The Need for Flexibility

Whether in the context of our private lives or social existence, it is imperative that we take stock of our means and resources and then set off in the right direction, if, sooner or later, we are to reach our destination. Often people launch themselves on careers, plunging headlong into them without giving due thought to their actual capacities and to whether they have any real potential which can be developed? At times, they are led astray by trivial considerations, ill-founded opinions and overwhelming emotions, and rush heedless into whatever first comes their way. When the result is not what they had anticipated, they fall to complaining against others, lamenting their losses and failures and claiming that it was due to the prejudices of others that they had had to suffer frustrations and that their careers had come to naught. Had they given more profound thought to the matter, they would have realized that the fault lay in their own ill-judged planning or even total aimlessness. Had they started out in the right direction, others would not then have had the opportunity to place obstacles in their path and turn their successes into failures. Aimlessness is a great weakness and should be eschewed at all costs. In actual fact, no activity is truly of value unless it is characterized by its direction and not just its motion. Simply a Matter of Time Oxford University, which was established in 1163, is surrounded by lush, green lawns. Once a visiting American millionaire, who had been quite charmed by them, asked the gardener at Oxford, how much it would cost him to have the same kind of lawns around his mansion in the US. “Nothing,” replied the gardener. “How?” asked the millionaire in astonishment. “You have to only level the ground and grow the grass. Then you cut it and roll it.” “Oh, really!” said the millionaire, feeling reassured. But then the gardener went on in all seriousness: “Repeat this process for five hundred years and your lawn is ready.” Meeting the steady gaze of