23rd May 2011
I have good anticipation, and good reaction to the the ball because I've played so many matches in my life.
Martina Hingis
We all know that we should take responsibility for our actions and lapses. But, will we agree that we should take responsibility for the actions and lapses of others? The answer is `yes'. An intelligent person will do so.
I want to share with you an interesting experience I went through a few days ago. I was travelling in a vehicle along with a few of my friends. We could notice that the driver was not that mature in his driving. We were discussing how to drive a vehicle carefully and what makes a good driver and a good driving.
As we were discussing this, our vehicle was passing through a sharp bend and the we saw a speeding truck just heading towards us just opposite to our vehicle. Luckily our driver avoided a serious accident. Obviously the truck was in the wrong lane.
Immediately our driver was blaming the truck driver and said how that person can come on the wrong side. He also asked us how he can be blamed for the fault of the other driver!
This is where an intelligent man differs in terms of his thinking quality and attitude to others' mistakes and lapses. While we may have no control on others' actions, mistakes and lapses, the most important thing we should do is to anticipate how others will behave. Don't you agree that driving safely means anticipating how the others will behave on the road? Leave alone driving. Take the example of crossing the road. Are we not taught how to cross the road anticipating in which direction vehicles will travel? While we need not be pessimistic that others will make a mistake, we can be careful to anticipate such a situation.
I will put it this way: in any situation the person who is going to be affected adversely will have to be more careful and anticipating. This is a mindset and attitude of mind. If we don't have this mindset, we will walk into one of the traps of blaming, complaining and criticizing.
Over this weekend do a small exercise. Take one experience you went through in which you were affected by someone else' mistake and jot down three points on how you could have mitigated the damage by anticipating how the other person would behave. This is what experience will go you – the ability to anticipate and improve the quality of your success.
N C Sridharan
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