Avoiding the grief of losing things
I am sure that this topic might sound quite childish and silly to some of you, but rest assured that it is quite far reaching in its implications. My dad used to tell me one bit of advice that has helped me in more situations than one. “ keep your eyes and ears open” was what he used to tell me time and again. Most of us go through many periods in the day where we are in a kind of trance and it is often in this period that we misplace things, lose them and go through untold trouble.
The funny part is this could be easily avoided with a few simple steps. I only write things that have worked for me. There is a very close friend of mine, the same guy who designed this website for me and has been there for me whenever I needed me. I once asked him how many things he has lost till date, (At that point of time I had just lost my cell phone and was going through a lot of pain as I hadn’t taken the precaution of storing my numbers in a diary.) Pat came the reply “I don’t remember losing anything” ( i know him too well to know that he was telling the truth). That answer took some time to sink in. I had almost taken it for granted that all of us lose at least x number of things during our lifetime and that a certain amount of pain is guaranteed.
At least in this respect how easy life must have been for him. No wasting of precious time energy and emotions Not to mention our confidence in ourselves getting a rude shock. After I incorporated the following steps in my life, the things I have lost have come down drastically. Best of all there was no extra effort on my part.
Step 1:- ANGER AT YOUR CARELESSNESS
Its kind of silly but it works. After I had lost a fair share of my things, and decided that enough was enough, this was the precise emotion that I felt. I treated carelessness as if it were a vile enemy. Who was it to keep pushing me around and causing me untold grief and inconvenience? Who was it to dominate me and cause me to act in ways that would lead to unwanted situations? I made a resolution that I will not allow it to push me around anymore.
Step 2:- Affirm for around 60 days in a row, 5 mins a day, that you have a perfect memory
This is important because most of us have been conditioned otherwise. You need to enlist help from your subconscious mind too. Once this belief is firmly imprinted, forgetting things would be a thing of the past. (I had been told a bazillion times as a child how forgetful i was ) Whenever you find yourself remembering something important reinforce to yourself how perfect your memory is, when you find that you have failed to remember something, tell yourself “ it’s alright, this is because of past conditioning which I am quickly getting rid of now”
Remember the subconscious looks for proof. There is no point affirming something which you do not believe. When you indeed remember something and internally praise yourself for the same, this, over a period of time is deeply embedded in your psyche and it becomes an imprint. After some time you would be surprised how unwanted things start happening less and less .
Once that is achieved you are ready for step 3 and 4.
Step 3:- RESOLVE TO MAKE A PLACE FOR EVERY IMPORTANT THING
There is a distinction, I see many people carrying this thing to an extreme. They make detailed lists of where even their 5 rupee coin is. Not only is it wasted time but also it means a lot of irritation for family members around. When people take it to this extreme, they become irritatingly fastidious and this makes them unpopular.
There is one incident that forever changed the way I thought about this step. I was in Chennai and my mom was at Bangalore away for a few weeks on some important work. Suddenly there was a call asking me if I was ready to do shows in Canada. As this was my first trip abroad, I was ecstatic and thrilled.
Then came the bolt. I was asked to furnish my bank statements, passport, write ups about me and various other stuff. I am not ashamed to admit that I did not know all this was necessary. All I thought was required was the passport. I had no clue as to how to get all these. My mom coming back to Chennai too was out of question.
Mom sitting at Bangalore told me where each thing was located. “ look in the 3rd row, left most corner at the back, one red folder where the deposit receipts are there, take Xerox copies, put the key back under the newspaper which is there in the kitchen, go to the bank meet so and so and ask for so and so” (to remember one instruction). The result was that I got all what I wanted in just a matter of a few days. I must say it was a totally humbling experience. I always used to feel why mom was so finicky about keeping things in their proper places.
I deeply realized that if it were not for her and her methodicity, I would never have gone abroad. Lets take a look at what I would have missed.
a. the thrill of going abroad
b. The money
c. The thrill of seeing new places, meeting new people and eating great food ( lake Ontario was like a
dream, Niagara falls was wow, Sean tower was incredible, I did see an incredibly beautiful girl there
too , drives along the broad roads were a delight, the scenic beauty was indescribable)
d. Having a very important feather in my profile. Shows like these get you other shows abroad
e. So many other incidental things that I am not able to recollect
Just one habit of being systematic and organized, what huge ramifications it had? I resolved that very day to change.
When you make a place for everything that is important and stick to it no matter what, it’s so easy. There is another person whom I know who is constantly searching for things. Small wonder that his life is in shambles. And yes, I do the same thing that I said in step 2. Whenever I lost something, I quickly made amends in my thinking instead of beating myself up for it.
STEP 4:- While going out make a mental list of what you have and imbibe the habit of frequent checking.
I did lose my second cell phone in the auto, I kept it in the seat and just when I realized, the auto guy was out of ear shot and sped away, when I called up, that guy had removed the SIM card. It felt terrible. Now wherever I go, it occurs naturally to me to just keep patting my pockets for the important things that I have. My purse, my cell and my bag.
Something fascinating occurred soon. I was in an auto again and this time the phone slipped out of my pocket coz the ride was very jerky. The moment I got down I did check and found it missing, ran behind the auto and retrieved it.
I know. I know. Some of you might be laughing at how silly all this seems. But it is not so silly when it happens to you.
These 4 steps look very long drawn but believe me they require practice of hardly 5 minutes a day. After that you are on auto pilot, not to mention the euphoric feeling that comes with not losing things. Do keep me informed. I would love to know from you if these have helped.
