A Screw in the Tyre

 

A Screw in the Tyre – An incident that made me smile and think at the same time.


A few days ago, something sparkling on the rear tyre of my car caught my attention. Upon inspection I found it was the head of a screw embedded in the tyre.


I thought the tyre wasn’t flat already since tubeless tyres don’t deflate soon.

‘I’ll get it repaired soon,’ I thought and my mind started creating stories.

‘If I pull the screw out, the tyre may deflate instantly and I’ll be stranded.’

‘If this had happened while driving along a highway, it would be so dangerous.’

‘What if I had not noticed the screw and set off on a drive late in the night.’


I did not get it repaired for at least another week. The screw was as embedded in the tyre as it was in my thoughts. Every time I looked at the car, I pictured the screw, sometimes even when I wasn’t looking at the car. Finally, this morning I took my car to the puncture shop and showed the mechanic the screw. He checked and using a plier pulled it out. To our surprise, the screw was barely 10 millimetres long. It was stuck in the tread, barely scratching the inner rubber surface of the tyre.


As I smiled at all the stories my mind had created, I wondered how many of our problems in life are like this? We see a situation and then in our mind we create a narrative. More often than not our thoughts are negative. The narrative generally is how big and bad the problem is. When the reality is, quite a few of our troubles are small, just amplified by our thoughts! So, the next time you find yourself creating a negative narrative, get a hold of yourself and assess the reality of the situation. Maybe the screw is not embedded deep, maybe it’s just scratching the surface, maybe you don’t have to live with it, maybe you can easily get rid of it!

 

Also, it is very important to address the situation and find a solution before one of the two things happens. You either get used to living with it or it gets the better of you. A screw does not deserve to be embedded in your thoughts beyond a certain limit. Or let me put it this way, your thoughts don’t deserve it to be there for too long!

Comments

  1. Sonal29 May 2024 at 06:18

    Fantastic Zeyd! You have done it once again ...taking an ordinary incident and turning it into a Life lesson of sorts!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Anonymous29 May 2024 at 07:45

    What an amazing blog. Indeed touching and changing the way we look at our problems.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Anonymous29 May 2024 at 19:37

    Overthinking is overrated… So true

    ReplyDelete
  4. Sarika Nathwani29 May 2024 at 21:13

    So true.. overthinking aggrevates the issue within our mind than the actual situation!

    ReplyDelete

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