WHEN YOU RELAX you hear more of your INNER VOICE
| Date :31-Mar-2019 |
By T G L IYER,
T he world has changed around us. It is not anybody’s fault and we can’t get mad at anyone. All we can do is to understand what is happening and respond to the situation to the best of our abilities. In a scene in Butch Cassidy And The Sundance Kid they were trying to escape the Federal Marshals who were tracking them. Butch and Sundance found themselves at the edge at the jagged cliff and Bullets were flying over their head. Butch looked into the raging river below. He cannot swim. Butch consoled him that if they jump they would not survive. So Butch continued “That is not a problem because if we jump we would be killed”. So saying both of them stepped off the edge and they were no more! Suddenly, it occurred to me that the individuals who succeeded in knowing the world around them had a natural ability to sense the opportunities that come their way. Our defining moments can come to us from every possible direction; may be from accidents or crafty twists of fate from newspaper articles or from knowing that we could be doing something more important! Life is most precious when there is something for which we are prepared to die. Until you value yourself you will not value your time. Until you value your time you will not do anything with it.
Dr M Scott Peck in one of his presentations was trying to explain what Time is. Someone answered by saying that time was expensive. It can’t be manufactured or saved. True value of time becomes evident as we grow older and look back realising that time slipped through our fingers and we could not understand How? We all measure our worth in financial terms only when it is over. Time will be measured by what we squeezed into our short lifetimes i.e. what we did with the time allowed and allotted to us. Your self-worth is determined largely by what you do with your time. It occurred to me that all of us are carrying abilities and talents that we never use.
The only thing we are lacking is action. In other words, our ability and talent will run, if we decide to run. If we don’t, they lie dormant and therefore they become useless. Why can’t we act on the given talents we really possess? When we do something new we discover that we are good or not, fit or it! People only pay us to do things they can’t or they won’t. If you don’t like your work, there are two options. Either change your attitude or change your job. My Coach used to say: “Your teachers told you to work hard. Your parents told you to work hard. Your Bosses told you to work hard. But the fact is that you don’t work hard to please your parents, teachers and Bosses. It is for self-satisfaction. The fact is that when you become casual, things will collapse. It all depends on your professionalism. To stay at the top it takes more than your talent.” You give your best not because you wish to impress. You give your best because that is the only way to enjoy work. Life is a struggle and where there is no struggle, you miss something.
Our lives work only when we take full responsibility for the choices we make. Don’t be a Bonsai but an Oak tree! If you have lost your life’s direction, you can always rediscover it. We underestimate our talents. It is not necessary to measure or compare our ability with others. Kahlil Gibran, the Lebanese Poet and Philosopher said: “Work is love made visible”. We need not chase money; in fact money should be chasing us. Perhaps, you are competing against people who love what they are doing. Remember, that there is always room for excellence. In fact, we purchase lot of toys to take our mind off. If you notice something about Nurses, it is love of people than medicine.
The job is a vehicle to connect people. It is simply joy of giving something of yourself. It is after all not the job that makes us happy but the Philosophy behind it. We have heard often the teacher saying “The Kids don’t like Mathematics. The Teacher’s mission is not to teach Maths but teaching children. If you are a Banker, it is not Balance Sheets but the people working with you. It is not what you do but how you do it. It is what can I give and not what can I get! Best chance of prosperity is doing what you love! Doing what we like is not the recipe for an easier life. It is a recipe for our interesting life! When you care what you do, enthusiasm carries you through.”