The Unexpected Wisdom of a Glitchy Monday
Tyler Durden from Fight Club (1999)
It was a typical Monday.
I completed my morning routine and was excited to get started with the week. I sat down on my desk to complete my to-do list. As soon as I switched on my laptop to get the day started, my laptop started making an awful screeching noise. I panicked and I turned it off. I thought maybe the laptop was not charged enough and so I put it on charge and started the laptop again hoping that the noise would disappear. It got worse. This time the noise sounded like the one that often came from the beginning of a video game (you remember like SuperMario Bros). “That’s it!” I told myself. I thought my laptop is broken and it needs repair.
I didn’t want this incident to dictate my mood, and since I could not travel the same day for repairing my laptop, I tried to turn around my day and decided to do something productive that didn’t involve my laptop. However, my mind kept thinking about my to-do list that will remain unchecked today. I tried doing my website research on my phone but couldn’t ignore how I struggled with the process. I tried to write down the important notes in my phone and often forgot to bookmark the important links (as I would if I would have been using my laptop). Creating content on different application using my phone became a challenge for me. Soon, my struggle turned into annoyance. As the evening drew closer, my annoyance turned into anger. Often when I am upset or troubled, I use my laptop to pen down all my emotions and feelings giving me a release. It was more frustrating to realise that my dear diary moment is forbidden because I cannot even go near my laptop.
At this point, I realised well, of course, I could go retro! meaning using a pen and paper to vent out my feelings. So, I tried doing that and while writing continuously I realised how my life is completely dependent on my laptop. I use it for almost all my work and for my entertainment too. I need it when I am working. I need it when I am not working. I need it when I am eating. I need it just because. I realised I actually became dysfunctional without it. That my laptop had the ability to influence my mood to the level that I didn’t know how to work without it. And just like that I remembered the famous line from the movie Fight Club by the notorious Tyler Durden: “Things you own end up owning you.”
This epiphany was much needed. Laptops, phones, and smart gadgets have become our go-to for almost everything. Whether its work, catching up with friends, shopping, entertainment, even reminding us to drink water, we are dependent on it. Need an answer? Google’s right there. Bored? There’s a whole world of content waiting. Plans changed? A quick text sorts it out. It’s effortless, seamless, and feels like second nature now.
It was very helpful writing my feelings down on pen and paper however the fact remained that my laptop needed repair. The next day I was very eager to go to the laptop repair shop and try to understand what the problem was. I explained the shopkeeper about the problems my laptop was causing. As soon as he switched on my laptop, my laptop began working normally. I was shocked to learn that everything was alright. He carried out initial runs, checked the sound setting and figured out that I had not carried out one of the updates on my laptop. For a minute, I felt like a fool standing there in the shop with list of problems my laptop could be facing and what might be the possible solution only to realise that my laptop just needed an update.
The man carried out the necessary update of my laptop and while waiting for the update to complete, I contemplated upon a repair and update that I needed in my obsessive thinking pattern. Sometimes life throws up a curve ball our way and instead of taking action, we focus more on the problem rather than the solution. We create that problem so big in our mind that it sometimes makes us dysfunctional and most of the time the problem isn’t as huge as what we create in our mind.
Nonetheless, this episode in my life gave me 3 kinds of update in my pattern:
1) Mindful gadget usage – I realized how dependent we are on our devices and acknowledged that sometimes using old-school methods like pen and paper can be a better alternative.
2) We suffer more in our imagination than in reality – I recognized that the stress and frustration I felt were largely amplified by my own thoughts, and in the end, the problem was much smaller than I had imagined.
3) Small tweaks can create big changes – Just like my laptop only needed a simple update, I realized that sometimes, small shifts in mindset and mindfulness can help us overcome unnecessary stress and overthinking.
Even though my Monday didn’t go as planned, it definitely gave me an unexpected life update; one that didn’t come from a software patch but from a shift in perspective.
