndrome”. A person is said to be suffering from this disorder, when he wants to be good to everybody, works for their appreciation and seeks other's approval for his deeds at the cost of his own happiness. Other examples of this syndrome are: Signing the surety bonds unwillingly, obeying other's demands reluctantly etc.

By us to others

A person misplaces an important file at the office. He comes home irritated and scolds his son for not keeping the room tidy. The sensitive son fails in the exam the next day. Another example is, a person never sticks to his schedules and wastes others' time. This category includes lack of time management, anger, selfishness etc which cause trouble to others but in many cases boomerang to create personal loss to us.

Yandamoori Veerendranath