500 Words a Week - Maybe So, Maybe Not
Below is a Chinese parable I read in “I may be wrong” by Bjorn Natthiko Lindeblad:
A farmer and his son had a beloved stallion who helped the family earn a living. One day, the horse ran away and their nosy neighbour exclaimed, “Your horse ran away, what terrible luck!” The farmer replied, “Maybe so, maybe not. We’ll see.”
A few days later, the horse returned home, leading a few wild mares back to the farm as well. The neighbour shouted, “Your horse has returned, and brought several horses home with him. What great luck!” The farmer replied, “Maybe so, maybe not. We’ll see.”
Later that week, the farmer’s son was trying to break one of the mares and she threw him to the ground, breaking his leg. The neighbour cried, “Your son broke his leg, what terrible luck!” The farmer replied, “Maybe so, maybe not. We’ll see.”
A few weeks later, soldiers from the national army marched through town, recruiting all the able-bodied boys for the army. They did not take the farmer’s son, as he was still recovering from his injury. The neighbour shouted, “Your boy is spared, what tremendous luck!” To which the farmer replied, “Maybe so, maybe not. We’ll see.”
A central theme to this parable is that it could be considered a waste of time to judge minor inconveniences as misfortunes or to invest tons of energy into things that look outstanding on the surface, but we have no idea how things will turn out long term. Another lesson in this parable is that even though we cannot control our circumstances, we can control our outlook.
This reminds me of a central theme to Viktor Frankls book “Man’s search for meaning”:
“Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms—to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.”
Likewise, it can also be related to how we view progress, positive steps forward may end up being negative in the long term, and seemingly negative events may end up bringing positives results. Very few events can be judged accurately as good/ bad, lucky/ unlucky at the time that they occur. In most cases. It is only with time we will see the true implications.
Working within sports/ S&C we are constantly thrown curveballs, situations and circumstances change frequently and with short notice. What doesn’t change is our attitude towards these. We can allow ourselves to be swept up in the moment, or we can embody some of the “maybe so, maybe not” mind-set and allow time to reveal more.
