One day, when I was a Colonel and commanding a combat unit, I returned home very late for lunch. Although, physically back home for some food, my mind was still reeling with the stuff at work. I was unable to notice an old friend who had come on a surprise visit and was sitting in the lawn, chatting with my wife for the past two hours. He read my mind well and smiled. When my wife moved to the kitchen for laying the lunch, we got talking over the pre-lunch drinks.
My friend, also a senior colleague, explained that when we had joined the army twenty years back, as Second Lieutenants, ten men each were placed under our command. These men made one, two or three mistakes every day. The lapses were of simple nature like getting late for parade, untidy turnout, slouching or missing salutations. It was very intimate command. We noticed almost every lapse and were well trained to take corrective actions. Thus, at the end of the day, we were quite satisfied with ourselves.
After two years, we were commanding thirty to forty soldiers. By law of averages these boys committed six to seven misdeeds every day and we noticed almost all of those. It was not a big deal to rectify these, as the problems were still of simple nature like some domestic anxieties, altercation, messing distaste or getting tipsy. Life moved on smoothly as we all have inherent capacity to resolve these many impasses a day.
As the years passed, we had one hundred and twenty men to take care. Nearly, twenty five things went wrong in our outfit every day. The dilemmas were still simple with a sprinkle of complexities involving misappropriation or group dynamics class. Even though it was still an intimate command, only fifty to sixty percent of these acts of omission or commission, came to our knowledge. We expected ourselves to tackle all the thirteen to fourteen sticky situations that we had noticed. Experience can enhance our capacity to handle tight spots marginally to eight or nine concerns a day. We were still left with two or three issues un-tackled at the end of the day. We made up, by putting extra hours at work in the evenings, nights or holidays. The fatigue started setting.
Now, with one thousand men, besides operational and administrative responsibilities involving arms, ammunition, material and funds, scene became complex. Nearly one hundred fifty slips a day, fortunately no more than twenty five coming to our notice, we start getting bogged down. Even our enhanced capacity to settle troubles was still in single digit. Life started getting messy.
At this stage, he explained, what he had coined as the concept of ‘Art of Ignoring’, as the art of ignoring trivial. We have to select just six to seven most relevant and significant matters that deserve our personal attention and ignore the rest. We cannot select these issues arbitrarily. Selected subjects need to be deliberated upon patiently covering all their facets and done for ever. Hopefully, younger mates at different levels will take care of the balance alarms. When the larger picture is set right, many of the smaller aberrations automatically iron out. This art empowers to shoulder higher responsibilities, as there are only limited numbers of deadlocks at every level worth indulgence.
This wisdom sank in me quickly. I started selecting six to seven issues and ignoring the rest. Soon, I started remaining unruffled and my efficiency improved. After couple of months, I limited myself to no more than five topics most appropriate for my attention. Thus inbuilt capacity to handle emergencies and disasters without getting unnerved got created. It also opened a window of opportunity for reflection to improve. Recently, a boss was blasting at top volume when his transport got delayed. I knew he needs a friend to teach him the ‘Art of Ignoring’. Otherwise also, this art helps to attain blissful peace by weeding out undeserving and unpleasant incidents and people from life.
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