If you are wondering what that weird abbreviation is, it is this: “Lessons From The Road”.
With this post, I hope to embark on a journey (pun intended), where sometimes, I’ll be sharing some of the lessons I’ve learnt while being on the road. And before you think of me as having a fun, travel-based lifestyle, and this as being some sort of a worldly-wise, rich collection of experiences (I wish!), let me tell you that, unfortunately, that is not the case.
When I say “lessons from the road”, what I mean is things I’ve noticed, or thoughts I’ve stumbled upon, while literally being on the road, behind a wheel. I enjoy driving, long drives specifically. There’s something about the open road, with the wind in my face, that tends to put me in a philosophical mood. That, coupled with the focus on driving, makes me notice some parallels / analogies between our journey on the road,, and our journey in life. And that is the genesis of these thoughts.
This is the first post in the series. However, this isn’t the first thought – there have been some earlier as well, but this is the first one I’m writing about. Keep an eye out for the rest in the future, as I hope to share them once those are penned down as well.
So, without further ado, here’s LFTR #1: Switching lanes frequently isn’t always as helpful as we might think.
Here’s what I mean by that:
Those of us who have driven a lot, specially in moderate to heavy traffic, will know that when driving, we invariably feel like the other lane is moving faster than ours. So, we try to switch lanes believing that we’ll be able to get to our destination faster that way. But it’s not just restricted to that one switch – once we switch to that other lane, we again feel like another lane is faster. So, we switch to that, and on and on. Sometimes, we even return to the original lane we were in, thinking that it is now the fastest one.
But in reality, it hardly makes much difference. Sure, we might be able to reach our destination five or ten minutes earlier, but given the length of the journey, which is usually much longer relatively, it’s hardly worth all the effort at all. At least, that’s how it has been in my experience.
Now, how does that apply to life?
I think we can all agree that life is quite like a journey. We are all travelers towards a destination. Some people know where they are going, while some people have just hopped onto the wagon, hoping to decide on the way.
And when we look at others around us, many times we feel that they are going faster than us. Many of us personally know of a high-achiever in our friend circle, or family, or office, or neighbourhood, who’s very successful, sweating it out, hustling, making good money, etc. Hell, there’s an actual phrase for it: “being on the fast track.”
And then we look at ourselves, and we feel like we should be doing more – being more active, more purposeful, more successful. So, we start “switching lanes”, which could take different forms.
One such example, that I’ve gone through myself, is switching jobs frequently, in the hopes of finding better compensation, better learning opportunities, etc. All in the hopes that we’ll get somewhere faster.
Other examples could be: moving from one relationship to another quickly, again, in the hopes of finding “the one” faster. Or, going from pursuing one passion to another, and then another, each time thinking that we’ll find our purpose in the new one.
But does it really help that much?
Sure, when we have to take a new direction – while driving, or in life – we do need to switch lanes. Or, if we see any obstacles in our lane, we have no option but to do it. And of course, when switching to the right lane, can indeed take us much faster to our destination, we should definitely do that as well. Sometimes, it’s even okay to switch just for the sake of it, just to get a different view, where you are not just blindly following the person in front of you, but actually enjoying the journey, being able to drive at your own pace.
But in many cases, switching lanes is just more of an exercise in making ourselves believe that we are doing something to achieve our goals. It gives us something to focus on in the present, to take action on, rather than just being okay with our lane, the status quo.
Every switch requires efforts and energy. We need to concentrate, be aware of our surroundings, think carefully about the timing, when to slow down and when to accelerate, etc. If we are not careful, we can cause a serious accident, that might hurt us, as well as those around us. Think of this in context of the examples I mentioned earlier – careers, relationships, purpose in life, etc.
So, I feel, when we decide to “switch lanes”, it should be worth all that effort. It should be a very conscious decision, where we ask ourselves if it will really benefit us long term, or if it’ll just give us a small, temporary gain. Will it lead to a better quality and experience of the journey? If we are headed in the right direction anyway, do we really need to do it?
To sum up, I’m not against switching lanes. Sometimes, it is required; sometimes, it is fun; sometimes, it can be massively transformative, in a good way. But what we need to be careful against is doing it constantly and frequently. Every switch requires effort, and must be undertaken as a careful, conscious choice.
A drive marred by constantly changing lanes makes for a choppy journey, tiring us out, without really bringing us to our destination any sooner.
Till next time!
So, what do you guys think of the first post in the series? Do you see the parallels that I see, or I’m seeing things that are not really there? Would love to hear your feedback in the comments section below!
For more such posts, please follow Echoes In The Ether on Facebook, WordPress, or Medium.
Photo by Julie Tupas @ Unsplash
Echoes In The Ether 