Recently met a CEO after a long time with whom I worked earlier. He was happily sharing his recent accomplishment in his business, and I was listening to him. Inside my mind, I was lingering with a question which I wanted to get the answer from him that moment itself.i was waiting for him to complete. The reason for the internal disturbance in me was some years back, he was undergoing tremendous trouble in personal life, financial aspects, and his business as well. I worried about his state then. During those tough times, I never had seen him losing his coolness, smiling face, or showing his frustration to anyone and also noticed that he never gave up his efforts both in business and personal life. After he completed his expression, I asked him how he managed through the tough times and his mindset during those times. His reply was inspirational and taught the spiritualism in life. “When everything goes against me at the same time, it means something is working beyond my control. Then why should work against it? Let me accept reality and do my part.
I believe that good and bad times will never last forever. I had enjoyed good times and let me go through this tough time as well.
God is testing my resilence, and if pass, I will get a reward more than now.” In my opinion, this mindset is the highest level of maturity in dealing with life challenges, and cultivating calmness will take us to the next level of evolution.!!Hope you agree on this learning......
One of the lingering questions a few of us will have at some point in time is “Am I leading my life the way I want?" .Particularly, this question come to those who had fulfilled the basic need of the survival. This question comes when there is a conflict of interest in what we are doing now and what we like to do.Some people label it as passion.
As I witnessed that some people answered the question, led a path rightly and some people struggle to find the right answer themselves.
This calls for structured process as follows
1.First, accept this disturbance as such.You are disturbed by this question because you are destined for something else, that is good.
2.Allow some time for settling down as any quick emotional decision may affect the quality of life
3.Spend time privately for reflection both on logical and emotional outcome of any decision you take
4.Seek the help from genuine coaches who can work with you without bias on your values/beliefs and guide you to choose the right decision by yourselves
5.Experiment your passion without giving up your current path as reality will give a clarity whether your passion is sustainable or not. Based on the experience, you can decide your path.
Finally, you are the master of your life, own any decision what may come and enjoy the process!!
A young businessman was struggling to make his life, and he could not find the right path to overcome his troubles. One day he met a Buddhist saint and approached him for an answer. He asked Saint, “I am trying so many things in life, but I am not getting what I want. So my question is what should I do when I cannot find what I am looking for?”
The saint listened patiently and asked the young man to come and meet him the next day morning. The Youngman disappointed, but still, he wanted the answer and hence visited the saint next day. The saint took him to the open field which was littered with small and big rocks. The saint said, “If you want the answer to your question you have to fulfill a task by today evening. There are a hundred rocks, and I have hidden ten gold coins under some rocks. Your task is to find the gold coin and return to me by evening”.
The young man got irritated with this tasks, and yet he wanted the answer from the saint, he labored all the day to remove all rocks to find the gold coin, by the end of the day, he could find ten coins. He returned to the Saint and offered the coins for the exchange of answer.
The saint looked at the young man and said “you might have got the answer from the task. When you are looking for something (coin) that you could not found under all rocks, you did not give up. You believed my words and kept on searching under all rocks and finally got it. Life is also like that. When you are destined for something by God, have faith, keep on doing your work, one day you will get what you suppose to get “.
The moral is never to give up your work; one day you will get rewarded.Have faith in him.
Autobiography of a Yogi is a journey of about a boy in search of God, the saints he meets in his life and his experience with them and path of self-realization, etc.
This book will give some perspective about the spiritual process of self-realization, ideas about some of the yogis’ lived in India and their contribution for spiritual awakening to the world.It is nothing to do with religions and rituals.
Since this classic book is available in all Indian languages and flow is simple and easy to read, recommend to read this book for enhancing the perspectives about life and spiritual process.
Recently I had an opportunity to meet a very old businessperson, who has successfully built his organization and gained a very good reputation in the industry. His third generations have also stepped into the business and they are actively managing the business. Despite his ageing and health issues, he is having a habit of coming to office regularly and involving himself in important decisions.
On seeing his passion and hard work, with curiosity, I asked, “Sir, Having created a big empire and developed the team to manage the business, are you not still happy with the growth? Why do you trouble yourself at this age? He profoundly replied, “It is not the question of happiness. I am already happy with my accomplishments, as I know where I came from, but not satisfied. My thinking is always on how to create more wealth to my employees and how to create more employment opportunities to many people.”
I am amazed with his thought processes and witnessed the person of self-realization. The God chooses the right people for right purpose based on the thought, intention, enables right action and result!.Real growth and fulfillment is when we make our life for others.
Real entrepreneurial attitude!
In business or professional environment or in sports, when something goes wrong, the most affected person will be those who are headed the business or organization or function or team . Simply, the captain of the team. The challenge for the captain is to bring back the confidence of all stakeholders through quick actions and more than that managing self emotionally to overcome the setback.
When we go through the successful peoples life stories, some common patterns emerge in their thought process and approach in dealing with setbacks
1.They use to feel gifted to lead a team either as captain or as owner of the business. They see the position as a responsibility. They internally feel and believe that if they are blessed with such privilege, they will also be blessed with to overcome any setback. It is more about taking the setback as part of the divine play to make him strong
2.They strongly believe that failures are acceptable. This reflection protects them from self –sabotaging and think a way forward
3.They deeply spend time with themselves to introspect the causes and mistakes they did. They critically evaluate the assumptions, decision making process, management style behaviors etc.
4.They are quick to come out with an alternate plan and put into action
5.Single minded focus on execution till seeing the result
It is not a problem falling down. How quickly we bounce back and strong reveal our true inherent strength.
“Ideas are easy. It's the execution of ideas that really separates the sheep from the goats.” - Sue Grafton
Have you ever come across an excellent idea which you believed would transform you or your career or your business to the next level? But at the same time, you are inhibited with the laziness, fear of failure, fear of criticism from others, fear of success or exposure (some people have fear of success or exposure!!!!), Skeptical about the idea worthiness etc..Later point of time, you became to know that the same idea or similar one was implemented by someone and you started feeling guilty of not executing.
The reason as stated above, most of the time, we are blocked with doubts, fear of any kind, more importance to other’s opinion etc..This is primarily due to a decision dilemma about the execution of ideas.
How to overcome this dilemma as from my personal experience
1. Spiritual perspective:
Since you only get the idea initially, that means, it is with SOME PURPOSE. Believe it and start to execute the idea
2. Emotional perspective:
Visualize the pain you will be undergoing when someone is executing a similar idea at a later stage. To avoid the pain, start to execute the idea.
3. Rational perspective:
Think about best and worst things may happen if the idea is executed and your capacity to handle the consequence.
Once you evaluate from the above perspectives, either you come to conclusion to execute or not. In both cases, you would be happy, as you are free from guiltiness. Your peace of mind is important .
Happy living!
