Why Compass Matters in Uncertain Times like Now?
These are some of the most testing times that, we as humans have faced both financially and emotionally. Being worried about the future itself is an insurmountable task. Adding salt to injury is, unable to get out of our homes.
As someone who has been unable to comprehend, the scale and devastation the pandemic has caused in the past months, it almost feels like there is no tomorrow.
Then I came across this post from Inc, which introduced me to the wonderful book Whiplash: How to Survive Our Faster Future.
Humans as species, don’t like to deal with uncertainties. We are hard-wired to avoid uncertainties at any cost. All our inventions & discoveries were aimed at removing this inherent uncertainty associated with life.
To travel the oceans we needed to know where we are going (uncertain about the direction), which led to the invention of the compass. We needed greater certainty about where we are at this point of time, which led to the invention of Maps.
As they say everything has its own pros and cons. Though maps introduced greater certainty, they also reduced our ability to face the unknown. We assumed that nothing has changed or that the past is how the future will be.
In Contrast, the future will be nothing like the past
We don’t want to take new routes or go to places we have never been.
Until now our lives have been much more like walking with a map in our hand, even though it is insanely difficult with all its ups and downs. The pandemic has certainly taken it a notch higher.
That’s why we need to take the compass again. We know that we have come out of this, victorious simply because We are Humans and that’s what we do, that’s what we have been for the past so many millions of years.
It is time for us to take the routes we have not traversed before, opportunities we have taken for granted and forge ahead with all we have.
Just like the compass point the north, let our goals, ambitions be the True North Star in the path we are taking and we will not stop until we reach them.
Let me end with a quote from Swami Vivekananda
Arise, awake, and stop not till the goal is reached
