What do we really want in life?
Now that's one FAQ without a single clear answer, isn't it?
Nope, I don't even claim to have the answer for you. But I wish to share my thoughts here, and hope to know yours, and probably offer a single answer applicable to all. And let me modify the question - what should we really want in life?
The most likely object people seem to be seeking is wealth. At times people don't acknowledge it openly, but you'll find that money and material assets are the most popular objectives. But that doesn't make sense to me. I've hardly ever seen anyone satisfied upon having achieved this objective. Firstly, rarely does anyone achieve his financial objective, cuz it keeps moving. And then, even as he crosses his original targets, his discontentment remains the same, if not increases. This is because we seek to be richer (than X, Y, Z), not rich. It's a relative target, not absolute. And as we upgrade ourselves to financially richer social circles, we find our new friends to be at our own or higher level, and obviously we again aren't rich enough. As a peon toils hard to become a clerk and rise within his social circles of peons, he realizes that his new world is full of clerks, and he's hardly ahead of them. I don't think we consciously think this way, but it seems the obvious explanation to the behaviour of many of us.
Satisfaction with wealth also hardly seems to give any satisfaction in life. It doesn't assure that our kids will stay with us as we grow old. It doesn't ensure the longevity of our marriage or even life. It doesn't give us the social importance we crave for.
Well, maybe then a happy family is what we're looking for? I guess having a warm and caring family surely keeps us happy, but it expects very little ongoing action or maintenance. As intellectual beings, we need to keep doing something. If a happy family is our end objective, I think we'll feel pretty incomplete or blank soon after we reach that level.
Social respect, or importance, or fame, is also something many crave for. We seek attention from the day we were born. Even rich people seek to get noticed by building and showing off weird-looking skyscraper homes, or naming universities after themselves. Gangsters are also probably just fulfilling their internal desperation for some importance. Politicians, after amassing enough wealth for tens of generations, still seek power, for power gives them the feeling of importance. Some social workers do stupid things to stay in the limelight even after their causes have succeeded or crashed, because they're addicted to getting attention.
I am not sure if importance or attention will give us satisfaction. It is addictive, for sure, but having it seems to cause more desperation than contentment. And as I see in people who I think as successful - like Ratan Tata, or Peter Drucker, or Dr. Patt - they shun attention so that they can enjoy life more. Their sense of importance comes from within only.
I think what we really should seek is sustained happiness. I think this one is the winner. This is actually the primary objective - it is for happiness that most seek wealth or fame or power. Yet I don't think we realize that this is our real objective, because to achieve these superficial objectives, we compromise happiness very easily. We easily give up the pleasure of listening to the sweet songs of birds or the coos of a sweet child or the smile of a customer, so that we can attend to professional priorities. We do not realize how a kaka sitting outside his hut in a remote village can be happier than us, without having any iPad or laptop or even electricity!
So how can we achieve sustained happiness? I believe we can do so by seeking happiness of others. There is no pleasure greater than that found in making others smile. Ramola teacher and Fr. Hector and Dr. Patt may not be as rich and famous as Mukesh Ambani, but they have inculcated knowledge and character in countless students. Peter Drucker and Stephen Covey offered ways to be more effective, and win together by empowering and teaming with others. Ratan Tata and Bill Gates and Steve Jobs delivered products that changed, elevated, our lives. Interestingly, most of these received fame and importance, though they never sought it, still don't. They enjoy seeing the effect of their work in people's lives. They enjoy being in sync with their natural compass or conscience.
I therefore believe that we will find long-lasting satisfaction and happiness in life only if we make it our life's objective to see others happier. Small acts of thoughtfulness and kindness and generosity, pleasant surprises to our friends and family, can lift our spirits every day, as our conscience gives us a thumbs up. People who want more than a live-by-the-day approach can identify noble causes they believe in, and make that their career. That may be building educational products for children, or researching effective management theories, or fighting the green house effect, or finding the cure to cancer - there are countless options. Some professions have contributions built-in - doctors save our lives and health, pharmacists find cures to illnesses, civil engineers and architects build magnificent structures to serve our future needs, musicians create tunes to please our senses. In fact, if we remain conscious about it, we can redirect almost any professional career towards making a positive difference in the lives of the people around us.
I am more confident than ever that people seeking others' happiness will be the most successful of all. I hope you're one of those people!
Sunday, June 24, 2012
Weekends & Productivity
My latest management experiment at Peach is the two-day weekend.
I have always wondered how people in the US and other developed countries, despite working just five days a week, deliver amazing output, at very predictable speeds. I do realize that better education, superior management, different social traditions, etc. may be more influential in bringing about this efficiency; however, I have a feeling that a two-day weekend also plays a good role in improving productivity. And, in fact, I feel that a two-day weekend is more necessary here in India than elsewhere, given our cultural tendencies.
I believe a weekend is supposed to be a break for us from the daily work routine. The break should give us time to relax, reflect, and recharge ourselves for the next week.
Now I guess a typical professional here uses a one-day weekend to contribute at home (which is obviously tough on weekdays given exhausting work hours and the daily commute), spending time with family, buying groceries, eating out, repairing breakdowns in the house. Add to that our countless social events - marriages, birthdays, engagements ("ring ceremonies"), katha, mundan, besna, what not... In four months of the year, hardly a weekend goes by without a marriage to attend (btw today I have to attend two). Now, a weekend is also the only opportunity we have to meet friends, cuz they're also lost in their careers.
Many of us manage to squeeze these priorities in a Sunday, but at a high cost - I find people more exhausted on Mondays (that's when I have maximum absences - we call it "Monday fever") than even on Saturdays. Forget about getting relaxed and recharged for a new week. Forget about reflecting on the week, and introspecting how we can do better, or learning something new. Nope, it only adds to our exhaustion.
My hypothesis is that the two-day weekend more than doubles the effectiveness of a weekend. And we deliver better output in a five-day week than in a six-day week (assuming, of course, that people are sincere).
I believe so because the two-day weekend is clearly more than sufficient to handle family priorities, social occasions, and fun plans. We get so much time that we're forced to relax or think up work. And that is the type of time we need for learning, enriching ourselves, and planning ahead. Even an hour of sitting on the swing doing nothing, or a lazy afternoon nap, recharges us, as it erases the exhaustion of the previous week from our minds.
Work is also unlikely to suffer because people come refreshed on Monday, well-prepared for the week ahead. Sincere professionals have time to simulate their priorities before they come. As that they had enough time to handle personal and family priorities in the two-day weekend, they can focus on work without getting distracted.
I have initiated two-day weekends (on even Saturdays) at Peach, and intend to observe the difference in productivity in my own self and in my colleagues during the odd and even weeks. This was the first such weekend, and I personally feel very rejuvenated, and am looking forward to getting back to work tomorrow. I hope that more of us feel the same way....
I have always wondered how people in the US and other developed countries, despite working just five days a week, deliver amazing output, at very predictable speeds. I do realize that better education, superior management, different social traditions, etc. may be more influential in bringing about this efficiency; however, I have a feeling that a two-day weekend also plays a good role in improving productivity. And, in fact, I feel that a two-day weekend is more necessary here in India than elsewhere, given our cultural tendencies.
I believe a weekend is supposed to be a break for us from the daily work routine. The break should give us time to relax, reflect, and recharge ourselves for the next week.
Now I guess a typical professional here uses a one-day weekend to contribute at home (which is obviously tough on weekdays given exhausting work hours and the daily commute), spending time with family, buying groceries, eating out, repairing breakdowns in the house. Add to that our countless social events - marriages, birthdays, engagements ("ring ceremonies"), katha, mundan, besna, what not... In four months of the year, hardly a weekend goes by without a marriage to attend (btw today I have to attend two). Now, a weekend is also the only opportunity we have to meet friends, cuz they're also lost in their careers.
Many of us manage to squeeze these priorities in a Sunday, but at a high cost - I find people more exhausted on Mondays (that's when I have maximum absences - we call it "Monday fever") than even on Saturdays. Forget about getting relaxed and recharged for a new week. Forget about reflecting on the week, and introspecting how we can do better, or learning something new. Nope, it only adds to our exhaustion.
My hypothesis is that the two-day weekend more than doubles the effectiveness of a weekend. And we deliver better output in a five-day week than in a six-day week (assuming, of course, that people are sincere).
I believe so because the two-day weekend is clearly more than sufficient to handle family priorities, social occasions, and fun plans. We get so much time that we're forced to relax or think up work. And that is the type of time we need for learning, enriching ourselves, and planning ahead. Even an hour of sitting on the swing doing nothing, or a lazy afternoon nap, recharges us, as it erases the exhaustion of the previous week from our minds.
Work is also unlikely to suffer because people come refreshed on Monday, well-prepared for the week ahead. Sincere professionals have time to simulate their priorities before they come. As that they had enough time to handle personal and family priorities in the two-day weekend, they can focus on work without getting distracted.
I have initiated two-day weekends (on even Saturdays) at Peach, and intend to observe the difference in productivity in my own self and in my colleagues during the odd and even weeks. This was the first such weekend, and I personally feel very rejuvenated, and am looking forward to getting back to work tomorrow. I hope that more of us feel the same way....
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