CHOOSE YOUR ATTITUDE

‘Everything can be taken from a man or a woman but one thing: the last of human freedoms to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way. When we are no longer able to change a situation, we are challenged to change ourselves’. – Viktor E. Frankl.

When I read the book – MAN’S SEARCH FOR MEANING - a few years back, little did I know that people would be fearing for their life again but this time all around the world. Year 2020 was tough for the World, but the Year 2021 has been devastating for India in particular. But what can we do? We still have the same 24 hours in a day and a life to live. How long the life would be - I don’t know but how strongly we can face a tough situation depends all on our attitude towards life. There is a saying - what has started has to end one day. So, it is for sure that our end is also certain, but the question is when? The answer is not known to the most intelligent people on the globe. What is even a bigger question to me - why do you even worry about that day? Just live in the moment – it might be your last, yes it might just be. COVID or no COVID what is the guarantee that one shall be alive to see the next moment. There is none – at least I cannot give, neither for myself nor for anyone else and I am sure no human can. So why worry so much about the fatalities caused by COVID. Learn to Fight to Survive – survive for the reason that you choose to live everyday for. It could be for yourself, your family, your pet, the person you love, your business or job – anything that keeps you going. Just Live for That Reason. Friedrich Nietzsche once said, ‘He who has a why to live can bear with almost any how.’

In the last couple of weeks all that we are hearing in the news channels is shortage of medical oxygen in national capital and other parts of the country and shortage of beds plus black marketing of just about everything related to healthcare – ranging from hospital beds to even the medicines required. With hearing all this and the fact that it is true, the mind tends to get on the negative track and I have heard from so many people that they are fearing for their life and also of their loved ones. One of my old friends who lives with her parents called me & said – I don’t know what I would do if my parents got the disease – how would I run around and look for hospital beds or oxygen. She went on to say – what if I got the disease, then I shall be a pain for my parents, what will the old people do. My wife told me that her friend called her the other day saying that her husband woke up in the middle of the night just to give her all the bank account details and the medical & life insurances in case anything happened to him. He could not even wait for the morning to tell her. This is the level (what I have heard) we people have got scared. But the fact of the matter is that we have to fight and face the consequences – consequences of our lack of discipline because whatever you say one thing is for sure – we have to respect this disease COVID. Respect and also honor the discipline that we have to have in our life now to be safe from it. Without respecting and understanding its potency we cannot safeguard ourselves because the day we feel it is ineffective we shall make a mistake and thereafter end up paying heavily. Furthermore, if anything happens – we have to fight, with all that we can. Fight for our lives or the family members – simple. The aim should be to survive. Roger Federer once said, ‘I fear no one, but respect everyone.’ Time to respect but not be afraid.

My point is – don’t be afraid of death & from tough situations that may arise to save a life, a loved one’s life. Do your best as that is what you can do best – rest is not in your hands. Live Life till you are alive – die only once and not every moment. Have a never give up attitude.