There will never be a better day- than ‘Today’

When I decided to write an article about something of worth sharing, I stumbled up on an idea. I googled for any related information. As a no surprise, there were few articles that were cast in the same mold. In fact, we all grew up listening to similar stories. Stories of wildlife that has given us many things. A moral, a lesson or just a good night sleep. Stories like Lion & the mouse, The tortoise & hare, Lion king, Tom & Jerry. From classic bedtime stories to well-celebrated animation epics, all of them has caught us by fascination.

Many technologies were developed and still being developed taking an inspiration from nature & wildlife. ‘Why only technology, why not Management?’ was the question that few of the authors like Mr. Tom Porter and other predecessors who wrote articles on ‘ Management learnt from wildlife,’ now including me are trying to look at.

However, today’s children who are much smarter than earlier generations — ‘The Gen-Z,’ born with better intuitive nature & the present millennials are mostly indifferent towards moral stories and bland narratives.

Understanding these facts, my intentions are limited to providing you with — one take away from the story that you can equip as a skill or a life-hack under your rucksack.

Lizard and the lion!

In the tropical grasslands of Savannah, Agama lizards are tiny species, mostly living under a bedrock where they live throughout their lifetime without leaving their ‘home-rock’. During the day, huge herds of wildebeest come running during particular times in a season, along with bringing billions of flying insects, which means only one thing to agama — Food. Let’s look at how one such agama, who made a fortune out of the opportunity.

It was time to seize the day! if not, once the sun is set, it must starve waiting till the next season as it can’t leave the homerock. Once, the wildebeests get settled in the grass nearby. It now waits till the insects fly over the bedrock in an attempt to jump and clasp them. But fails to catch every time it tried. It makes a few more jumps to give one extra push, one last try — but all in vain. Now, it realizes that this would be a futile effort and must come up with something before the day diminishes. It looks around with its scheming eyes and by now it already lost its chance with the flying insects. It is time to stay astute & adapt on the front foot. It spots a herd of lions, behind the same bedrock and strikes a plan.

It changed its target from up flying insects to flies hovering around the lions. A second Opportunity. Let’s hold for a second and think, why did it think of looking for a lion — in the first place? Well, for the same reason it envisaged for the wildebeests. Wildebeests bring its prey- The flying insects. Lions, hiding behind the rocks await their prey — The Wildebeests. Look for the lions, there will be flies. Even this would be one shot. Because, once the wildebeests are gone by the end of the day, lions are gone too. Now, the plan is ready, time to play. It slowly crawls beneath the rocks and reaches the herd. It looks around to choose the right lion to take the chance up on. Lions are very irritable and can swat the lizard to death just by one hurl of its limbs. It is a risk — a fatal one in fact. It slowly gets closer to a lion sleeping. Checks out nearing him, zoiks! its awake! Okay, well it tries the next one that is lying down — nah! its awake too. Finally, after a couple of trail and errors it spots the lion that is perfectly taking a nap. It’s now or never moment. It gets closer to the lion’s nose, spots the fly zooming, hurls its tongue and snap! that’s one. Slowly closer and takes the second one. It now gets comfortable and scores more of them hastily. It then spots one big fly that can serve as its dessert. This dessert can be costly though, as the fly is hovering right above the lion’s back. This risk-taking and daring agama slowly takes its steps one by one, climbing over the hind limbs of the jungle king, then a plunge onto the back. It literally is riding the lion’s back and takes it final dessert by ‘Zap!’ Its best shot. Now this wakes up the lion and by the time it lifts up his head, its mane moving like the wind. Momentarily at a warp speed the lizard takes a falling leap into the rocks and escapes swiftly.

You may have busy schedules, tighter deadlines.Casting away in the waves of time & daily grind, you might ignore your core strengths that can set your movements right, that can create second opportunities for you. Do not procrastinate to harness your skills looking for another day to begin. There is never a better day than today!

If you have a thought in mind, take action. Better yet, do it the same day. This might be easier said than done. But this is not one more lecture on how not to procrastinate. But this is one practical trick that can make or break your achievements. If something comes to your mind, make the action same day or take a note in the least. It is like a call-to-action button. How can you persuade your brain to take that action? Tell your brain — There is only today!

Look at your situations as one-shot events. Develop the sense of working with all you have as if you have — one single day. If you lost the first shot, then don’t stop to waste the time. Adapt to the moment. Look for the next opportunity. As Richard Bronson famously says “There is always a second opportunity.”

Have a knack for recognizing the hidden opportunities. Create your next target, take the ride.

Your takeaway:

· Look at the single day

· Adapt

· Work on recognizing your hidden second opportunities and

· Take the risk

A bit of these put together each, can be your single takeaway to rig you for any gig.

Please note: The content is developed in an effort to express the final take-away through a story which was re-told by me and is not my original work. It was adopted by the documentary titled — Africa.