“HONEY, I SHRUNK THE KIDS” IS a film that continues to haunt me to this day. It is classified as a fantasy or film for children. I think it has great lessons for adults too! Delightfully and exponentially it magnifies the small worlds that are in our midst which elude our normal vision but where a lot of both important and interesting things are going on. In many quirky ways the film has often dissuaded me from thinking about the tiny speck that I am in this universe and instead goaded me to think that I am indeed the monarch of the space that I inhabit with the power to change everything in that space, however limited it may be.
WHEN, IN THE REAL WORLD, situations confront us and sometimes induce a sense of helplessness and frustration, it helps to turn the searchlights towards ourselves and reflect on the phenomenal powers that reside within us to bring about changes around us however small they may seemingly appear to be. When the cynic in us reminds us “STOP TRYING TO CHANGE THE WORLD, YOU CAN’T !” it helps us to deflect that thought by focusing on things that can yet happen if we exercise the powers that reside within us, on time, with the best of intentions and to the best of our abilities.
AS STEPHEN COVEY often emphasized, we need to move from the circle of concern to the circle of influence. Despite all the limitations and constraints that inherently exist in our jobs and in our individual life situations, we still have the ability to bring about change around us, if, as stated earlier, we choose to exercise fully and properly the powers that reside within us.
SOMETIMES, ALL IT TAKES is one phone call, an email, a visit or a properly reasoned note to the powers that be to bring about long overdue changes that have remained needlessly elusive. There are people above us, below us, and around us making decisions all the time. The traffic jam in decision making may be at one’s own table. With respect to a matter, one may have, for instance, identified a problem as well as a solution and the final decision on implementing the solution may not fully be within our remit but we would remain the real culprits if we have not facilitated the badly needed decision if we have not “moved the matter” either upwards, across, or downwards, as the case may be for implementation.
GREAT DECISIONS are sometimes never made on account of self-fulfilling prophecies that we stupidly nurture within ourselves or quite simply because we may not get the credit for what we are doing. The trick actually lies in presenting things in a way that makes it difficult for anyone to either overrule or disregard us. How does it matter if some one has hijacked the credit due to you as long as you have accomplished something that you always wanted to happen ?
LET US NOT UNDERESTIMATE ourselves. There is a hell of a lot that we can do which can make a heaven of a difference. Doing what we are supposed to do is all that we have to worry about. Getting cynical about the awesome power that resides within us does not help. It only induces dullness and boredom. Life is too short to be frittered away in ennui. We need to wake up, and, as the saying goes, smell the coffee…
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