The Negative Inspiration

The Negative Inspiration
All of us admire qualities in others and sometimes we like them so much that we try to incorporate them into our lives. That’s what we do very much consciously.

However, a few times we know what the deed of the other person is not right. We know that’s not a great thing to do. But, while landing into such a situation, we perform the same act, despite knowing it’s not right. Why? Because I saw someone else doing it. I call it ‘Negative Inspiration.’ Somehow our mind tries to justify a wrong deeds just because someone else was doing it. We become less rational at that time and somewhat escapist.

I was about to do the same thing yesterday, but I got it right. On many other occasions in past, I did not correct myself.

This is what happened. I was in hurry to reach office. Right after I parked the car, I knew that I needed to put the sun shade on. But I didn’t want to do it. Was feeling lazy, while my mind said it should do it. Then I looked at the car parked next to mine. My colleague had not done it. Now I got a reason, not to do it because my colleague had not done.

Another example, a more serious one. You are stuck in traffic and desperate to reach office, but you feel helpless. The emergency lane is empty and you find it very tempting to use it in order to cut the traffic. You maintain restraint. Then you see the guy behind you snaking to the emergency lane and wheeling away. While you are tempted, you see a few more vehicles doing the same. The negative action of the first guy prompted many others.

I guess, human beings get this quality by default. Very few are able to restrain. The best way to prevent yourself from falling into the trap of negative inspiration is to Stop and Think. Most often we do not analyze our action consciously, that’s exactly what we need to do.

Merry Christmas and have a blessed new year 2011
Vivek