Yusuf's Guide To Living - Episode 1 - Pilot

Originally published 3 August 2011

Little victories often get a bad press. It's sometimes difficult to see how a particular small action plays into the grander scheme of things which leads people to disregard their minor deeds and which can sometimes lead to a large shift in how events unfold.

These past couple of days in London have been scorchingly hot! Not in comparison to a tropical desert but in comparison to the weather of the past couple of months, it's safe to say it is scorchingly hot. In fact, while at work, I turned to a colleague and announced "It's scorchingly hot!" Startled by my exclamation he looked up and with much sincerity he nodded several times, as if to say, "Yusuf. You are absolutely correct. Your descriptive skills astonish me. Those are the perfect words to describe this current weather!" I could see gratitude in his eyes and the tension of not knowing how to describe the weather left his shoulders as he turned away back to his computer.

It might be that I'm noticing the weather more because in recent weeks I have learned to pay attention to things and have developed keen observational skills. This might well be the case but until I can observe my observational skills observing this I am forced to look for another cause.

The first fast of this year's Ramadan was on Monday 1st August. Incidentally, this day happened to have weather which would later be known as "scorchingly hot". Not being able to eat or drink during daylight hours presents a tricky problem when those same daylight hours are trying their hardest to make you eat and drink. Daylight hours can be very persuasive and at any other time of the year, one might well succumb to their cunning methods. Indeed, a very well known English proverb is "One swallow does not make a summer" which is widely interpreted as meaning that you're only in summer when you need to swallow more than one mouthful of water to be comfortable. 

Attack is often the best form of defence and in the face of the daylight onslaught my advice would be to stand up, look the sun square in the eye and give it a long, cold stare then finish it off by drawing the blinds closed.

Working while fasting in the heat throws up several more complications. If you're in an office based job, you might find yourself trying to analyse a spreadsheet when all of a sudden your ears will prick up at the sound of the watercooler and the sweet rushing of water into a colleague's cup. And you'll restlessly watch as he nonchalantly just leaves the cup on his desk, gathering droplets of condensation and leaving you in no doubt just how refreshingly ice-cold that water is. Dragging your eyes away, you immerse yourself into your spreadsheet, fighting the urge to look at the water and pondering how you're going to make this spreadsheet the best spreadsheet anyone has ever seen. There will be striking yet clear formats. There will be macros. There will be pivot tables. And most importantly of all, there will be lots and lots of cells filled in with blue. Why blue you might subconsciously wonder? Because blue reminds you of water. 

Damn. 

It's then that you realise that half an hour has gone by since the watercooler events and its on this realisation that you work out the way to get through this war of attrition: little victories, step by step taking you through the day.

Often you'll need to absorb information about your surroundings and leverage that into a tactical battle plan. For example, while sitting at my desk, I noticed that I have difficulty seeing through wood. Upon questioning my colleagues it turned out many other humans have the same difficulty. Furtively looking around in case anyone was spying on me, I sat for a while and allowed this realisation to sink in. Following a few minutes of sinking, I brainstormed ideas for using this new knowledge to my advantage (see link at bottom). The paper was soon covered in revolutionary and ground-breaking ideas and after much deliberation I settled on enacting a single plan.

I dropped my pen next to my chair and slowly reached down, ostensibly to retrieve it but actually to loosen my shoelaces, after which deed I checked again for spies and upon seeing nothing unusual, I carefully removed my feet from their leather prison. And so long as I was careful to keep my feet under the wooden table, not a soul knew. And I myself? Well, I was tremendously comfortable.

Little victories - they really do make a difference.