Practical Tips to Slow Down, and Relax :
The HOW???
Explained!
You would have read my earlier blog post on the
importance of slowing down:
While a few of you would perhaps have
"sort-of-agreed" that the pace of life has become unacceptable, almost all of
you would have wondered as to "How?" The problem may be well-recognised, but
most of us have tended to think that there is no practical solution.
In this post, I hope to share a few of my thoughts
on how to actually Slow down and Relax!
First and foremost, while income/wealth
maximisation may appear to be a laudable goal, I would insist that we need to
re-define the goal slightly.
Let's just take the issue of one's income to
elaborate my point. In the Indian context, I would like to classify the
Monthly Income
Levels of people into the following broad slabs:
-
Zero to Rs. 10,000/= p.m.
-
Rs. 10,000 to Rs. 50,000/= p.m.
-
Rs. 50,000 to Rs. 250,000/= p.m.
-
Rs. 250,000 to Rs. 1,000,000/= p.m.
-
Over Rs. 1,000,000/= p.m.
Your perception of the above slabs may vary to a
certain extent, based on your context. However, my point is that unless a person
moves from one slab to the next higher/lower slab, his/her quality of life,
standard of living, pressures faced, etc. remain more or less of the same
order.
Hence, a person whose income increases from, say,
Rs. 100,000/= p.m. to Rs. 120,000/= p.m. will find that her income has shot up
by a considerable 20%. While this would appear to be quite significant at a
superficial level, the level of satisfaction, the standard of living, etc. will
remain what it used to be thus far. At best, you'll get a kick for a few
days/weeks. Beyond that period, you'll get used to the new equilibrium and that
will become your new "normal".
As long as you are within the same slab of
income/wealth combination, you will not be:
-
Driving a significantly superior/inferior vehicle
-
Living in a vastly different location in terms of social infrastructure (or even a vastly different home in terms of size, comfort levels, etc.)
-
Enjoying significantly different holidays, entertainment options, jewellery, etc.
Hence, unless one moves from one level to the next
lower / higher slab, there is no material change in one's quality of
life.
At the beginning of one's career, one may not be
too sure of which slab one wishes to seek out and achieve. However, after a
couple of years into your career, you'll be in a position to broadly estimate
the efforts required as well as the competence required to stand a realistic
chance of reaching different levels of income.
Based on your efforts at introspection (along with
a consultation with your immediate family), you ought to identify the
income/wealth slabs that you wish to achieve, say, by the age of 30, 40, 50 and
60. Obviously, people are likely to be interested in moving to the next higher
slab and not to the next lower slab.
All your efforts should have a structured and
sharp focus on achieving the above goal. This would ensure that you do not put
in "wasted efforts". Of course, you need to remember that if you wish to move
from level "A" to "B" over the medium/long term, you need to put in the
necessary planning and efforts in that direction.
Far too often, we end up putting in efforts
without having a clue as to whether we really desire the fruits of our efforts.
For instance, an aeronautical engineer who is passionate about research may, by
sheer dint of performance, keep getting promotions after joining an organisation
like, say, Hindustan Aeronauticals. At some stage, he'll find himself/herself
heading a section or department or division. Sooner than he realises, the person
will find that the time spent on meetings, administrative tasks, etc. is far
greater than the time spent on actual research. If the quality of performance
continues to be good, as years roll by, the person will find himself in general
management, perhaps heading 3-4 different functions / divisions.
The person will now be asking Research? What is
that???
What's more, as and when the person realises the
situation, it will be way too late to do any mid-course correction.
The reason?
-
Money
Any effort to get back to an assignment involving
hard core research activities would now involve sacrificing the pay packet. And
the mental construct (as well as societal pressure) would not easily allow
that.
And now, we have a perfect example of an
intellectually great professional who is, in all probability, an unhappy human
being.
Is there a solution to this dangerous situation? I
think that there is a rather conceptually simple (but extremely difficult to
implement) solution:
Just Slow Down and Relax!
At every available opportunity (at least once in
3-4 months),
-
Indulge in introspection
-
Ask questions
-
Review your priorities
-
Identify your passion
-
Specifically, find out the number of hours that you spend every day on activities you are passionate about
-
If you feel that you need to change, identify actionable steps as to what needs to change
-
Fix a time limit by which you will change
-
Identify a review date for a status update
After all, being happy is far more important than
most other things in life.
In simple terms,
Living is more important than earning your
livelihood!
Just Slow Down and Relax!
Regards,
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