By: Naveed Taj Ghouri

Last evening, I got a little Text…

“Imagine…

You are in a sinking boat and surrounded by sharks! How do you survive?”
.
.
.
.

While pressing down-key of my cell, my mind was juggling through multiple answers for the question. I was expecting something extremely funny… But the answer didn’t make me laugh or sizzle, instead it  strike a chord inside me with a surprise!

The answer of this question was…

“Stop Imagining!”

and I was like… “Wow!”

This led me to think that most of us are in that situation where we have self-created sharks around that boat, hungry and deadly enough to kill us. Something I would like to call “The Sharks Dilemma”.

Everyone has his or her own sharks (problems, excuses, guilt and fears), surrounding his boat (mind), As an outcome, we keep on thinking up to the frustration level that how to survive (get rid of)? For someone, there might be the sharks of family, relationships, no-confidence, becoming rich, bad class room grades, loosing assets in stock market, wearing brands, selling the products, buying a big house,  getting a good car and living a luxurious life. Another could be a shark of losing the job , failures of life or even targets like keeping everyone happy. Aren’t many of us living in constant anxiety, guilt or fear due to the things or events, which even haven’t been occurred or are uncontrollable by our means. A depressed mind full of guilt or fear is actually destroying our present.  Guilt is something, what we have done in the past but still carrying it on our shoulders and fear is any kind of uncertainty for the future. We have forgotten to live in the present.  God has gifted us time  to celebrate the usefulness of every moment. We do contaminate our present through worries, while the solution is very simple and obvious… “Stop Imagining!!!”

Yes, just let that go and accept the things and situations as they are. Leave all your guilt and fears far behind. Stop worrying for the things which are actually happening with you more of inside rather than outside. Now there is a little difference between having a desire or passion and sucking your teeth in to problems. It’s good to have a goal or desire something, but don’t let it too noxious for yourself. Just think and ask yourself, do you have any plans? Have you set your goals or inching towards the target? Are you just worrying? Have you started your journey or keep unnecessary waiting for the miracles to be happening?

Another way to look at this amazing little answer is that, often we go through complicated routes and complex solutions for our problems. We ignore the simple answers under our noses. Let me tell you a story in the end:

The execs at an airline manufacturer were having problems with the wings literally ripping off the planes. They asked the entire company to suggest possible solutions for the problem. One of the suggestions worked perfectly well: “Put holes in the metal connectors that hold on the wings.”

The company execs asked the person who suggested to come forward and were surprised to be faced by the toilet cleaner. “How did you know that would work?” they asked him.

“Well” he said, “I noticed that toilet paper never tears along the dotted lines!”

So stop imagining! Your boat is not sinking and there aren’t any sharks… This is the best way to survive!