Clever People 1

 Clever people

When I was in my second year of primary school, we had a student who was quite smart and he was very fast on his feet. He was always able to find ways that were clever. One day while playing with friends one afternoon he decided to use his wits to manipulate them into believing he was holding a fish. You all know about him!

The next day, as the sun rose, we got caught out by a bus driver who saw us and assumed that we were people from up north like ourselves. Unfortunately for us, it turned out that our friends weren’t from north - just south! We didn’t do anything bad or stupid that day. Not really. Still, being clever isn’t easy. Now we were in our first class. My fellow students started talking to me and I could hear them laughing that I wasn’t clever enough. But it was an interesting experience. What is even more intriguing is the fact that being clever doesn’t make you super intelligent. It never does. On top of this, being clever can help you to get what you want in life even if someone else says no.

Being clever at school was so much fun as well as a lot of struggle. The struggle stems back from when you want something to happen but others have different ideas on how to go about doing so. They may not understand your position or what exactly makes sense because they have their own reasons for wanting to do what the ‘in-the-know’ wants done. To a great extent, it can be frustrating when trying to negotiate with someone, especially since they have ideas and are usually right. In these cases, the best way to deal with them is to try and come to an agreement that would benefit both parties. However, a key part of negotiation is also to consider whether they will have the time or energy that it takes to do what you would like to do. In some cases, they may only have so much energy to give towards making sure that something is delivered and a project is completed. This can sometimes leave you hanging on all hope and giving up sometimes. After all, there are often obstacles in front of you and once you decide to take a chance on having those ‘opportunities,’ not everyone is always willing. If someone doesn’t take advantage at any opportunity, they will never have the support they need or the motivation to succeed - leaving themselves feeling defeated and not really giving the effort they need as they should.

This can come across as a very difficult thing but there is nothing wrong with saying “No” when something cannot be achieved or an idea has been put forward that others cannot accept. For example, if you have to say ‘no’ to something and then you come to realize after looking at other possibilities why you did not see what you wanted to achieve, you will very quickly become less confident in yourself and you will start seeing others as ‘the cause’ for their lack of success. By starting conversations with others and building relationships with those you know you will soon learn how they operate, you will begin working together and gain greater confidence in yourself too. More importantly though, by learning this you will start recognizing when you need to stand up for what you believe in or where you lack confidence and how others can assist you with the journey too. You soon learn your limits and when to shut people down.

This type of process took me years to perfect. I was taught a lifetime ago about the importance of saying “no”. Often times, we don’t take notice of what we do and in terms of our lives, it doesn’t make sense to put up a fight. It’s far better to work with others than against them so that we gain the knowledge and power to build that relationship with that person that we think can help us achieve our goals. By going this route you gain the confidence to act as opposed to react against others but rather look to their strengths to achieve success. In a time when society seems to focus very little on the struggles of mental health, we should concentrate more on helping each other work through challenges and the mental health problems that we suffer. That way, we will be one step closer to getting past the stigma surrounding mental illnesses.

                                                                                                         Author: Ali Husnain