We are at the end of 2022 as I write this post. There are some major changes in my life as I look forward to 2023. I’m leaving behind certainty, and embracing randomness in my life now. It is not natural for me, but I’m trying to move out of my comfort zone. Taking a plunge into the unknown…
This TEDx talk by Mithila Palkar couldn’t have shown up at a better time. She is a young model and actor based out of India. I had noticed this talk earlier, but sort of ignored it back then. Nevertheless, it showed up at the right time. Here are some excerpts from her talk that resonated with me –
You cannot make everyone happy. What you can do, however, is make yourself happy, and that is very, very important.
So be brave, have faith in yourself, figure out what makes you happy, and go do it. Get a job, leave a job, dance, sing, fall in love, carve your own niche.
But most importantly, learn to embrace the randomness.
~ Mithila Palkar (in her TEDx talk)
The randomness
Life is far more unpredictable, random than what we’d like to believe. Nassim Taleb has written a book ‘Fooled by Randomness’ that delves much more seriously in this topic (some gist in this summary video). I’m not discussing it in this post. If you know Daniel Vassallo, he keeps talking about prevalence of randomness in our life. You can visit the link to see the ideas shared by him on randomness, and how he is accounting for randomness in his products and life. I keep learning from his notes/tweets.
My connect here is simple. Many of us strive to bring some amount of certainty, predictability in our work and life. To achieve that we prepare, and even plan for contingencies. I’m definitely not against planning, preparedness – quite the opposite in fact. However, the randomness is life is inevitable and pervasive. Instead of fighting it; it is far more rewarding to embrace it.
Sometimes when you realize that you’re on the wrong bus, it is fine to get down without knowing the schedule for alternative buses. You may still get down from the bus that takes you to a wrong destination. You just walk in the direction of your desired destination, not knowing exactly how and when you’ll get there. It applies to life as well. Sometimes, it is fine to not have a plan. It may allow some unexpected opportunities to walk into your life, something that you wouldn’t have considered otherwise. You give serendipity a chance – just embracing the randomness that life throws at you… happily! 🙂
Featured Image:
This beautiful image of the universe by Evgeni Tcherkasski is a great reminder how random the chance of our being, existence is. I’m using it here with gratitude.
