Getting a Lift

I was at a lift lobby on a high floor waiting for a friend when a lone elderly gentleman showed up. He walked towards the lift door and pressed both call buttons for the up and down riding lifts. I was feeling perplexed by his behaviour. Normally, one presses a single call button, indicating whether one wishes to go to a higher or lower floor. The building was served by multiple lifts. I decided to stand back and observe what's going to happen next.

"Ting...". The lift alarm sounded and an up-riding lift stopped at our floor. The doors opened and the gentleman noted that it was an up-riding lift. He waved his hands to the passengers that he did not want to enter the lift. The doors closed and he stood and waited.

"Ting.... " went the lift alarm again, this time for the down-riding lift. The doors opened, the gentleman stepped in and the door closed behind him, leaving me carrying a big WHY at the lobby.

At first, I could not fathom what I saw. Then it slowly drew on me. He had a mistaken belief that the buttons were TRUELY call buttons. By pressing both buttons, he thought he is calling both the up- and down-riding lifts to stop at his floor. However, he might not have realised that these buttons, besides serving as call buttons, were also directional buttons.

With all due respect to his age and seniority, he clearly knew where he wanted to go, but might not have realised the second function in these call buttons. This particular episode led me to ponder a bit further. Do you chart your directions in your daily life and are you doing the right things to stay on track ?

If you know what you want to achieve, then good for you ! You have a goal. It does not matter if it is a short or long term goal. The important thing is that you have set yourself a target. Just like the elderly gentleman, he knew where he wanted to go (to descend in the lift). Question is that he did not realise that there was a better (and faster) way of getting there.

Similar to pressing the correct lift button, you should do the correct tasks (and do the tasks correctly) to attain your dream. If the target that you dream of seems overwhelming, then you should break it up into managable steps with near term goals. In engineer's lingo, this is the "divide and conquer" approach and with each step, you gain knowledge, experience and confidence.

If it helps, write it down and paste it around your room. Do whatever you can to stay on track and commit to it. It is certainly not easy as effort and sacrifice is needed. Anyway, Rome was not built in a single day.