By Anu Dev
We can try to be prepared for every eventuality. We can do our best to try to figure out what’s ahead, but the truth is we’re not in charge of our external environment.
We can certainly try to predict how the people around us will act or behave, but we can never be 100 per cent sure. We have to learn to improvise, or at least be open to the concept of having to make the best of what circumstances we’re in.
We have to try to be a bit more flexible, to be willing to accept things for being what they are, instead of how we want them to be. And once we don’t spend time panicking about things not being exactly as we wanted them to be, and instead think up a new plan of action, we might be surprised that the end result might be better than expected.
Unexpected things will always come up and may be in our preparations, we should start preparing ourselves to have to think on the spot or make quick decisions, instead of just preparing for a single event. It’s not the end of the world if you’re missing some ingredients from whatever you planned on cooking, just alter the dish and create something new.
We could go into a classroom to teach a group of kids math, expecting them to be excited and enthusiastic about the subject already, when in reality, they’re all falling asleep at their desks, drooling as they’re anticipating dinner.
So what should that teacher do? Improvise! Try to MAKE the subject interesting, use videos, visual aids, and relate the subject matter to real life situations.
One of the biggest complaints students in math classes are often times heard repeating is, “When will I ever use this in real life?” As a teacher, you should help them realise the possible ways in which they might actually use trigonometry outside of school. Some kids are more maths-oriented, and naturally have a liking for math, but what about the others? You have to come up with ways to teach the subject so that they’ll actually want to learn it.
And every day we’re thrust into new and unexpected situations. We could show up at a meeting, expecting other people to take charge, but for whatever reason, they just can’t. We could be the ones who step up to the plate. We can adapt to the new role of leader and sometimes we’ll find that it’s a position we thrive in.
And of course there are the little improvisations we make every day.
Singing a song and can’t remember all of the lyrics? Most of us just make up new ones. Do the new lyrics always make perfect sense? No, but they allowed us to finish the song while keeping in tune.
We need to be more willing to accept circumstances for being what they are and adapting to do the best we can. As Gandhi once said, “Be the change you want to see in the world”.