Preparations to be Prohibited!

The word 'preparation' is, in my opinion, extremely over-rated. I cannot for the life of me understand people spending so much time on such a trivial thing as 'preparation'. We all have the same 24 hours per day. Just imagine the amount of time we could add to our day and life if we could simply do away with the time and effort spent on this useless 'preparation'! Not only do we waste time in preparation, we extend it further preaching others and reaching out for stories to emphasise the the importance of this not-so-important habit of the humans. In today's world of high technology, who really cares about the wood-cutter who spent half the day sharpening his tools to be more productive than the hard-working fellow woodcutters who went straight into action. It is a high-tech World that we live in, the World of Chain-Saws and Electrical Equipment; and there are specialist outsourcng available for every aspect of the term 'preparation', for whom it is the core business. Isn't it better to leave 'preparations' to the professionals, for a person to perform his/her task effectively without time wastage?

Sure, there would be people queued up from here to kingdom-come to tell you the importance of "preparation". Don't you study for your exams in schools and colleges; don't you prepare for interviews and dates; don't you prepare for speeches and presentations; the list goes on and on. The World is full of the people with self-doubt who will convince you that the only way to survive is 'TO PREPARE". Buy Insurance right now, lest you die the next minute! Go right ahead, buy yourself a nice coffin, you might die any minute!

These are the same people who will never ever let you enjoy a single moment of your life, with threats and worries of impending doom. The minute you realise you actually enjoy something, whether it is an abstract moment, a fleeting thought, a beautiful fellow-human walking on the other side of the road, your favourite item in the menu of the roadside restaurant - these are the people who will mob up and scream at you - "WATCH OUT! IT IS NO GOOD FOR YOUR HEALTH, CONSCIENCE & FUTURE! STOP YOUR PLEASURE RIGHT THIS VERY MOMENT, AND SPEND EVERY MINUTE OF YOUR EXISTENCE WORRYING ABOUT THE FUTURE - PREPARE!"

Remember, "today is the tomorrow you worried about yesterday". No matter how much you fret and fumble, tomorrow will inevitably become today, and you will jolly well take care of it when you are there. So why waste all the joyful moments of today worrying about tomorrow? For God's sake, give yourself a break, enjoy yourself. Enjoy your life; you only live once!

That now brings me to all the melodrama associated with Meetings, Contests & Conferences. Is it really necessary for every single individual associated with such events to spend days & nights preparing for something that will eventually happen? If so, what is the point of all the Table Topic practice that we get in club meetings? Isn't it designed just to cover such eventualities? Don't we proudly boast of Toastmasters capability to wear multiple-hats at any moment?

Why? WHY? WHY????"

And that brings me to the end of my lamenting :)

Have a preparation-free day!

Cheers!!

KARTIK (ACB)

(Kartikeyan Srinivasan, Area G1 Governor - Member of Chennai Toastmasters Club)