Thought for the day twenty three

Do not bite more than you can chew

This is a maxim which has to be remembered forever. We generally try to take more responsibilities than we can actually capable of carrying out. The additional ‘yes’ is expressed only to satisfy our ‘ego’ or impress someone else. We have to understand that we have limitations. The free time which we get when we don’t have any responsibility to shoulder, could be used for praying, introspection and even meditation, new learning. These will reduce the thoughts which make our minds restless. The peace of mind would be greater when the thoughts are few.

Quite an impressive maxim this is. When we eat our food, if we bite more than what our mouth can hold to chew, we actually choke. The choking could result in horrible cough or even death.

When this is the case, we have to be careful even when the maxim doesn’t refer to just the physical.

We choke when we have more jobs to fit in a specific time frame. It is always better to under promise and over deliver rather than over promise and under deliver or do not deliver at all.

We have come across people who put their fingers in all the pies available and end up finally only licking their fingers or open wounds.

The wounds would appear since their ego does not allow them to swallow the pride and say ‘I am sorry, I can’t do this’. They find that these words are uttered by a useless person.

Whom are we trying to cheat? Ourselves actually. If we can do what is possible to do in the stipulated time, we would be appreciated. On the other hand, if we fail to deliver, even though capable, just because we could not give the time what the job required, we are branded as useless.

To avoid such drastic remarks, we have to weigh the situation, the job and the time required and our capability to deliver.

If we are sure that we can deliver what is required and without hampering anything else, than we can safely assume that we have bitten what we could chew.

 I have seen many managers in various companies. They want to hog the limelight. So they take up all the jobs what are hanging around. Some of them could as well be carried out by the people who are under them; but they don’t allow because, the name we get by taking up these jobs. If we don’t complete the job, we definitely get a bad name for non-completion. But names we get are that we are lazy, complacent, and useless.

On the other hand, if we do have some free time, we could use it for our prayers. We could do meditation which puts our mind at peace. If we carry out introspection in the free time, we could understand what mistakes have committed and how to correct them next time.

The self-study puts us in a good place in the office. We could improve our knowledge, or the communication skills by reading and speaking.

If we feel burdened we should think about what we told our colleagues. Probably we have told ‘don’t worry, I will do it’

Taking up of more things that what we can actually do will end up in we not having time even to change the light bulb in our bathroom!

We have to realize that we have bitten more than what we can chew and spit out the additional stuff in our mouth.

We need to control our stress and not the other way round. We can’t become slaves to our stress.