Let’s face it, most of the people we see around us are usually always busy. Be it the new employee at work or the experienced top management ones, be it your friends or your dad and uncles…somehow or the other, all those we see around us are people slogging their days and weeks off, entering office in the morning and staying back till late.
That’s pretty much usual. But just pause for a bit. Can you spot something unusual in what I just said? Often overlooked but nevertheless a little bit of unusual in this usual way of life? If you see carefully, this ‘always busy’ syndrome is not just restricted to the newcomers only. The biggest of the owners, shareholders, top management officials of successful businesses surprisingly also fall under the very same syndrome!
Scared and insecure?
But wait, isn’t that normal too? Isn’t it because of bigger responsibilities? Because they find happiness and contentment in their work? Think about it…is it really so? Or is it that somewhere deep down we are scared and insecure? That if we pause a bit in our regular rat race, we are going to lose somewhere? Or if we pause and dare to contemplate on things, there’s a chance of figuring out the worthless-ness of all that we do in the grand and universal scheme of things?
So what is it that we are running after? If it was just money, surely the owners and the shareholders would have stopped by now. So clearly it’s just not money. Do we really know? Or are we just running the rat race and creating our own illusion to ourselves of forever being busy, not really knowing what we want in life.
If it’s not money, what is it?
If you ask me, it’s not money that people are running after and slogging their days and nights off for. It’s the quality of life. Yes, people slog and struggle and work hard for a better quality of life and since a better quality of life is usually defined by a better work profile, a better house, a better car, better schooling for one’s children, better holidays in better destinations…somehow everyone ties up the ‘quality of life’ element to ‘money’.
Yes, ‘money’ is important for all of these but think about it. It’s not really money that you are after. It’s some things that you want to buy with that money. It’s not the 100 rupee paper note that you are after, but the ice-cream with your grandson on a park bench that you actually want to buy with that Rs. 100 note isn’t it?
And it is here, right at this moment…you realize what is that most crucial element for you, me and everyone else. It’s TIME. Yes, we are all seemingly running after money so that it can buy for us more time to be with who we want to be with, to do what we want to do, to be happy in whatever ways we want to be. It was, is and forever will be TIME that is the most important thing for us, that we want to grasp as much as possible in lieu of money.
So what do we do about it?
To start with just answer these 5 questions:
- Describe yourself as a person without any reference to your job or your designation
- Assess your current work life vis-à-vis your personal life. Are both great or is one suffering?
- Explain your worthiness in terms of ‘who you are’ and without referring to ‘what you do’
- Assess what ’success’ means to you. Crores in your bank account vis-à-vis true peace of mind
- If you had all the money in the world but no time vis-à-vis enough money with a bit of free and flexible time, how would you have spent them?
I can conclude by saying that in today’s times we are all living in a very cash-rich but time-poor conditions. We have the money that we slog for but never enough time to do what we want to do with it and be really happy. So take a little time out for yourself…redefine who you are and what is important to you beyond your profession, spend a little resource on good purpose and feel good about it. Be spontaneous, be creative.
Live for the here and now. Laugh, Love, Live. Stop chasing things and start chasing a passion. Time is precious, use it well!
