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I am standing in the wings of a theatre waiting for my cue to go onstage. As I stand there I can hear the play proceeding, and suddenly it dawns on me that the lines I have learnt are not in this play at all, but belong to quite a different one. Panic seizes me; I wonder frenziedly what should I do. Then I get my cue. Stumbling, falling over the unfamiliar scenery, I make my way onto the stage, and then look for guidance to the prompter, whose head i can just see rising out of the floor-boards. Alas he only signals helplessly to me and I realise of course that his script is different from mine. I begin to speak my lines, but they are incomprehensible to the other actors and abhorrent to the audience, who begins to his and shout: 'Get off the stage!', 'Let the play go on!', 'You're interrupting!'. I am paralysed and can think of nothing to do but to go on standing there and speaking my lines that don't fit. The only lines I know.

Malcolm Muggeridge#7

LifeChangeExpectationIdentityPreparationUncertainty

About this quote

What does it mean?
Using a theater metaphor, Muggeridge describes life as unexpectedly requiring us to perform a different play than prepared for.
In plain terms
Life throws you unexpected challenges that your preparation doesn't solve.
What can you take from it?
Be ready for life to not match your preparation.

Where it applies

  • career transitions
  • life crises
  • identity shifts

Putting it to work

  • practice adaptability
  • expect the unexpected

Questions to consider

  • When did you feel unprepared?
  • How do you handle unexpected demands?

Another view

Sometimes preparation does help you navigate life changes.

More from Malcolm Muggeridge

  1. There is something ridiculous and even quite indecent in an individual claiming to be happy. Still more a people or a nation making such a claim. The pursuit o…

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  2. Animistic savages prostrating themselves before a painted stone have always seemed to me to be nearer the truth than any Einstein or Bertrand Russell.

    Permalink to quote #5
  3. The first thing I remember about the world:is that I was a stranger in it. This feeling, which is at once the glory and desolation of homo sapiens, provides th…

    Permalink to quote #4

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