Get, set go, and keep going…
An Article By Vijay Michihito Batra
Life becomes better for those who live by the principle of get, set, go and keep going. The COVID 19 experience of the year 2020 came as a shock at first for all, and soon, some grew stronger while others languished. The ones who grew stronger, did the following two things:
- They took the requisite precautions of maintaining the physical distance and practicing habits of hygiene. They were clear, being healthy is priority number one. Any experience which does not kill you, makes you stronger. While keeping the virus at bay, they went on to the second…
- Get, set, go and keep going. They put their energies in thinking of ways to deal with the “lock down” situation in the best possible manner. Started focusing on alternative means to keep themselves gainfully “employed” and doing the best they could in the given circumstances.
I sensed two kind of people, the negative kind who would sit all day and mouth off useless and disheartening predictions about the gloom and doom, they were the ones who had decided to embark on the path of self-destruction, becoming more sedentary than ever before, and becoming a menace for family members around.
The positive kind, the encouraging kind, who within the confines of their homes, started leveraging the internet, started learning ways to transact with the customers, and building newer relationships, they leveraged the digital platform to learn new things and keep in touch with their loved ones who were geographically removed and in ways which were novel, entertaining and encouraging. They were the ones who became physically active, getting into far better physical and mental shape and sharpening the “saw” and deepening their relationships with their family members without whom they were spending far more time than ever before.
The following two anecdotes highlight the points of get, set, go and keep going.
There was student who was to travel as an exchange student to a foreign country. He tried to learn the language of the host country before he landed, but for some reason he felt that he was unable to learn as he had no ability to learn foreign languages. When he landed in the host country, he would feel disheartened as he would find it difficult to communicate with the locals. Once he was sitting in a park and saw a local bring his dog to the park, and he observed that the dog could follow the instructions of the owner very well. Some of the things the dog was doing on his master’s instructions were very impressive. While watching the dog, suddenly he felt a burst of energy. An enabling thought emerged in his mind and that was that if a dog can understand the “foreign” language, so can I. With this thought, he immersed himself in learning the foreign language and within weeks he started conversing with the locals and experienced the locals would go out of their way to teach him the language. During his two years of stay, he achieved near fluency in the language. So Get, Set, Go…
Once Picasso the great artist was sitting at a restaurant. A gregarious lady approached him and made a request to Picasso to draw something for her, for which she would pay what he asks for.
Picasso took a napkin and drew something on it and handed it over to the lady. The lady was incredibly happy to receive the piece of art on a napkin. She thanked Picasso and asked Picasso, what is the price. Picasso asked for a big amount. The lady gasped and remarked, “are you serious, how do you expect me to pay such a high price for what took you five minutes to draw.” Picasso responded, it took me five minutes to draw this beautiful piece, because I have spent more than forty years fine tuning the talent of drawing. So once you get, set, go, keep going…