Are we happy in life? Our response to any situation defines our happiness quotient
The cockroach story by Sunder Pichai uncoded
The beautiful life experience of Sunder Pichai, the Google CEO (Asia ) gives a deeper insight into how we react in certain predefined ways. Our response to different situations in the journey of life outlay whether our life is going to be stressful, happy, meaningful or can drift any other way.
Let us revisit the story. The calm atmosphere in a coffee shop was suddenly disturbed by a loud shriek from a lady. All heads turned towards her. A cockroach had fallen on her saree. She desperately cried and threw it away. The cockroach landed on another lady who repeated the same drama. Screaming loudly she threw it away and now the cockroach fell on the waiter’s shirt.
Just see what the waiter’s response was. He stayed composed and observed the cockroach.
He caught hold of the cockroach and threw it out of the restaurant. Let us analyze why the same cockroach evoked absolutely different behaviour in ladies and the waiter. While the fear of cockroach made the ladies uncomfortable, miserable and low – spirited, the no fear attitude of the waiter left him unaffected.
Sunder Pichai rightly interpreted that the embarrassing unhappy situations arise because of our inability to cope with the disturbances. The one who can control the situation better will have the ability to lead a happy life. We need to go deep into the story to understand why the reactions of ladies were different from the waiter.
Our childhood development learnings script how we behave when we grow up.
The script of this behavior of ladies was written long back in their childhood. From the very childhood, girls know that if they scream or create tantrums on seeing a cockroach, lizard or mouse they can get away with it. Rather they will be protected. On the contrary, boys are made to believe that they are boys and they do not have to display their fears publicly. They are supposed to be brave and are expected to face every situation boldly. To avoid being labelled as weak, the boys train their mind to win over their fears and present themselves fearlessly in every situation. This training becomes a habit and that’s the way men lead their lives.
Learn to take control of mind and train it.
Now it is amply clear that mind can be trained at our will and this training is going to script our happiness quotient in the journey of life. Had the lady been a Police Officer or Army woman, would she have reacted in a similar way? Definitely not. Because their tough training has made them fearless.
So why not we start training our mind with the skills that help us to lead a less stressful life. We all can change. Learn to see the behaviour of mind. Develop skills to direct mind the way we want.
Three must learn skills to lead a happy life.
- Be aware of the thoughts in the mind.
- Learn the art of acceptance.
- Clean the house ‘within’ strategy