OVERLOOKING

Does everything that we come to know need our attention? The answer to this question is, “No.”

Does everything that we come to know and pay attention to need our attention? Offering the right answer to this question is not easy, in fact, it is very difficult. Most of us would prefer to say ‘yes’, arguing that to err on the safe side is better than committing a blunder of overlooking what was not worth overlooking.

The important thing is how much of our time and energy we spend on things that we consider to be worth paying attention to, actually being of insignificant consequence; thereby leaving little time and energy to pay adequate attention to things that are of much importance. It is extremely difficult to formulate rules and draw guidelines to help us in deciding the things that need our attention and for discarding all that matters little. The only way out is to analyze each and every of our reaction and response to external stimuli. If we do it, we will find that, in most of the cases, it is our lack of trust in ourselves and the others, which compel us to become unduly concerned about what we face while dealing with the world around us.

If we trust ourselves and do not have many doubts about the intentions of the others, we will feel more confident of our abilities to sail through the adversities that we may be confronted with. That will help us overlook many things that do not call for our attention, leaving adequate time and energy at our disposal to deal with things that may pose a real threat to our peaceful existence. To live and let others live peacefully and meaningfully we must learn the secrets of overlooking.

PROMOD KUMAR SHARMA 

[The writer of this blog is also the author of “Mahatma A Scientist of the Intuitively Obvious” and “In Search of Our Wonderful Words”.]