By Sanjeev Kotnala
The world is made up of Probortunities doors, and they can open both ways. They can be considered an opportunity or a problem as per the hue of the glasses. To know the truth, all one needs to do is open the door, step through it and embrace the new world.
Sorry, It is not so simple even if you know the situation reasonably well. Even if one is supremely confident and charged enough to boldly open the door. There is always an element of doubt that stops us, and we hesitate and re-evaluate, leading to delays.
Desiring Perfection And Certainties
Magic Eye represents the desire for more information than available, thinking it will help make the right decisions and face uncertainties, some real and some assumed. In the cautious approach, one loses momentum, and the probortunity disappears. Everything seems to be a mirage. And no one knows what way the things would have moved.
Remember, perfection is a myth, and there is never complete information or certainty in time, efforts and results. And hence, there cannot be a perfect decision. At best, it could be the best decision basis the information available and possible alternatives.
The outside world is chaotic and in complete flux. At any given point if time, it is being pulled in multiple directions by the invested stakeholders while we stare at the door and think of the magic eye.
Open The Door
Mysteries are revealed when the door the opened. One will know if the door leads to opportunities, challenges, unchartered paths, problems, solutions, or something unknown only when the door is opened. The truth is that no one knows beyond the door unless one opens it.
Naturally, anxiety takes over. Dark threatening clouds of uncertainties cast shadows of mistrust. Capability and compatibilities are questioned. Imaginary negativism raises its ugly hood making one doubt the potential and possibilities. In the process, the present gets overpowered and crippled by past experiences and future expectations. One forgets the task and the need to remain and live in the moment.
Everyone wants to be sure, get guaranteed results, and be prepared for the future. The funny part is everyone knows that the future is vague, and no one has seen it. There is no way to predict, and the best experiences or education cannot guarantee it.
Future is never in your hands. It takes shape at (n-1)th moment and dies immediately in the present. One gets so entangled in biases of past experiences that one stops living the moment. We forget that the future is a chase of uncertainties, and the past is a reservoir of experiences and learnings.
Magic Eye
Where there is a door, there is always a magic eye. Physical, metaphorical or imaginary. It facilitates a one-way vision into the possible future or past. It helps with what is there on the other side. But like every magic eye, it is a one-way window, and it can, at best, look back into the past. The magic eye does not help look at the future because the future does not exist in the present.
Life’s magic eye is unlike what you find in the hotel rooms. It allows you to look back onto the corridor you walked before, and it does not allow the view to the inside of the room. Anyway, neither the vision nor the need for the vision is the same.
We Seek Hints Of Possibilities
Don’t get me wrong, but there are moments when keeping the door closed and ignoring the magic eye may be the best policy. Enjoying the comfort of dark uncertainties is more soothing. But, it will never last; it is not meant to last. A newly heightened awareness will surround with time, and one will hopefully act. One will start building own algorithms for the magic eye or absence of a magic eye.
There are multiple doors of opportunities, problems, and challenges surrounding us in our professional and personal life. The magic eye is mounted on all these doors. So, expect to walk the corridor of life using a one-way magic eye. However, remember that your magic eye on the door of probortunities could be a senior, confidant, consultant, or colleague.
Get comfortable with the vague future and amplified scenarios. Enjoy the beauty of inferred realities. At some stage and hopeful the right stage, one will move with a degree of uncertainty to open the door. Because stagnation is not life, movement is. So, the door will need to be opened at some stage, magic eye or not.
Collective Push
Most of us are happy to live with a collective failure than chase risky individual success. Hence we tend to democratically move and decide to look through a magic eye that cannot guarantee a 20:20 vision.
A Simple magic eye gives a tunnelled vision. Some with experience can have a wide-angle view, hoping to catch the hidden clues at the edges. And, when it does not make sense, we ask experts to interpret the images.
Detailed vision depends on many parameters. The height of the mounted magic eye. How early do we seek vision interpretations? How important is it to open the door and face uncertainties?
Magic Eye Advisors
People claim to interpret magic eye visions, and they can hopefully make sense of the magic-eye vision. However, they really don’t have skin in the game, and they don’t have to finally push the door open and take the step. They, too, suffer from the bias resulting from past vision interpretations, experiences, and expectations.
The inexperienced person has an uncomplicated unbiased view, and they see hazy pictures. But, they are more open to taking the plunge with uncertainties. They know life to be uncertain, so they have a higher degree of acceptance of uncertainties.
In corporate life, the magic eye promotes a cautious approach, collectivism of decision making and vision interpretations.
Corporations expect a hostile competitive environment. And they want giant magic eyes or one with a better field of vision. This, in turn, gets reflected in risk-averse behaviour and procrastination, and the doors remain untested.
Closing the Door
There must be some merit in being bold and closing the magic eye, facing the uncertainties directly. In the process, defining and deciding which side of the door one wants to be. There are always multiple options.
Playing to the inherent fear and being cautious, we try installing windows where the magic eye was. Sometimes, it does not makes any difference, and the magic eye and the windows remain ornamental.
So trust me, it is more fun to ignore the magic eye, open the door, step outside and learn by experience than to be over cautious and try multiple magic eyes for the elusive insight. Multiple magic eyes could result in differential images combining to create a collage one may not be able to make sense of.
Net-Net
Ultimately, every one of us has to decide individually what to do with the magic eye mounted on our doors. Many are the victim of the magic-eye barrier. The magic eye-stopping them from moving forward. They know that it is time to close a few magic eyes in life and open a few more doors. But, then, as I said, knowledge and vision are not everything.
The decision, as they say, is always yours.
The magic eye is directional and a tool to help, not the crutches for you to ride.
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