At first glance the title of this post sounds oxymoronic, but, after reading this post you might get a little convinced that its not so oxymoronic. Most of us know how it feels to bear the tag of being Careless. Our parents have scolded us for being so, our teachers have been disappointed with us for being so, our friends have consoled us for being so, and sometimes, we've been resentful of ourselves for being so.
The underlying truth is that no one wishes to be careless; no one behaves carelessly on purpose. We all know this! Of late, I have come to understand that most times we are meticulously trying to be so careful that we end up being careless. I'd like to put this statement into perspective with some examples.
1. Being extremely careful in locking the doors and closing the windows of our car and in the act leaving the keys of the car inside.
2. Reading and re-reading the content of an important e-mail before sending and then sending it without attaching the attachments.
3. Revising our answer sheet a dozen times before submitting it and then submitting it without writing the roll number.
Sounds familiar? These were just a few that I could randomly think of. I am sure you can think of more.
In each of these cases, it wasn't that we weren't mindful, it was probably that we were preoccupied with something we thought was more important. The fault may not always be in the amount of "care" we take while doing something but may, in fact, lie in the way we "prioritize" the different micro-actions involved in doing it. I like calling it the Improper Prioritization Syndrome (IPS).
Good one.....
ReplyDeleteOne such example is when we change our phone number..
We are careful enough to tell all our friends that we have changed our number but it becomes careless when we send "Hi this is my new number" :)
Guy on the other end is left clueless and he thinks
"Ok alrite....thats great but what was your old one "
Good one carefully careless
I like it that you call this as IPS. they've even got posts called IPS officers, I'm told :P
ReplyDeleteWell Divya, isn't it that most of us do throughout our lives?
ReplyDeleteWe tend to believe some short-term-important-yet-long-term-trivial things as important and in the process train our neurons to become oblivious of the real-long-term-important ones. And, I'm not talking about tangible things/achievements/goals here, they're the ones we cross-check, it's the not-so-tangible ones, that we turn a blind eye towards!
Just a thought :)
Nice though, Abhishek!
ReplyDeleteIn fact, "your thought" gives "my thought" a very wide dimension. :)