Tag: daily life

The art of disrupting a disruption!

~ PA ~ Leave a comment

Hello there! I am sure not many people would be in a mood to seek introspection and dive deep within even as the world around “seems” to be caving in. The word here is “seems” and this quick piece is further to my last one- a step ahead if you like- to possibly fog out whatever ambiguity is remaining within our minds and stay glued towards the sensible way of making sense around the nonsense!

So, at this moment, possibly you too are among the many humans worldwide who have been disrupted, from what used to be an otherwise “structured routine”( irrespective of how fulfilling that was or how dumb your daily routine was), the simple fact that you have been thrown off guard and forced to comply with another routine makes that rebel in you to wake up- even as you remain unclear about what you are actually rebelling about and why! But once you have overcome this initial shock of being sent into a space of your discomfort! (if people think- work from home- is all joy and glory- well wait and watch as news starts to hit headlines across the world- how homes have found new challenges in dealing with never seen faces, attributes and behaviors of family members!), what follows is a wide space where you are equally lost as even your fellow mates are lost by seeing the sudden freedom and trust ushered in on you by the companies that you work for! Your brain is right now somewhere in this zone – “Why was I cribbing about my job for such a long time- see no supervisors- no meetings- no politics- plain freedom and what I say is being believed upon- even if I am binge watching the web series and having a house party!” Sooner or later once reality sets in, over the next two – three days or following weeks (depending on where you are right now on the world map)- you will for sure start getting those pesky mails- saying- “If I can reach and work- why can’t you”, “that strong mail from a client who wants to jump back and have the first advantage to be back in the saddle” or even more gloomier news that surely will follow-  people quitting, few  being asked to leave- and few others will simply vanish! (read incomprehensibility of the mind over the surroundings!). This stage then will be quickly replaced by a strobe light effect which will hold  anxiety at one end of the blip and boredom at the other! Now all of these or any of these will happen only  if you resign yourself to the fate of your disruption and allow it to dictate your future! The good news is there is a way to beat around this seemingly sluggish and clawing up menace and that is to disrupt what is disrupting you within the disruption!

What governments and organisations, fail to notice is that although, one public notice and one official email is all that it takes to change the way people are going about, the fact remains that we are reaching out to Individual human beings (who are a world unto themselves and micro ecosystems of responsibilities, planning and tact even at that micro level)!Well, at the macro level an organisation or a government may do it’s job by sending out that communication- but when you try to deep dive and see how the construct of every individual is the stories will be many and different with no common thread to fall back on except that dictate from the organisation! For few (if not all) being confined to their place of stay could be far more worse then being at office (reasons could be multiple- family elders being disrupted- health issues of family members- genuine paucity of space- ambiance – privacy- their accommodation are many grades down then their office premises- an issue of affordability, fear psychosis of being dis-connected- read dis-connected from office grapevine and  the ongoing maneuvers that have got left half cooked which can come back biting!) So how does an individual navigate this space and emerge with sanity intact more then anything else! well read on!

Among the many things, that one can do, limiting to the length of the blog, I will share with you a few simple aspects that I can think of and will emphatically urge you to find your heaven because, remember, no two of us are alike- each one of us- each of the 7.5 billion of us are different when it comes to our psychological frameworks and orientations! One way of disrupting a disruption is to analyse what is the element within the disruption is nagging you! The moment you seek that and address it- trust me half of your battle is already over! This can be known by knowing what keeps you ticking you and what ticks you off and the only person who can find this out- is U!– no one can do this for you! Next, once you have found out – what is helping and what is not helping you – keep focusing on what’s working for you as much as you can, so that you are able to nudge out the “not working elements” of disruption completely from your line of sight and top of mind thought placards! Consider this if you always wanted to finish reading that favorite book (which you long wanted to and did not have time to finish it), seize this opportunity and go for it, and every now and then as those thought placards start to pop  up(which reflect your anxiety, concern, worry about being isolated, or when your mind tries to drag into playing futuristic role plays of what happens next); use this book reading time more and more so that your mind knows that “this reading of the book” is the “new assigned task” and this will automatically stop the diversionary tricks that draw your mind into the endless chaos of ambiguity! Well, this was just a plain example and each one of us can find our own safe haven and island of calm- even as others tend to struggle around the chaos with clouds of ambiguity and smoking high on their own unfound fears! 

Once you begin to take charge and effect change for yourself – for who you are- through a directed and sustained effort; irrespective of the times- whether they are disrupted or not- things will never remained fogged out for your vision!

I leave you with these thoughts- Embrace disruptions and use them to Your advantage! Will be back soon with another piece, until then take care and stay safe!

The demons in our head.

~ PA ~ Leave a comment

Well, what should I say, else! Going by the headlines of any newspaper or any news channel at this moment, across the world, for the first time in many years, we are all connected in the name of humanity, concern or is it that we are connected because of the fear that we have within– Fear,not because of what’s happening around, but rather because of the demons that we tend to keep feeding on, on an ongoing basis day in and day out! So what’s really that we are afraid of and what is that we fear? Is it the fear itself which blinds our wisdom or is it the demons within that cause it to bloom within! Well, let’s have a look and then as always you decide what it is!

Well, writing from India, has in itself a set of advantages, well it’s always been and will always remain to be a colorful nation (which I am immensely proud of- before you start to think how patriotic I am!), but the past few months have been proved to be a bit too much- so much that even the odd challenges that seem to come up with failing markets, economy, law and order, political alignments and misalignment all of this together has gone beyond a point of protest and fast turning into a hot bed for viral jokes, memes and what not! Well, someone did say- very aptly though, that “Humor is the best medicine”!It is in times of utmost despair and hopelessness that great works of art and creativity have flourished and hope someone right now is punching away letters that will create a Nobel Award winning book or an Oscar winning film in the years ahead!

Well coming back to our topic, the recent episode around the poor Coronovirus (who now has to be labelled as the bad entity!) led me to think about quite a few things- again by observing how people behave funnily! We have these odd stares from perfect strangers, just because you sneezed, or cleared your throat! That fast and short brisk walk in the Sun and that sweat on your forehead- which now grabs attention like never before- and people who would otherwise never care for you asking, “If you are ok?” That never ending mad rush for tissue rolls and sanitisers as if they were the proverbial elixir of eternal life! All said and done, trust me on one thing, I may not be a doctor, but let me tell you, Viruses really don’t care for all this melodrama that humanity is playing out for now! When you are a Virus – it’s plain simple- with no brains and no cognition to target prey and with no conceptual mind of grief and joy (as a Virus) it does only one thing that it is capable of thriving in favorable conditions (read death to the host) and self-destructing itself when conditions turn adverse (read human victory!) So what is tat drives so much of fear within us – fearing a huge person with a gun pointed at you makes perfect sense, but what is going around here, when humanity seems to turn paranoid against something that cant even be seen and when it’s cousins (the normal influenza virus) keeps visiting us every now and then! What is the secret behind this fear psychosis?

Well, the answer is simple, We fear that the most on which we have the least control or fear that which is the least understood by us! Note down this plain simple fact and to that add the marvel of human brain, it’s intrinsic ingenuity to keep on throwing you on the edge every time you hear a throat being cleared or someone sneezing (now that your brain has been fed with an input which tells your brain, sneeze or cough = death by Coronovairus); well even if you never had a passport and don’t even know where China is and have never met anyone beyond your by lane of the home where you stay- you still will be petrified!

This hardwired mechanism of our brain, surely helped human beings survive bigger and more fatal episodes of epidemics (before the advent of modern medicine) and certainly helped our species survive and emerge ahead, but when we start paying heed to every false alarm that we end up creating because of the stupid messages that social media keeps on throwing up by the dozen, what we are ending up doing is – throwing away the sensitivity of our brain haywire and the consequences of which in the future will be certainly fatal! For now if we keep on blaring out false alarms- the next time, if there is a more severe form of a viral attack; an already tired brain will simply ask you to politely f**k off and say; well mate you made it last time, I don’t listen to you now! and well this disregard then runs a real risk to give you an early one way ticket to the angel of your choice! So how do we move around this?

Well, the answer is simple, stay wise and stay rational. Let your brain do what it is supposed to do, that is be alert and vigilant; but not allowing it to turn you into a visible paranoid, lest you start displaying symptoms of OCD (obsessive Compulsive Disorder)! Feedback mechanism to your brain is equally important and that needs to be developed and encouraged by performing actions or memory frame which helps reinforce the belief system within your brain that, “What you are doing, wherever you are, you are safe, irrespective of the danger and risk around!” Remember this if you start to feed the demons in your mind, you will eventually turn to be their food, on the contrary might as well start feeding the angels of wisdom and you will do a big favor not only unto yourself but to those around you as well!

Well, this is something that I wanted to share with you, quick and shirt for today, I should be back with another piece pretty soon, until then stay wise, don’t get killed by virtue of your dumbness and yes, keep talking to and feed your angels and shun away the demons in your head!

Ciao for now, have that coffee and keep your throat warm! Trust me Viruses don’t like it warm! Bye for now and folks take care!

Add value to your Time!

~ PA ~ Leave a comment

Keeping all the worldly problems away, the singular aspect which is a great leveler – is undoubtedly- “Time”. Irrespective whether you are rich or poor, affluent or just plain surviving, travel in a private plane or use public transport, indulge in life to the fullest or not- Time is equal for all of us- it goes ticking by the seconds ever since we arrive and continues along; Time doesn’t race ahead when we are battling the tide neither does it slow down when we are enjoying the highs of life- it goes on with it’s own intrinsic rhythm all the time and always- this piece is around this fundamental aspect of life which seems to get overlooked in the fast pace that we all have embraced and at times intentionally like to overlook!

86,400 seconds each day (in a 24 hour period), that’s the opening balance that each one of us has got, grab your coffee and just think how did you spend this huge amount of time the other day! would have you spent it differently had you been given an incentive (an incentive to live a little longer – perhaps a day longer for each day well spend?!). Certainly these aspects are not as simple as they seem, however the fact remains that at the end of every 24 hour period- you have consumed 86,400 seconds and how that has helped you or harmed you for today or for the times ahead- largely depends on what you did with it! Your application of value, quality and creativity within those fleeting seconds puts you in path of a trajectory which takes you either in the direction of your intended effort or away from it- it all begins with you and the best part is you get to decide!

Imagine a day- A normal corporate working day- commute to your work place- meetings (sensible and unwanted, unproductive) discussions, talks, office sanctioned bitching sessions (speaking, opining and thinking about people/ colleagues -who in turn won’t know that and who would really not care about it anyways!) Next, spending sometime doing what you are supposed to do- in a way that pleases you (that’s the reason why all those meetings and discussions and chit-chat arises from- because if each one of them in an office does things what they are supposed to be doing the way it should be done- there is absolutely nothing left to talk- discuss about!)- Think about it! Next you pick yourself- tired and famished for all the unproductive nonsense that you have engaged with through the day and head back for that late evening meet and greet with friends at the nearest pub- again an unproductive orchestrated bitching session – which now transcends into multiplicity of office scenarios (depending on number of people around the table)- again it goes on and on- with no resolution to improve anyone’s life by adopting anything to avoid anything that would have caused all those bitching issues and feeling happy for no real reason– you head home. You hit the house- have a customary chat and sign off (almost dead) only to wake up the next day and continue with more or less same shit! (only examples, people and context changes- content and outcome more or less remains same)

Sadly for all the evolutionary intelligence that physiology has gifted humans with- this kind of existence and way of living does a considerable disservice to ourselves and our intrinsic intelligence (whether we choose to use it or not!) This is the biggest underlying paradox of our times and the biggest challenge that we must overcome to lead ourselves to begin with- before we even think of creating value for others- we must first and foremost create value for ourselves through mindful existence and meaningful presence in all that we choose to do- through our thoughts and actions!

Bias- Societal confirmation bias– this is what leads us to believe that – we must bitch in offices- we must party and engage in unproductive nonsense and spend a considerable time of our lives- discussing, speaking and share n build opinions about people, places and almost everything around- when actually none of those opinions are going to make any difference to the person or the the topic of discussion! You would have experienced this- People suggesting how a soccer match should have been played in the 28th minute, what President Trump should say and do, Plastics are a real problem (discussing this while having your cold drink from a single use plastic bottle!), disusing about health- about going to gym (while downing your fifth beer glass or smoking your fourth cigarette!).

As human beings we naturally long “to belong” – belong to a group, a clan- that is something hard- wired in the earlier days of solution- this provided security and safety (as we roamed around the wild untamed lands), as societies became agrarian- discussions shifted with focus on “comparative observations and statements” whenever these were objectively driven and forward looking- innovations and improvement of quality of life was experienced (read great civilizations of the past). Whenever these happened with ulterior motives- it simply wiped out kingdoms and monarchies from the face of the earth (read sabotage/ political maneuvering – from greed- greed for power and self obsession!)

This same instinct, “To Belong” when used effectively in modern day office settings (the modern day wild wild west) can create wonderful achievements for the individual and the organisational ecosystem(read invitations, path breaking discoveries, the coveted Nobel prizes) all these come from this space- wherein the engagement is purpose and meaning driven– this is what I call – Organisation facilitated directed bitching to achieve something meaningful which is in line with the purpose of the organisation! You will always find individuals and organisations that are on a high- with purpose on mind are often the most fast paced, quietest and when they call for meetings- their meetings make real sense (short, crisp and defined)- because they plot their journey and ensure they keep up the pace and direction that they have planned- and it really doesn’t matter whether this meeting happens at their corporate HQ’s or at a beach resort (because meaning and focus of purpose so hardwired- it actually is like second skin- always worn- inside out!)

86,400 seconds is all that we have got for each day- how we choose to spend it decides – what our next move is and whether we are making our next lot of 24 hours easy on us or we are adding to our challenges! The ability and the necessity to value time and ensure we have a purpose driven approach to time doesn’t mean that we should stop enjoying life and we should get dead serious about every second- what it means is, we need to strike a fine balance between purpose that we choose and the recreation that we need ,once this has been established, trust me you have arrived! This realization of being able to classify everything around you – as either part of your purpose or part of recreation will empower you like nothing else- provide you with enough clarity and sense of direction- which in turn will know how you are investing your 86,400 seconds and spending them each day!

I will leave you with your remaining seconds for the day and urge you to begin thinking around- what is your purpose and what is your recreation- and how much time your are investing and how much you are spending!

Like every other virtue, it’s always good to use “time” wisely so that it amplifies and resonates with your purpose and ensures you also have enough recreation the way you want to! How many of the 86,400 seconds do you have for today and what are you planning to do with them? Invest or spend? whatever you decide- stay wise!