CTRL ALT DEL

Few days’ back, while I was working on my computer, I don’t know why but it suddenly got stuck, the mouse didn’t work and the keyboard didn’t either. I was just starring at a dead screen. In our lives, relationships & in achievements of our dreams, there are moments when life gets paralyzed, comes at a standstill, just like the computer, one really doesn’t know what to do about it. Since I was totally engrossed in my work, I became totally lost, how did this happen, I didn’t do any thing wrong, I was just doing my work, there must be a virus in the computer, my mind was running wild yet it was at a standstill, but yeah there was one sigh of relief that I did save most of my work. In the standstills of life often there are moments when we are dumb founded, how the hell this happened, who is responsible? Numerous possibilities surround our wild imagination yet we are unable to move even an inch forward from where we start.

At that moment my mind was still stuck in thinking about how this happened, I again tried to unsuccessfully use the mouse and pressed some keys little harder thinking that it might work but nothing seemed to work at that time. “It must be the virus” auto generated reply came form my mind. The reply reminded me of the dialogue between chairs of two project teams who were supposed to coordinate together and turn two small projects into one mega project, something went wrong in the process and the projects halted, I remember both the chairs sat on the opposite ends of the table, trying to find why this happened, the meeting went for two long hours and end or the day, they both were blaming each other for the fault with no result. “Its your fault”, “You are responsible for all this”.

Doesn’t that sound like some thing familiar in our every day life, argument between couples, the discussion between colleagues and counterparts, negotiations between two rival countries, its happening everyday at so many places. How easy it is to shift blame on someone else or something else, and if nothing works then put the blame on fate and God that they are responsible for whatever is happening, it has nothing to do with us. Where are we in all the situation then, are we responsible for any thing or we have taken the sole responsibility is to shift the burden of responsibility on someone else’s shoulder.

There are so many couples that get divorced each year due to communication problem or get separated due to their inability to properly understand each other. It’s quite common for employees to resign from their jobs for not being able to adjust in the uncomfortable work environment. How often a fight starts between rival nations because of a dead lock in dialogues. What we hear from each and every side, person or nation involved, “He is the one who is responsible for our divorce”, the other side says“ I am getting separated because I can no longer tolerate her” “They are responsible for the loss of innocent live” its not the question of who’s right and who’s wrong, The question is who is willing to take the responsibility.

It reminds me of last year, I was traveling to a new town and got lost on my way. As it was a small road I was traveling very slowly, I saw a sign of a U turn near the dead end, as I was driving slowly, I was able to notice somebody’s writing on the U turn sign, It said “God always allows for U turns” so simple yet so deep, while after I took the U turn, I was still thinking how many times in our lives we are ready to take the U turn. I was thinking that would any one ever stop at dead end in the car and just stop it there, I guess never, any one in that situation will try their best to find a alternate way out, then why on earth we allow so many dead ends in our relationships, dreams and lives. Why we seldom think about the U turns that would allow us to go back and start afresh from where we digressed. Why aren’t we ready to rake the U turn in our relationships that could give love of both the separated parents to thousands of kids, Why are nations not ready to take U turn in order to save the lives of thousands of innocent citizens who fight for their country, the only question that is hammering in my mind again and again is WHY NOT?

My little niece who is computer savvy was playing near by, she saw me doing all that with the computer, she came to me and said ‘Press CTRL ALT DEL”. I believe that she knows more about computer then me, I trust her knowledge, therefore without even thinking any thing, I just did what she said and the computer started rebooting again, eventually it re started. When they asked Edison why you are trying still again when u have already tried so many times, he said now I know these many ways not to make a bulb, he didn’t accept the stand still, he would go back in the lab and try another way to make the bulb, if even that didn’t work, he would go for another, Mr. Honda, or any one who has left any significant marks on our lives today, none of them gave up, they all knew their U turns very well and they knew one more principle TAKING RESPONSIBILITY AND NEVER GIVING UP. They always restarted their thinking what tom peters call “Re imagining” a totally new way of thinking where there are no boundaries, they don’t think out of the box, they just burn the box and then restart their thinking in entirely new dimensions and that’s the only reason each one of them is now in the top list of people who have had the highest impacts on our lives today.

Aren’t we all tired of playing the blame game, acting like fools, are we ready to do something constructive, really make some thing happen. Are we ready to press the CRTL ALT DEL in our relationships, in our negotiations, in our dead ends to get a fresh start, Are we ready to Re-start the process, Re-live our dreams, Are we ready to take the U turns, Are we ready not to give up again? Are we ready to achieve our goals? Are we ready to make something happen? As it is wisely said


The best way to make something happen…is… to make it happen


Are we ready?