Getting Stuck

You’ve been grinding yourself for quite a lot; rather desperately but after all the pain and sweat (and tears maybe) the single consequence you yield is a dead end. It’s not a matter of objection but the obvious testimony that all of us during our school years (it doesn’t end there however) have experienced. It’s a frustrating event that teaches you a lot of things, not just the bookish concepts which knocked you out there in the first place.

Now we’ll dive into the past of class 12(yes not drifting away from the topic); mathematics class, we had relatively discounted majority, the students weren’t like the typical seekers, most of them weren’t bringing their copies or books, drawing out anime characters (or unhealthy biological diagrams) or even having an active conversation about stuff that shouldn’t had been discussed in math class (or any other class!), due to such actions our teacher used to send such unkind human beings out of the class which reduced our class count even further, anyways of the ones who were inside, there always would be one guy (or non-guy) who would be too lazy to solve the questions themselves but were totally fine about bringing an extra book, it was the book of honor you see, it was named as (drum rolls……..) “Ncert solutions”, an easy escape route out of road block; yes it was completely fine using it when you ‘got stuck’, but it wasn’t commonly what the ‘insiders’ did. You do realize that you’ll stumble upon a lot of problems, until you’re in a position to see it from the ‘other side’ and remark, “I seriously didn’t see that?!!!”, but if you consider a context where you yourself pass through the tangling setup, you’d realize that you were the one who were stuck but you were ‘also’ the one who got yourself out of that (and not the solution guide), no this para wasn’t about describing the math class memory out of the blue, it was about making a point which I believe you’d have apprehended by now; easy route isn’t always the best one when you’re stuck.

 Searching for a ‘convenient’ measure to solve (or rather impregnating) does get you out of the web, but the overriding fact about this is that it gets you out ‘temporarily’, it’s not a concrete fix of certainty. And it’s not just about mathematics, it’s about anything that you get stuck at (includes life as well), when you’re stuck you wanna experience how’s it like getting stuck, don’t try to skip this phase, it’s critical, this consciousness of captivity would push your senses and numb your distractions, it is during this phase you’re gonna come up with something that may not actually give you the solution but maybe near to that, and yes don’t judge yourself on this; why can’t I solve this? Why is it taking so long? Am I dumb? Maybe my brains slowing down, and so on; all this will encircle your neurons but don’t heed into them, you wanna be confident about your ‘effort’ it’s completely fine not to be so about your solution, your effort counts, effort is what maneuvers your way out eventually; in short, solution without your effort is meaningless.

The important thing to keep in mind is to take breaks even if you’re stuck in a problem, to let the blood flow to systems other than your brain, breaks allow you to appreciate different perceptions or methodologies that you may come across in a casual circumstance. Keep in mind that you should never exceed a day (12 hours; not counted continuous) if you’re stuck (a day is really sufficient c’mon you’re not solving relativistic mechanics or completing Einstein’s unifying theory that you need to work on it for months or years!) consult someone who’s had experience about the obstacle dragging you down, in most cases it will definitely be wise to consult with your teacher (only if you put the effort but weren’t able to clear the block even after a day), things will dissolve fast when you’ve dwindled with that sum long enough that your cells know what you’re messing with. When I say a day, I don’t mean that you just take on a problem which you couldn’t solve and waste 12 complete hours to figure it out, what I’m implying is that you need to come back to that question frequently even after doing your necessary stuff. Take your breaks, do your other assignments too, spend time with people you care about yet don’t forget to give it a try at least in 3 sessions of 30 minutes each ‘within’ a day.

Hope you’ll be able to find your way out if you’ve been taken stationary (which mostly all of us will inevitably), I’ve used math as an example because anyone can relate to the phenomenon of getting stuck in it (at least till high school), but the underlying philosophy remains the same for any other problem and environment.