Vaikų kūrybinės iniciatyvos fondo organizuojamame Lyderių Ture mūsų gimnazijos II b klasės mokinės Danielės Šalaševičiūtės rašinys pasirinkta tema “Viewing too forward is a short-sighted matter.” (Winston Churchill) įvertintas puikiai ir apdovanotas Diplomu už kūrybiškumą, puikias anglų kalbos žinias.
Sveikiname Danielę, dėkojame mokytojai Raimondai ir kviečiame paskaityti:
„Viewing too forward is a short-sighted matter.” At first glance, this statement from Winston Churchill – an inspirational statesman, writer, orator and leader, seems to be very hazy. The term short-sightedness is most commonly known as myopia – a very common eye condition that causes distant objects to appear blurry while close objects can be seen clearly. In literature, it is known as lack of prescience or foresight, not considering the consequences of what will or might happen in the future. Looking too far ahead, on the other hand, would be considered the opposite. So what led Churchill to such a self contradicting conclusion?
The statement itself is an intriguing conundrum. If you don’t have a long-term arrangement, how can you know which direction you are headed and what your subsequent stages are? In any case, fate can be fricke, and surprisingly the best laid plans will change. When you think excessively far into the future, you center a lot around the result and panic at the possibility that you may not „make it” by a specific deadline. You figure placing yourself in fear would persuade you to begin moving towards that bearing, yet paradoxically, it subverts your underlying endeavors without fail. In this context a near-sighted individual is someone who disregards the potential changes and factors of the future, therefore only sees the narrow path they imagine themselves. There is no such thing as a perfect plan and attempting to make such an arrangement will only blind you in the long run.
Someone who also seemed to share a similar understanding was American novelist E. L. Doctorow. “Writing a novel is like driving a car at night. You can see only as far as your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way.” This powerful quote by the writer applies to any objective you’re attempting to accomplish. Simply substitute the “writing a novel” part. You may not know the entire journey, only a few steps ahead, but you’ll get there. Doctorow implies that the most effective way of achieving something is to “see only as far as your headlights”, or in other words, to only make arrangements for the near future.
Planning for the short-term works in the same way accomplishing a major goal does. There’s a momentum that builds as you begin to hit a stride that has you accomplishing things on a regular basis. There’s the science behind it that says you get a pleasant release of endorphins and it makes you feel good about yourself, but there’s also the fact that you’re making real, tangible, progress. You’re making it routinely and hopefully, adding value in some way. If this modern-day age of reality television, day in and day out connectedness and wearable technology has taught us nothing else, it’s that things are always changing. An objective you have now may not make sense a week from now, given your circumstances throughout everyday life. One of the key benefits to planning for the short-term is that it allows you to pivot when needed. Regardless of whether you need to abandon your plans and go another direction, you’ve not lost too much of the energy you have contributed towards a momentary objective.
The main takeaway from Winston Churchill’s wise words is that the journeys of our lives are winding roads, with highs and lows at every corner. We never know how tomorrow is going to treat us, and we are clueless as to how we will feel the day after that. The fact of the matter is, the future is virtually unpredictable, and worrying about what’s to come will often lead to bouts of anxiety and divert from set objectives.
