At a restaurant, a cockroach suddenly flew from somewhere and sat on a lady. She started screaming out of fear. With a panic-stricken face and trembling voice, she started jumping, with both her hands desperately trying to get rid of the cockroach. Her reaction was contagious, as everyone in her group also got panicky.
The lady finally managed to push the cockroach away but ...it landed on another lady in the group.
Now, it was the turn of the other lady in the group to continue the drama.
The waiter rushed forward to their rescue. In the relay of throwing, the cockroach next fell upon the waiter. The waiter stood firm, composed himself, and observed the behavior of the cockroach on his shirt. When he was confident enough, he grabbed it with his fingers and threw it out of the restaurant.
Sipping my coffee and watching the amusement, the antenna of my mind picked up a few thoughts and started wondering, was the cockroach responsible for their histrionic behavior?
If so, then why was the waiter not disturbed?
He handled it near to perfection, without any chaos.
It is not the cockroach, but the inability of those people to handle the disturbance caused by the cockroach, that disturbed the ladies.
I realized that it is not the shouting of my father or my boss or my wife that disturbs me, but it's my inability to handle the disturbances caused by their shouting that disturbs me.
It's not the traffic jams on the road that disturbs me, but my inability to handle the disturbance caused by the traffic jam that disturbs me.
More than the problem, it's my reaction to the problem that creates chaos in my life.
This is a short story told by Mr. Sundar Pichai, quite a bit of an insight into the mind of the person who runs Google or better said the Internet!! It is a kind of learning story to tackle the adverse situation in a cool mind. Life doesn’t always throw at us pleasantries but also disappointments, whether in an emergency or just daily interactions with others, learning how to respond rather than react can make a huge difference in the outcome of situations. It is very important to put calmness on the agenda.
What do you think about the cockroach theory? How often do we react than respond to a problem at work? Do you often feel that you may have overreacted to a certain situation and it could have been handled differently?
To wrap it all up, it is much better to respond to life stress instead of reacting to them. This will help you develop the right attitude in enriching your life, despite the challenges that come your way.
P.S: I bet the waiter went into the bathroom and screamed silently while washing his hands and did the dance. 😂🤣
Hahaha that is so much fun at the end of the story about the waiter, who could have probably ended up in the restroom silently and jumping to his toes.... That's clean.
Nice it is not to overreact for any situation than to unlearn the behaviorial pattern that most of us do.