What Should I Do?

There are times when we find ourselves in situations that are unacceptable, frustrating and we want to do something about them, anything to undo or change those situations. Situations like being attacked or insulted by someone, situations that involve breaking rules that are not justified.

There are times and moments and situations in which we have to make a decision to either simply bear on what is happening or retaliate and face the consequences. Most of us have been in situations like that and we did what we could or thought best at the moment but as time goes by and you visit the moment again and again in your mind, you realize that perhaps you should have done something different so that the outcome wouldn’t be what it was.

We can never know what would have happened if we did something different but what we can do is prepare ourselves for the next time we find ourselves in a similar situation. What that situation will be and when it will be is not for us to figure out. All we have to do is to understand where to draw the line between bearing on and retaliating.

There is a thin line between Stupidity and Bravery

If you understand where the line is then you will never regret your actions after the situations are dealt with, because you would know that you made the most right and logical decision that wasn’t just instantaneous, but that came through to you after a long process of evaluation.

People deal with such situations in their own ways. Some choose to be outrageous; speaking out things that are not in parallel with their own character. Some are ready to take on the whole world and there are some who choose to be completely silent; neither speaking out anything nor taking any slightest bit of action to stop what is happening and just bearing it on as if they deserve it. Both these responses can cause them more harm than the situation itself.

If you have ever played chess, you should know that if you don’t make any moves and let your opponent make all the moves, you would lose in the most humiliating way possible. That is exactly what will happen if you choose to be silent when you face someone in real life. However, even if you don’t know how to play a game of chess and you make your moves, you will still be making it difficult for your opponent to get to you. So it would be rather Stupidity to not make any moves.

So the question arises? What is the appropriate response to these situations? Any extreme response is the worst response. Keeping silent and speaking out outrageously in response to an insult are both extreme responses. The appropriate response is somewhere in between.

If someone has insulted you during an event, the right response would be that you say something in reply that convinces the whole audience that the insulting guy is wrong while maintaining your respectable stature. In other words, you have to do something that turns the tables over.

The best defense is a good offense

Some people never stay silent when confronting someone but rather they take it too far while retaliating. They understand that in such a situation it is wrong to be silent but what they don’t understand is that, it also not right to be outrageous. They make moves without thinking and it causes them as much regret and harm as it would, if they had stayed silent.

In chess, it is easy for your opponent to beat you if you make bad moves and play into his traps. If you are playing your opponent’s game and not your own, he will manipulate you into making mistakes that will make him victorious at the end. Make your moves but don’t make the moves that your opponent want you to make. Control your emotions, discipline your mind. Don’t react but rather act!

A warrior acts, the fool reacts

Think of it this way. Let’s imagine you are a commander a 100 man medieval army. You face your enemy who are 1000 men strong. If you stay where you are and do nothing, you will lose everyone without any loses for your enemy. People may mourn your defeat but you will be gone! If you charge at your enemy with full force, you will still lose everyone because they have you where they want you and can just finish you off with arrows from a distance. The only way to win and save most of your men is to make strategical moves that gives you an advantage over them.

A person who does nothing when he is faced with a challenge is not brave. And a person who lets his emotions get in the way is not brave either. The only bravery is to remain calm during challenging times and making the most logical choices. Courage or bravery is the triumph over those fears that you will feel under those challenging circumstances. When you are afraid of what might happen and yet you do what you believe you must, then you truly are brave.