Why Life Doesn’t Always Make Sense?
By: Davidson Chua
Tags: Singapore, Perspective, Life Lessons, Sensemaking, Life Change

Photo by Mark König from Unsplash

As usual, I started going through my normal evening reflection as I walked out of my workplace to the nearest train station. I was actually questioning myself on the manual that I encountered at work. The manual shows some electrical circuit drawings which makes little to no sense to me. (Sorry lecturers, I’ve disappointed you!) Indeed, most of the reason as of why they didn’t make any sense to me was due to the lack of understanding of electrical systems and diagrams from my side, and most importantly, what my lecturers had taught me had all gone to the ‘bin’.

What actually caught my mind was the relationship that we had with things that we tend not to understand. Sometimes, the same thing goes to what we face on a daily basis. From the time we opened our eyes each morning to the night when we try to put ourselves to sleep. Sometimes we flipped around the bed due to worries, and sometimes also due to the fact that we just couldn’t make sense on something that we’ve encountered during the day. Why is this so ?

Perspectives

Maybe from an engineering perspective, what I was seeing in the diagrams were all related to flow and the opening and closing of valves. Whereas for an electrician, they find relationships among the amps, voltage and ohms.

Perspectives. It is all it takes to get a picture to speak a thousand words. Likewise, it is also one of the elements that determine whether some challenges that we faced in our day actually make any sense.

The one thing that I hope to have learnt more ways to adapt to perspectives flexibly and to be able to understand the situation in a greater context. But the thing that I learnt all these while is that it takes time. It takes time to put ourselves in a different angle and direction to see things in other people’s shoes. In a totally different perspective.

Making Sense

I learnt that I try so hard making sense out of everything in my life, everything that I encounter. I question why the world is so materialistic, why are stress level rising and why things don’t seem to… make any sense…

Indeed, questioning help us think deeper, and finding answers to things that do not make sense gives us deeper perspectives into things that don’t seem to be of any importance on the surface level.

On the flip side, trying too hard to make sense out of everything may not give us any answer and in fact might bring us more worries to things that do not actually matter at all.

The fact though, is that life doesn’t need to make sense all the time. Yes, our science theory might need to make some sense. But some things that do not have an explanation might not need any sense to be accepted.

Just Walk

So as I walked my way nearer to the train station, I realised that I was still heading home even though what I went through at work needs some explanation. This, taught me that whether what we encounter in life makes any sense, we still have to embrace through it and pass through it. Just walk.

Yes, we might need to fall back and work on it some time later but sometimes we just need to embrace through it and walk the roads ahead. Some things may not make sense in life now, but soon we might understand and make some sense out of it with some experience and wisdom down the road.

Walking through doubts and the lack of understanding could be one of the many scariest and worrying thing to do in life. But that, is what it takes for oneself to grow, adapt and change.

Looking Back At The Past

There was once I heard about an experience on Matt’D Avella’s podcast (The Ground Up Show) when he put an example on how we can always take some time to pause and think back on the one thing that we encountered 5 or 10 years ago.

Maybe it was that major examination that you were studying for, the report that you were submitting for an important meeting or the collection of a health report that you were worried for.

Some of those experiences or end results might not make any sense to you. You might had face the negative side of things, and you might not understood why you have landed yourself there.

Indeed, at that point in time, things didn’t make sense. But how about today ? What had that incident meant to you now ? I’m really sure that what it meant to you now would really much differ to the day 5 or 10 years before.

Accepting

Looking back, if at all, it had taught me to accept what we might actually be facing now. We might not make sense of what we are actually facing today or yesterday. But so what? What could we benefit from worrying and stressing over it all day ? Why not we start accepting it, make a change and give ourself the time and space to make some sense out of it ?

Life, as a whole is more than just worries and making sense. Sometimes, things are meant to make no sense and are not necessary for us to try to make any sense out of it. It is just like questioning ourselves whether the egg or chicken came first and why.

It All Make Sense Now

Time heals, and likewise it takes us time to make sense out of something.

Bringing back the example of that one situation that we might actually had encountered 5 or 10 years before. We might not know why or what they actually meant at that point in time. But with time and experiences now, we may actually understand the reason behind them and how it had shaped who we are today.

The Problem Today

Last and finally, with the internet within reach and widely available to most of us today, we can be sure to try to make sense on everything that we have doubt for. But the problem ?

The problem lies on the things that the internet couldn’t answer.

People, especially of my age (Hello Gen Z!!) tend to feel that we can find anything and everything online, and when we encounter life questions and insecurities, we feet as though things didn’t make any sense when we tried hard to find the answers from Uncle Google.

That, is the problem of today — trying to make sense out of everything.

And there I was, making my way as I entered the train back home… there goes another day of work…