Thinking Layers

Hi friends,

Today I want to talk about the classic mistake that I usually make, which is to assume that things will be okay without doing any preparations on my side.

There have been several occasions throughout this holiday that has made me a little frustrated with myself due to some turn of events that could easily be avoided if I've had put just a little more effort to ensure that things will be alright. Some example includes, glancing through the map of a building, taking into account the distance of one destination to the next, the peak period of the crowds depending on location and timing, the duration that I'll go on without food and etc. As a result of not going through that extra steps of preparation, I find myself in some slight inconveniences such as, getting lost in a building/place, walking when I should be taking the bus, burrowing through the scuffle crowds, getting a slight headache due to hunger and etc.

So the lesson for me here is to always take that extra step to ensure that things will indeed go well. However, when I take this lesson to the extreme spectrum, how much is too much when it comes to preparedness? I like to call this approach as the thinking layers. So the idea is that every questions that I think about in terms of preparing myself, that's a level of thinking layer that I've made. So the more question/solution/preparations that I'm taking from my initial condition, that's an additional layers I'm progressing. I've had a personal threshold that has been set by my physical self based on my own capability through experience and that threshold is only three layers. So here's an example from one of my most recent experience.

The situation is that I'm stranded on a train platform due to some technical issue. Only short bounds are permitted. Long bounds are still in the unknown in terms of when's the next available coach are available.

So in this particular situation, there are two things that I can do, either stay and wait for the next available train or to travel to nearest main station to see other means of transportation. Waiting in the current station has its benefits due to its relatively location that is nearer to the previous main station. So if any emergency train that's going to come, the current station provide convenience in terms of guaranteed seats available. However, the second option which is to travel to the next short bound main station has its benefits as well in terms of the variety of options available. So what options are there?

So here's where I've ventured into the second layer of getting myself prepared, taking that extra step to ensure that I have enough information to proceed with any decision making.

The next short bound main station has options for taxis, busses and hotels. Mind you that the distance between that main station to my Airbnb was about 50 km. So where do I go from here? At this point, everyone is already restless due to the uncertainty. Tired, hungry and a little cranky because of the hectic all around. Not to mention that I kinda have four choices to evaluate before making the best decision. Should I,

Wait for the next available train with no certainty of when?

Take a taxi from the train station to the nearest available train station near town? (So instead of travelling 50 km straight to Airbnb, it's only about 40 km to nearest city station to take the train there to Airbnb).

Take a bus to the city station? Cheapest but the most time consuming option with an additional two hours journey.

Crash at the cheapest hotel available and avoid all the pandemonium by starting fresh again first thing tomorrow?

Also bear in mind that I'm travelling in a group here where the age gap varies. So taking that into the equation, considerations must be made in terms of mobility and group expenses.

And now, having all this information in mind, for me to get the definitive answer, it all boils down to two factors, the cheapest most time effective solution.

At this point, I have to dive down to the third layer of thinking/preparations. Not gonna lie, I was at my wits end by this juncture. Each options need to satisfy the question of "How much would this cost me?" and "How much is the time-frame for me to allocate?". Here's the conclusion by the end of getting those questions answered.

Hotels are the most expensive considering there is a whole accommodation cost on top of what was initially just transportation cost. But it gives me the highest peace of mind in exchange for the steep price. At that breaking point, this option looks like the most tantalizing one.

Taxis are the next in line for the most expensive option. To give you and idea of how expensive it was, before I got stranded on the train station, I went to the outskirts of town which is approximately 100 km from my Airbnb. It was a round trip so in terms of distance traveled, it is 200 km. And the cost of the taxi is almost equal to the price of my trip to the outskirt. Just the thought of this could make me go bonkers! Oh and the price for the hotel? It is more than twice as much as my round trip to the outskirts. Which I could kinda half-heartedly agree because it was for accommodations afterall.

Next, most cheapest option is riding the bus to the central station in town. It's what you'd expect for a one-way bus trip but the journey takes approximately two hours. And that's only to the central station. It's going to take another one hour, considering the large crowds, to go to my Airbnb area. So it was highly unfavorable, time-wise.

The thing that went through my mind at this point was just to hope for the best. I decided to take the taxi option but to always be on the lookout for the emergency coach coming by. Every now and then, I would eavesdrop on the officers to listen if there's any emergency coach approaching because taking the longbound train is the best option still if there was no technical errors.

The only thing that kept me going was hope.

In this scenario, no matter how bleak things get, I have to always be on the move, searching for the next best thing, and hoping for the best.

As I was already on the long queue for the taxi, I decided to head to the tracks for one more time to listen to any incoming emergency longbound train.

Thankfully several were already on its way and we hit the ground running towards the line for the emergency train. At this point, I thought that, "If I have to go down one more thinking layer, I'll be done for it." So all in all, what was initially supposed to be two hours trip to home, turned into about a five hours trip.

The greatest lessons from this experience are hope and thinking layers.

Thanks for reading, friends. I've been pretty sinful in terms of proofreading my post lately because I'm just feeling a little lazy. But hopefully you'll get the gist of what I'm trying to say.

Cheers!