Heard of people not being able to sleep at night? Well you definitely have or have been one of the victims of such a condition. I have had many sleepless nights before and those are the night where I am too excited of something that is going to happen the next day, or too anxious or simply thinking too much of what has happened today. It is a state of mind that everybody has gone through before.
So if this is so common a state then why am I blogging about it as it is nothing significant and nothing fascinating about it. Well simply because it reflects a state of mind of human that portray unstableness and inability to control their emotion. Why is having stability in emotion important then? Most of the people that I deem capable are all composed and have an aura of steadiness around them. They are unshaken by good and bad news and show little emotion when such news are known to them. This state of stability is not something that is acquired from birth but rather mastered through the many situations that the person has gone through that has become invaluable experience, making the person unmoved by news that they have seen and heard many a time.
A good example of it is that a pauper will not be able to sleep at night if they have earned a million dollar in Toto today and will be too excited to sleep, however the same million when earned by a billionaire in a project will only be too normal an event that can make him sleepless. Sleepless night only occur when an event matters too much to a person and it is seldom that a person will experience that unstable state of mind. Hence at work, in business and in investment, I have heard people who uses being able to sleep at night as a gauge of what kind of risk they can take. Hence being able to sleep at night has become a thing that can measure the capability of a person in a situation and whether he can handle what has happened or what is going to happen.
This gauge has become an important indicator as it represents a person state of mind in making decision. Even business man makes decision that makes them being able to sleep at night to avoid unnecessary risk. However there will always be people who would like the adrenaline rush and the risk that they take for a bigger return. Unnecessary risk is addictive and it will cause a person to be highly speculative when they are addicted to risk. As when they are able to go through high risk once and again, they will think that the whole world is under their feet. Sooner or later they will run into trouble and might result in an avalanche of failures as they lose their judgment and rationality.
Seasoned practitioner in their respective field will in return make calm and collected decision with risk they can calculate and take. These decisions are choices that they have decided that will not cause them to be unsettled and practically lose their sleep at night. Being experience, they are aware of what kind of risk they are taking and are able to bear the lost if the tide turns against them. Experience is the key to giving them the kind of calmness, in retrospective, inexperience makes the amateur in the field unsettled and unable to sleep at night as the pressure is too much to bear to allow them to sleep soundly.
So does this mean that we should always make decision that let us sleep soundly at night and avoid unnecessary risk? Well it is not entirely right also as being uncomfortable is also important as it is the catalyst for growth. As most of the people are not seasoned in the field, they still have a lot to learn and a person who is always performing within their boundary are not testing new grounds for growth. Amateur should practice balance in a bigger sense, meaning balancing decision that will make them sleepless and decision that allows them to sleep soundly at night. Safe decisions are made to maintain the bread and butter in order to sustain the individual. Risky decisions are made to push the frontier to allow the person to go into a new paradigm of experience.
In Sun Tzu Art of War, the essence of victory does not lie primarily on winning wars but most importantly on not losing the war first. Only by being undefeated then can you seize the opportunity to win when the situation presents itself. Hence safe decisions allow a person to be undefeated, but risky decisions are the key to victory. Before we become verse in our art, we have to alternate between making decision that give us sound sleep and sleepless night so that we can sustain ourselves and keep pushing our frontier towards success. In my business, it is the same logic as most of the time in business, it is about playing safe and making decision that will not place the business in jeopardy. However in order to advance the business to the next stage when the business is stabilize in the current stage, it is time to take some risk and sleepless night in order to push the business to a new height. There might be many uncertainties and fear but remaining stagnant will almost surely mean that the business will start deteriorating from competition.
With application to love, lovers in a certain aspect also follow the similar rule. In the long run, love should be filled with not too much of an adventure as this is a sign of being used to the other half as part of your life. Too much surprises set the relationship on a roller coaster ride with your other half thinking if this relationship is ever going to stabilize at all. So balance is once again at play, love should be a thing that allows a person to be able to know that the other half is safely by your side giving you many nights of sound sleep but must be filled with periodical spice to make each other being unable to sleep due to adrenaline from the surprises and maybe something quarrels do spice things up a little =).
Once again this is a blog on balance, as we have to live with both extremes in life in order to strike a balance and happy life. So here’s wishing you many nights of sound sleep and also some sleepless nights ^^
“Risk is opportunity, being sleepless allow you to sleep well and better in the future”
~James Tan~
