When Anticipation Became The Saving Grace!

 

I was both blessed and cursed to get the opportunity to work in Customer Relations Department.

Blessed because I got the chance to deal with different kinds of temperaments and could learn a lot about handling people.

Cursed because I got the chance to deal with different kinds of temperaments, many of them vicious in their approach.

My job profile included attending to customers’ queries through emails, letters (yep, I belong to THAT generation!) and the worst of all – phone calls. While the emails and letters weren’t particularly difficult to handle, phone calls were a whole another level of challenging and often turned a good day into the worst one.

Usually, I loved going to office. It was situated in Colaba which is one of my favourite places in Mumbai. I would walk from CSTM station to Colaba, enjoying the sights of books being sold on the pavement and the old heritage aura of Mumbai. I would be in a good mood while starting my day in the office.

But many days it would take just one phone call to upset my whole day. One rude customer, one nasty comment, two minutes of unreasonable and unjustified demands and I would stare longingly at the watch, hoping for the day to end soon so that I could escape and get some peace.

Recently I came across a quote which went something like this – You should prepare yourself for the imperfection of others. This quote reminded me of all the bad days that I used to have in office and how I gradually learnt to not to allow them to get to me. Without knowing, I had already started implementing the wisdom of the above quote much before I came across this.

Just a few minutes before I reached office, I would remind myself to consider all the things that could go wrong. That extremely irritating colleague who often passed snide comments could step by for a ‘Hello’. The seniors could give a hard time. There could be upsetting phone calls and unreasonable customers. I could make mistakes. I would remind myself of all the things that could threaten my inner peace that day. While this didn’t stop the disasters from happening, it did prepare me for the catastrophe, and I could manage to retain my calm and not lose it entirely.

How is this related to my happiness project, you wonder? Well, I still use this technique every morning. You think being a homemaker wouldn’t invite that much of chaos and disaster in your days. Spoiler alert – it does. All it takes is your teenager shaking his head for the umpteenth request you make, and suddenly inner peace and calm fly out of the window like they never existed in the first place.

Being a homemaker brings its own set of challenges. Dealing with rushed mornings where the kid has to go to school and the husband needs to leave for his office, the tempers that fly when everyone is late, the project that has to be submitted tomorrow but the kid informs you tonight, the endless search for pens and other stationery, the work, oh, the never-ending work! Its messy and chaotic and tests every iota of my patience.

Every morning, I sort of prepare myself for all the challenges lying ahead, of all the possible ways the day could go wrong, of all the arguments, fights and tantrums that may erupt as everyone rushes through the hectic morning. Again, this preparation no way stops the disasters from happening, but I feel like I gain an advantage over the day when I prepare myself for all the surprises (and shocks) it may bring my way. Not every day is a success, but most of the days this technique works. Every day that I didn’t blow up my fuse is a successful day for me!

May be one of the steps in the quest for happiness is to get rid of the small mental pricks that irritate you and upset your balance. And preparing for imperfections – of yourself, of the people around you, of situations and most importantly, of the whole day – definitely protects your peace to a great extent (remember to leave aside some room for the tiny prick that may still infiltrate your mind in spite of everything you prepared for – that also is an imperfection that you need to accept!).

This blog is sprinting its way to the finish line with Piyush's Plotters as part of The Blogchatter Half Marathon!