Stay Connected With The Familiar

I am not very good with my sense of direction, and this weakness often gets me into trouble when I go to big shopping malls with multi-storied parking lots.

It has happened many times that I have parked my car at some location, and I go into the mall being completely absent-minded. I feel like I know where I parked the car. But, after a few hours in the mall, when I go to the parking lot to locate my car, I am completely lost. Much as I rack my brain, I have absolutely no memory of where I parked my car. There are detailed maps put up at different places in the mall showing the topography of the various parking lot zones but all that is of no use at that point. I don’t know where I am with reference to where I parked my car.

How do I figure out where I parked my car? I rack my brain to remember the familiar. Which lift did I take to get into the mall? Which branded shop did I pass by when getting into the mall? I try to retrace my path by remembering the familiar and slowly figuring out where I parked my car.

I share this experience to illustrate an interesting parallel. There are many times in our life where we feel lost, and we feel like we are in unchartered territory.

Maybe we have moved to a new place or taken on a new role. Or, perhaps the pandemic has completely upended the way we work, and we feel like we are not in control.

How do we anchor ourselves and feel rooted when we feel lost? Like how we locate our car in the mall- by seeking the familiar.

We should try and go back to where we came from, the familiar, the landmarks we remember, and the fundamentals we know. We should stay connected with our family and friends, remember the lessons we learned in our previous roles, and get back to basics.

Only when we stay connected with the familiar will we get the strength to deal with the unfamiliar.

No matter how disoriented we may feel, we will never forget where we came from. And, this is the lifeline that we can refer to, always, to help us find our way back when we lose our way.