Not taking offence

A place I’ve been trying to move towards is one where I never take offence – to anything people say, do or even to things that happen to me.

While I feel it does seem to be getting easier with time (maturity?), I think the factor that makes it easiest to not take offence is to simply view everything that happens around you as an experiment that might or might not work. This was the learning I took away from Mahatma Gandhi’s autobiography – “The Story of My Experiments with Truth.” I don’t generally recommend the book to anyone but I do think the central idea of experimentation is powerful. During the course of his life, Gandhi treated himself and the world as a laboratory for various kinds of experiments. Some worked, many didn’t. But, he just marched on to the next experiment anyway.

That’s a wonderful way to see the world.

I’ve begun describing myself as someone who lives in “this might not work.” Keep trying crazy ideas, keep initiating, keep failing, keep taking flak, never take offence and move on.

Things are simpler when you view life and everything that happens around you as a series of experiments. They occasionally work for you. Most of the time, however, they don’t.

And, that’s okay. Perfection and comfort are overrated.