My Strategy of Success

I had the privilege to be interviewed by Ms. Poonam Sagar of Indoindians, where I shared my experiences and tips on being a fulfilled and successful individual.

WHY NOT “WHY NOT!” ?

I was asked this question a couple of days ago,” What do you think about traveling to Georgia next month for a week?”. My immediate reaction was “Why? Why a week? Why Georgia? Seems so short for some place so far away? Seems..crazy.” I justified declining the idea with my busy schedule. I admit, as a travel adorer myself, the invitation was very tempting!

A day later, I attended an event where I heard a guy’s response to what could, for many, seem like an outlandish idea to be “why not!”
We are programmed to intelligently turn down ideas, say no to proposals, reject invitations by asking “why?”. Why this and why that were originally designed for finding reasons as to why something is, but more often than not are actually used as a logical excuse to why something shouldn’t be.

In the movie “Yes Man” out some years ago, Jim Carrey plays a guy that challenges himself to say ‘yes’ to everything for an entire year as a therapy. I’m not advocating that we should throw all our senses out the window and go with our impulses all the time. But then again, maybe that’s exactly the problem! We are shaped by society to use our rationale for all decision-making processes, which in effect our impulses became dull and tend to reject new ideas just because they’re foreign to us, which results in the denial of a myriad of possibilities.

Let’s pause and try something here. If we reversed the above formula and said, if I wanted to experience new things, then I’d have to try new ideas that are foreign to me, and therefore I’d have to give my brain a break and go the opposite of what it would say. Voila, the inverted formula works!

As I’m writing this, I researched the word impulsive, and I was surprised to see a source framing it to be of something negative. “Impulsive actions are typically poorly conceived and often results in undesirable consequences. When such actions have positive outcomes, they tend not to be seen as signs of impulsivity, but as indicators of boldness, quickness, spontaneity, courageousness, or unconventionality”

So I suppose it could just be a matter of words. For all intents and purposes, let’s not call it impulsiveness, but rather courageousness. What if, by saying “why not!” we are in fact practicing courage, honing on our spontaneity, sharpening our quickness. That doesn’t sound bad at all, does it? My challenge now to you is to courageously exclaim ‘yes!’ to a fresh bold idea without a second thought.

As for me, I may not end up going to Georgia next month, but I’m up for other crazy proposals!

This article was published by NOW!Jakarta magazine October 2014 issue. Please click here to see the online version of the magazine.