You are in control of your attitude
Ruleen de Witt
The choices you make, the actions you take, the food that you eat, and the friendships you make are all aspects that affect your daily life, as well as your physical and mental health.
We all work hard on our selfdevelopment and how we react or respond to difficult situations.
Therefore, I want to share a story with you by Divya Bhrambhatt.
It ’ s called the Cockroach Theory of selfdevelopment.
At a restaurant, a cockroach suddenly flew from somewhere and sat on a diner. She started screaming out of fear.
With a face stricken with panic and a trembling voice, she began to jump up and down, desperately attempting to rid herself of the cockroach.
Her reaction spread like a wildfire, causing everyone in her group to also become panicky.
After a valiant effort, the diner succeeded in pushing the cockroach away, but to everyone’s dismay, it landed on another person in the group.
Now, it was the turn of the second person in the group to carry on the drama.
The waiter rushed forward to their rescue. In the relay of throwing, the cockroach next fell upon the waiter.
The waiter stood firm, composed himself and observed the cockroach on his shirt.
When he was confident enough, he grabbed it with his fingers and threw it out of the restaurant.
The question is, was the cockroach responsible for their histrionic behaviour? If so, then why was the waiter not disturbed?
He handled it perfectly, without causing any chaos.
The problem was not the cockroach, but the inability of those people to handle the disturbance caused by the cockroach.
Transfer the lesson and you may realise it is not the shouting of your father or boss or wife that disturbs you, but your inability to handle the disturbances caused by their shouting.
It’s not the traffic jam on the road that disturbs you, but your inability to handle the disturbance caused by the traffic jam that disturbs you.
More than the problem, it’s your reaction to the problem that creates the chaos in your life.
Focus on the things you can control, not the things you cannot control.
You cannot control others’ behaviour, but you can control how you respond to it.
Lessons learnt from the story:
Instead of reacting to a situation, rather respond: the restaurant patrons reacted; the waiter responded.
Reactions are instinctive and responses are well considered.
The happy person is not that way because everything is right in their life; they are happy because their attitude towards everything in their life is right.
You can learn to respond differently to others or situations beyond your control. You control your attitude.
It is not what happens to you in life that is important; it is how you deal with it that is important.
Control your thoughts and you will control your life. It is your attitude towards life that will determine life’s attitude towards you.
If you feel you need help, contact the Sadag toll-free line or suicide helpline 0800- 567-567 (24 hours), or Cipla mental health helpline 0800-456-789, or Cipla WhatsApp line, from 9am to 4pm, at 076-882-2775.
You can also SMS SADAG 31393, available 24 hours.