How do you unscrunch and optimize yourself?

Optimize or “making the best or most effective use of (a situation, opportunity, or resource)” is generally understood as maximizing or increasing something to help it become its best. However, it means maximizing or minimizing variables to make something function at its best, including you.

What is a variable? It varies. It changes. It could be your environment, weather, an object, a situation or other humans. A change in one variable can affect how your entire day unfolds. How can you optimize yourself in an environment saturated with variables?

Let us assume that you are the unchanging constant in life’s field of variables. Imagine yourself driving down the highway of your life with others who are also attempting to handle the business of life. A mind-boggling number and variety of vehicles are headed in the same direction.

You are forced to slow down when a bigger vehicle abruptly changes lanes or risk damaging your smaller car. You envy the drivers of these bigger cars. You want one. Hell, you need one to make your life perfect and problem-free just like theirs. You assume they have it all figured out because they drive a bigger, more luxurious vehicle.

Your life, on the other hand, seems consumed by driving on the same highway, scrunched over the wheel of your small car. It seems repetitive and muted. Other drivers assure you that this is how they experience life too. This is how it is meant to be. Everyone complains about their smaller cars and how it slows them down.

There are accidents, damaged cars, traffic jams, and lots of road rage on the highway. You try to maneuver around these every day. You see carefully mediocre drivers avoiding bigger cars at any cost. They live in fear of being shoved off the highway. You feel tired and irritable.

And what if you are the driver of that coveted bigger car? You’ve worked hard to get a prime spot on this highway. You can now look down at all those minions in their tiny cars. They always make way for you because they know you can damage their car. You feel powerful. You wish they wouldn’t complain so much and wonder if they need to be ‘managed’ better.

Your internal GPS, though, is not satisfied with your much-envied vehicle. Besides, it doesn’t seem to respond that well anymore. Might buying a fancier one help? You are fearful of someone sneaking up on you or passing you. You don’t feel as energetic now. You adjust your mask carefully and vow to be vigilant at all times. You feel burnt out.

Everyone presses on, regardless of the size of their cars, hoping that life’s highway will deliver what they yearn for: Happiness, fulfillment, a sense of well-being and balance. Eventually, everyone realizes that no one is indispensable on the highway of life. It goes on. And they still blame their cars for the awful deal that life has thrown at them without ever exploring other turns en route.

What happens when you blame your car without improving your driving skills? What happens when the car becomes your end and not a means to the end, transporting you from point A to B? You live in denial. Do yourself a favor and listen to your internal GPS instead. It tells you when there is an interesting turn on the highway. It continues to whisper even if you try to mute it with other noise. Whispers that keep getting louder until they become deafening.

Trust your internal GPS and put yourself out of pain. Self-optimization starts when you take that turn and slow down. What happens then? You are free from the noise and chaos of the highway. You open the car door and unfold yourself. Your body luxuriates in its natural pose after years of being scrunched up. You can now think, create and live life in ways that are most meaningful to you. Then you see the others.

Some are heading out with in a purposeful manner. Others are enjoying a leisurely walk, contemplating their next steps. Some are on the lam, celebrating their freedom from the mind-numbing chaos of the highway. Still others have been tailgated out of the highway and have discovered the delights of this new route.

You feel alert and alive. Your internal GPS is at peace now. You trust its signals. You see an unfamiliar ramp and take it. It leads into a freeway. No chaos, stops or traffic jams here. The car seems to be responding far better too. You know it works better because you’re a better driver now.

You press the accelerator and the car shoots forward. You feel a strange lightness. You feel unscrunched. You are on your way to a life that will create value for yourself and others. A life that will be well-lived.