I'm no Superman!

Nov. 21st: "Cup noodles save the day"

Nov 22nd: "Bread and Marmalade save the day"

 

Is your cook on leave, the muse asked.

I replied in the affirmative a-muse-d by her deduction.

And you can't cook?

Here I was be-muse-d why she would think I could.

I thought you were Superman!

 

And for the gazillionth time these past few days, but literally for the first time, I felt like shattering someone's belief system and singing the Scrubs theme...

"I can't do this all on my own. No, I'm no Superman!"

The deal is, I suck at 'high-level multitasking', which essentially means that I can manage twenty different things at work, or ten different things around the house (ya, there's not as many things to do around the house), but I can't manage ten of each together. 

I know that's weird but reading this would give you a better sense of what happens. I get randomized. So when my parents visited earlier this month, and saw the "furnished" state of the apartment, they could think of more than the aforementioned ten things that could be done with it. To my father who is one of the few men who can multitask very well, this was an alien concept, but to his credit, he accepted it.

However, it left me wondering, if there are things I could do if I manage my time better. Well, to be honest, I've always known the answer to that question, Yes! The real question is what are the things I should prioritise and fit into the limited time I have. After all, I'm no Superman!

Randomize...

Every person has a set of habits, expectations, rituals, which we collectively call one's Comfort Zone. It's a very fragile thing, this comfort zone. The smallest of aberrations in the pattern of things can randomize a person (or maybe just me...). However, one could, if one takes the time out to do so, identify things that could restore the equilibrium and get one back on track.

Things that randomize:

• Visitors
• A moderately hectic weekend trip
• Pending work items in multiple spheres of your life
• Bad news
• Good news

Things that restore equilibrium:

• Meaningless conversation over a cup of coffee with a friend
• Times of intense activity at work (the kind of work one enjoys)
• Impromptu plan for a movie

Doing my time!

Updated on November 6th with a clarifying addendum.

How often have you thought your life sucks? How things are stagnating? Just not moving at the pace you want them to. How there's that one thing which just seems to evade you no matter how hard you try? And when you try to be indifferent to it, thinking maybe that'll do the trick, and it still doesn't. How life could be so much more, and you're just not realising your full potential.

Then, someone tells you how lucky you are and how you've got so much going on for you. It's a whole new perspective. You've just gotten so used to cribbing about every little thing that's not right, that (to indulge in a cliche) you forget how much is going right.

More often, though, it's just that the things you have are not the ones you would place at the top if you had to prioritise, whereas the other person would. One might envy you for the money you make, when you would willingly give that up just so you could not be single anymore. Or they might envy the relationship you're in, when you'd trade it for a more fulfilling career.

Someone once told me I don't know the value of things because they come easy to me, that I didn't have to do my time for them, and somehow that didn't ring true. Maybe some things come easy to me, but others don't. I guess we all have our strengths, and our weaknesses (e.g. Some of you might be able to make sense of the crap I'm writing, I, for one, have no clue!), but the way we're designed, to never be satisfied with what we have and to always crave what we don't, I think we're all doing time, baby... all doing time!

Addendum: I guess I'm not at my best at conveying ideas right now. Here is an attempt to clarify the thought behind this post, made neccessary by this interpretation of it by Erimentha.

I don't neccessarily mean there are static goals that are evading you, it's more about a state of being, a pace of moving, the frequency of your being faced with a challenge. The things that evade you are themselves of a dynamic nature. You know this is not the best you can do, but you're forced to stay to ensure the achievement of another longer term goal. It's like the middle 15 overs in an innings of cricket. You've had a good start, but it's not time yet to hit every ball out of the park. So, till we reach the slog overs, we're all doing time!