The YOLO guide to survive the apocalypse (6/7):

Appreciate it when things go wrong

Nothing went wrong while taking this picture. But this photo indeed fits the title.
Photo of Steven Gloyd taken by Bonnie Wood.

 

“How wonderful is the affair of the believer, for his affairs are all good, and this applies to no one but the believer. If something good happens to him, he is thankful for it and that is good for him. If something bad happens to him, he bears it with patience and that is good for him.”

– Prophet Mohammad

Secularly speaking, a person of a long term vision usually succeeds in seeing the light in the end of the tunnel. And hence is more likely to succeed getting out of the tunnel, not to dwell over obstacles and hurtles in her way. She is bear them with patience. And indeed she is a thankful person for whatever helps her through the journey. If Islam, among other religions out there, gave its followers a good life habit. I would count the habit of “appreciating it when things goes wrong” among one of the greatly useful ones these religions teach. And that doesn’t happen without a strong belief. Not necessarily a spiritual or religious belief in after death life or in a caring creator who’s planning good things for us at the end of the tunnel. In general, it is the belief that your journey worth it. It worths the rough times that we all go through. You would have some kind of sort of reward. It could be a spiritual reward, or a reward that you set for yourself personally. It is all about how you measure your life. If you know how you measure your life, then those things that go wrong doesn’t really bother you to be bear patient in order to reach your end goal. And if there is anything to get out of it, it could be a learning experience that worths appreciation.

I was driving a solar car several times last year, onetime I used Google Glass (a wearable device that record videos along with doing other things), It felt great to have a Glass over my head, I was recording and talking to the video about the car and what’s happening.

But when the batteries died and I didn’t have anything to say, I felt having interesting moments of solitude driving around the small town of Corvallis in a rainy day. I was just driving, just listening to the lead car in the convoy for directions, taking care of traffic and safety and thinking of nothing else.

A similar feeling I had when we raced with the same car at the Circuit of The Americas and the computer screen turned off. I felt that I’m disconnected from everything around me. I had to focus over my driving remember our mentor’s instructions on what to do when that happens.  Luckily Hai-Yue prepared me for the surprise, so I went just driving with most of the systems down. Such patience to things going wrong prepared me to the final day of a road challange this summer in our way on the road to the finish line of a +1700 miles challange. I had similar failures in several car systems. Some of them I was able to detect right away, some took me sometime to realize and took my team more time to do so. Some of these problems were solvable while I was continuing my drive, and some other ones could’ve stopped us in the middle of the road if not managed well. We appreciated our experiences when things went wrong. And the tolerance to having a car that is not perfect made it easier journey. And the not taking the car as a whole for granted to do what it is supposed to do, made me realize, this is life.

Indeed, believers are those who will survive the apocalypse, and I mean by believers, those who believe that things go wrong and they would as long as they live and go through new experiences. They believe strongly that with appreciation and patience, they will survive, succeed, and fulfill their journey in life.

Those are the surviving believers regardless of their religion. Which reminds me to a question I’ve been asked by an old lady while visiting a small conservative town. “Are you a believer ?” She asked. “Sure, I am”, I replied, “but what do you mean ?”. ” I mean are you Christian?” She clarified. I said, “No but I am a Muslim who believes in Jesus”. Recalling that now, I should’ve added: “And I prophesize that all believers will survive the apocalypse”. That will surely add to her surprise and wonder.

So if you end up seeing things going wrong, think about it critically. Is there something out of this you could take away ? Are you able to change things ? is it under your control ? or at least your influence ? or should you give up the desire to control the situation and appreciate what you are getting out of this experience ?

Tell me what stories you have experienced of things going wrong in your life, and did you appreciate something out of it ?

Wither the zombies are coming or not, this skill is quite handy. And it prepares you for the final step …. To be continued.