Wait and See...

The most undesired place to wait and see is an ICU. You will understand if you had ever been there waiting at the doorsteps of ICU, for Doctors and nurses to smile at you. Sometimes you feel utterly helpless. And it is not just you, doctors too. You will be stuck not knowing your next move of your life.  Helpless in every sense of its word. I experienced it few times, at a stretch for two to three weeks. It was, indeed, an ordeal by itself.

We wait to see many things to happen in life. Contrary to the feeling it creates, anxiety it brings, uncertainty it holds, it is pretty much has become very common to hear wait and see nowadays. It is a game in political and historical contexts. UN waited too long to interfere Sri Lanka and it interfered after the assassination of Prabhakaran. Last year during a debate competition at University Sabah Malaysia, a team in the Grand Finals debated that the Govt will wait and see for the situation and will not do anything for time being. It was about Kyoto Protocol. And God knows the definition of 'time being'.  A sword hanging over your head. Anything can happen at any time.  Indefinite uncertainty. 

In our personal lives, wait and see approach is psychological. It is more of letting the circumstances to control the issues. It is okay to let it happen once in a while.  (These days, almost everything is OK!) To me, it reflects the indecisiveness of an individual. Indecisiveness in terms of 1) unable to explore and arrive at better options and 2) fear of the failure (not getting the desired results). When you wait to see anything more than the affordable time, the gravity of the matter gets worse or loses its importance. And there is nothing much to wait to see. 


Same goes in business settings. I read somewhere,"you can not work with someone who is slower than you or faster than you" In any case, you won't keep up the pace. It is not a sin to work with some one who is ahead of you. At least, you can consider the person as a motivating factor, if you want.  


Most of the times, managers would love to wait and see at crucial decision making stages. To me, it is a sin. Fear of taking responsibility of their actions. Being accountable to what we do, takes courage. And, courage is one of the desired qualities of a leader.  Play the game and take the risk.  At least you are taking some effort. And you are not loosing anything, if at all any, it is only your job and not your life! 

Having said that, it is also unavoidable at certain circumstances that we may have no choice but to only wait and see. And it is not watchful waiting or nor the kind of 'I am going to watch the world die' as a lyric goes.

In waiting you develop a virtue: Patience.  But being patient for too long is inability. I prefer immediate actions if not instant ones. 


However,  Life seems to be too long to wait, like waiting for Godot.