SOP

I had this idea in the complete form yesterday however it had been in my mind for a while now, although in a fragmented form. I assembled it in its entirety yesterday night while I was going to sleep.

I have always stressed that things in general should be completed as per a standard operating format. Yesterday while pondering over a certain ‘Transport problem’, I realized the necessity of an SOP, a standard operating procedure.

What I realized during the thought session is that there are two ways of approaching any specific problem for a solution. The ways I am referring to, is largely ‘general’ and in turn can have an enormous amount of literature within that can be elaborated in details depending on the situation it is applied to. I am therefore looking at a more ‘general’ sense as I already mentioned earlier rather than a specific one.

Let me begin with an approach to the so called ‘life problems’ that we face in a daily basis. There are numerous problems from the minute we step out of the house to the time we are back in. And it would not stop at that. There are problems at home, with our physical being and our mind. Dealing with all these problems are excruciating and takes a toll on everyone.

That is the exact reason for procrastination. Dealing with a problem requires energy that is always in short reserve, and if the problem is way too difficult then chances are it might drain us off of the little energy completely. This make us leave the problem alone for a while until such time when can come back to it, which almost never comes. The problem meanwhile grows and grows until it is staring us in the face and cannot be ignored any more.

When I see a problem these days, I do not see it merely as a problem. A problem as most people’s see, is a hurdle, an obstacle that has to be thwarted at all costs. However when confronted with a problem, I now see it as a potential solution. A situation where I can do something to change the way things are.

While I was marvelling at this new insight of mine, I started thinking why it took me 25 years of my life to deal with something that was evidently ‘out there’ all the time. I realized that it was the chain of events in my life that lead to it. I recently got a promotion at work and have decision making responsibilities now, and I am responsible for my subordinates. This made me look at the larger picture. I was never responsible for anything or anyone other than me. So most problems that existed were only mine to deal with and there was little sense in getting someone else involved in my problems.

Also there was little that I could do anyway. While in school, I was just a kid so no one cared. In college, just a teenager. As a young adult I was still getting over the hangover of not being listened to. I never believed that I would get out of the sidelines and anything that I said would matter. Plus the bonus of living in a culture where the adults things they know everything and the kids just cannot have brains beyond their years.

Growing up I was de-mystified of this notion. While I saw kids that excelled in academics while I myself struggled to get anywhere close to their levels of achievements, I also so others lagging behind that seemed either too ignorant of academics or lacking the brain power to even understand stuff that was fairly easy for most others. So by the time I was out of the graduate school it was quite evident that not all adults know everything about everything. What more I was one too and had little clue myself, which was confirmation enough for me.

Which such a varied population it becomes difficult to make them agree upon things and get it done. Hence the importance of an SOP.

The other day I was watching a video in Facebook. It was a social experiment on what happens when a girl is being raped that came in the wake of increasing rape cases being reported. The experimenters placed a van in the road with the doors shut and the windows pulled up so that nobody can see what is happing inside. Whenever somebody passed by the van, a girl starts screaming from within for help. The screams were as if somebody was trying to rape the girl. The people reacted in different ways. Some just passed by as if they never heard the scream. Some would try to knock at the door and most certainly they never opened and they would walk away. Some were just confused what to do. Eventually a guy walked by and heard the screaming. He called the police and got a stick or something and was about the break the windows open. The experimenters then came by and informed him it was a social experiment to study the reaction of people when such things happened. There was no girl inside just a tape recorder with a recorded voice of a girl screaming.

When I first saw the video I thought I would have reacted no different from the initial set of people who did nothing but just walked away. Because that I what we are asked to do. Keep out of trouble and this is trouble. The thought of what to do never would have occurred to me because I would just walk away. Even If I consider for a moment that I would help, the most I would do would be to call the police. I don’t think I might have broken the glass. After all it was someone else’s property and breaking it would mean trouble for me. Or maybe when I would have been there in person, things would have been different. Maybe I would have tried to break the glass and get the girl out. But that is something I am not sure.

And the chances of me doing something I am not sure is slim. Isn’t that the how the mind works? The probability of us doing things that we have done before is high and the probability of us doing things that we have not done before is low. When do the same things over and over, it become a habit. In this scenario, I was totally clueless as to what needs to be done and hence my conclusion that I would have been no better that the initial set of pedestrians who did literally nothing. However after watching the video and the kudos bestowed upon the man who tried to break the windows and save the girl was enormous in the comments on the video, I was determined on the way I was expected to behave when in such a situation, more so because it was expected even if was not something I might have wanted to do.

I am slight man by character and sometimes become angry. The anger makes me violent but never so much that I would lose control of my actions. I am always thinking even in the most violent of situations. That is how I have reprogrammed my mind. I know that other civil beings stay away from violence so I try to keep them away from me by being violent. I am not intrinsically violent. Those are people who belong to the evil.

Anyway the point is the video gave me a standard operation procedure on a situation and I am sure it did the same to a lot many people. It is kind of brainwashing but it is the right thing to do. The reader will however have the discretion to act on the information available to them or not.

I therefore propose to draw out an SOP for each and every life situation. This is something that I will try to maintain as a personal ‘how to’ database. Such how to websites are already available all over the internet. Some are open source and lets you write content for them and review their articles. However these are very generic in nature and applies to a large audience. Maintaining a personal ‘how to’ database will ensure that our suggestions are highly customized and applicable to ourselves. After all there is no one else that knows us better than we do.

Also our life keeps changing and some of the valuable lessons we learnt are forgotten overtime. Maintaining a write up will ensure that don’t forget what is important to us and so these can be applied in our present and future life decisions.