Recently, I learned to solve the Rubik’s cube. The process of learning to solve the cube made me imbibe many other things. While I was penning all the knowledge I gained, I realized something. The process of solving the cube taught me similar things that a year of working at the NGO Toybank taught me.
Patience
The key to being a person who knows how to solve the cube is patience. There is a certain procedure that needs to be followed to solve the cube just like learning a new musical instrument or a new language. If you are low on patience and also at accepting failures, the cube is not the thing for you. However, the cube is the best way to accept failures and be a better patient person.
I joined Toybank in Jan’19. If I look back at the year that has passed, I can say that I have definitely grown to be more patient as a person. Patient towards my own slow learning process, patient and more kind towards self in order to spread the kindness to the people I work with. Dealing with dozens of difficult people added to my patience pool.
Confidence
The confidence boost that one gets after doing something that tests their patience is another level. I took the cube in my hand and dragged my brain completely into it for days until I cracked it completely. When I finally learned how it is done, I had reassurance in me that I can do something and that my brain cells haven’t given up yet. It is a content feeling.
At Toybank, learning to be confident wasn’t easy. I am not a person who trusts herself easily anyways. Having said that, the people I had to deal with externally kept breaking my confidence. Some few team members of Toybank internally proved to angels for me and helped me build my confidence. I am glad I came across these people and imbibed a bit of trust in myself, faced varied situations and came gloriously out of it.
Perseverance
I have never been among the ones that give up easily. But, the first two days I spent with the cube, I kind of wished to give up. It was tough to keep going. I am very harsh on myself and that’s only why I didn’t let the cube go unsolved. I don’t know what I would do to myself if I didn’t learn the cube quickly enough.
I know that’s not exactly perseverance. But, that’s my version of the same, where I don’t give up on something until I crack it. This attitude helped me through a year of working in Toybank. If I were a person who gave up quickly, I would have resigned from this place in the first week only. But, no quitter ever achieved anything big!
Chaos is Okay
While solving the cube layer by layer, there are high chances that something gets disturbed while solving another. But this chaos is fine. It is how the process is. Keep following the steps. Focus on the step you are at and at the end it adds up to the ultimate goal.
Toybank is a small organization and is on the verge of expansion and growth. Of course that means constant changes to become bigger and better. It wouldn’t be wrong if I say that I have never completed anything I took in hand the same way it was initially decided to be done. Such an environment has only made me more open as a person, positive and adaptive towards all kinds of changes.
Of course, there are more things I learned from the cube and at Toybank both! I tried but I just couldn’t pen it all down. But, I hope the above inspires you to pick up the cube. Do write to me what all you pick from it @nisha_navgire