16th April 2012
If you don't like something, change it. If you can't change it, change your attitude.
Maya Angelou
While dealing with people, we should understand that we deal with their attitudes and not merely with their behaviours. Sometimes, we may be dealing with difficult people who may not be willing to cooperate with us. In such situations, we need to be flexible in our approach in dealing with them. We should learn from sports people, who get excited with winning the most difficult opponent.
I recall a story to explain what it means to be flexible in our approach while dealing with a difficult person.
A soldier retired and returned to his home. His forty years of life at the battlefield had entirely changed his character. He was getting very aggressive and angry even for minor things. His wife got concerned and consulted Master who was practicing natural medicine. After listening to her, the Master wanted the whiskers of a live tiger to be added as an ingredient into the medicine he has to make. He warned her that the whiskers should be taken when the tiger was still alive and not from a dead tiger.
The wife took the challenge and went into a nearby forest where there resided a tiger. She mustered all her courage to near the tiger, but could not approach the tiger. Next day she was able go nearer, but not enough to remove the whiskers. Slowly she befriended the tiger by offering the tiger some food to eat.
One day the tiger asked her why she chose to become so friendly with him. She explained her `project whiskers' and explained how her husband will get cured if only she could have his whiskers.
The tiger took pity on her and allowed her to remove his whiskers. She ran to the Master and gave the whiskers of the live tiger. The Master took the whiskers and put the same into the fire which was burning in front of him. She was shocked to see all her risky efforts of procuring the whiskers go waste and asked the Master, why he burnt the whiskers.
The Master looked at her and with a smile and asked her if her husband was more dangerous than the tiger? He also explained her that she took the attitude of the tiger as granted and changed her attitude to woo the tiger to get want she wanted. With the same approach, he said, she can also win over her husband!
Moral of the story: we can get anything from anyone, if we understand their attitude and be flexible in our approach with reference to them!
N C Sridharan
0000
Posts
