Day 81 - Be Stupid!

Its taken me over 2 months to come back to my blog. A lot of things happened in these two months that have kept me away from this blog although I have been active on my book review blog. In these two months there just did not seem to be a topic that I felt connected to till I saw the ad in the picture from Diesel.

Stupid - The word itself denotes being dull, slow and lacking ordinary quickness and keenness of mind. How many times have you done something and your parents or friends have turned around and said 'Stupid' in a derogatory manner? In our mental makeup being called Stupid is a big insult. All our lives we try to avoid being called Stupid and aspire to be categorised as Smart. We aim for that word.

We are all guilty of calling our kids stupid when they jump into a puddle of water on the road - Don't be stupid, you'll spoil your clothes. We are guilty of telling our friends - Don't be stupid - when they fall in love with someone that we think may not be right for them.

Don't think with your heart, think with your head is a constant refrain to us. We are told that Smart people take informed decisions. They think with their brains and evaluate all options before taking a decision. If we decide to go with our gut feeling and instinct its called a Stupid decision that everyone promises will come back to haunt us at a later date.

But I say that its great to be stupid. There are some decisions that must be taken with the heart and not with the head. Love is one such thing, standing by friends and family is another, buying something you like is one more even though sometimes you may not really need it. But more importantly being stupid or taking decisions that go with your instinct open up immense possibilities to you. These decisions open up doors and experiences that you may have never had or dared to think of. When you fall in love with someone not from your caste, culture, religion, language or any other demographic your head (smart) says to divest in that relationship because it will not go anywhere but your heart (stupid) says to go with the experience. Who knows it may work out and if it doesn't you had the most wonderful memories. Trust me, I speak from experience.

In professional life too there are times when you will be faced with a smart or a stupid decision, a fight of head over heart. Should you take this job or not? Your friends will tell you that you are being stupid to let it go but your heart is telling you that its not the right decision. What you decide then will determine the future. In hindsight some instinct decisions do turn out to be wrong but then frankly so do some informed decisions. I have always found that there's more fun in taking an instinctive decision and going through the experience rather than taking an informed one and doing what's expected.

Its important to have a balanced decision scorecard over your lifetime. The Rational decisions taken from your heart pertain more to your professional life sometimes while the Emotional ones taken from the heart and almost always personal. But sometimes it helps to turn things around as well. Most creative people will vouch for the fact that their outputs are based on what they feel will appeal to them and their viewers - not what they think. Look back and analyse the ads that you liked. I promise that 80% or even more will be the ones that tugged at your heart, at the emotional core.

In professional life too be brave to take emotional decisions when it comes to people. There will be times when you will have to give a little more leeway to some employee because your instinct tells you that its the right thing to do. Be stupid and go with that instinct. In the long run it works out for the better.

After all Someone once said “If you wait to do everything until you're sure it's right, you'll probably never do much of anything.”

So go out and take a Stupid decision today. Live life. Think from your heart for a change.

Be Stupid!