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  Wealth = Health + Happiness

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What comes first in life – wealth, health or happiness. This is an eternal question one may ask oneself. In my books, Wealth = Health + Happiness.

All of us start our career or business and aspire to be wealthy. We work hard and try everything under our command to make money. I think this is natural and universal. However, as we progress in life, we find some people are happy while others are not.

While there could be many reasons for happiness or unhappiness in life, one of the most important factors could be good health for yourself and your family.

While wealth can buy material benefits in life, it cannot buy health or happiness. This is the premise of my axiom that wealth is ultimately the summation of how healthy and happy you are in life.

Let us first try to understand how do we maintain good health. All of us dream to have good health but are reluctant to put in the efforts needed for the same. It could simple things like a daily exercise routine or the food we consume every day. Many of us find it difficult to work out a daily routine of exercising. I was no exception till about 20 years back when I was diagnosed with diabetes. Although, it was hereditary, the doctors clearly told me that the only way I could maintain good health is by exercising and diet control.

I started reluctantly walking every day. But, I would give it a miss on the slightest pretext. Then, one day my spouse reminded me that I walk for my health and not to make other people happy. This insight was a turning point in my life and since then I almost have walked every day at least 3 to 4 kilometres.

In my learning, it is a question of self discipline. We need to decide on an activity, which we enjoy doing and do it diligently without supervision or any expectations in return. It is the only way to make it a habit.

A similar rule is applicable to your diet. I am lucky to be a vegetarian by choice. Further, I do not smoke or drink. But even then, I have to ensure that I have my food on time and also regulate the calories I intake. If I go overboard, I have nobody to blame for my health.

Now, let us move to happiness. I have written in an earlier blog that in my view “Happiness = attitude in life “. I stand by that belief even today. You have to decide to be happy and you will be happy in life always. Neither money nor material wealth can give you happiness as a guarantee. You may have wealth and still not be happy. So, it is a state of the mind, which determines your happiness.

If we add up the two – Health + Happiness = Wealth. I believe if you are healthy and happy, there can be no force on earth, which can make you sad. This substantiates my belief that wealth may not necessarily lead to happiness but the contra is true.

Let us resolve to be healthy and happy in life from today. After all , the choice is with us always.

S Ramesh Shankar

 

“Love people and use things”

   Many a time we tend to fall in love with things rather than people. We tend to love things and use people. Many of us feel this way when someone close to us in our family or friend circle lets us down. I do not know why this happens. But it is an experience many of us would have gone through in life, sometime or the other. 

   Let us try to analyse why this happens and if we could do something to reverse it. I think all of us start our career and grow in life. As we grow in life, we accumulate material wealth and equate our prosperity to the value of wealth assimilated. This is quite natural and evolutionary in life for all of us.

  We then reach a stage in life, where material possessions no longer give us joy. We are possibly saturated with material wealth. This could happen for different people at different stages in life. Then we become spiritual and look for happiness beyond materialistic life.

   At this stage, we start appreciating people around us. We are grateful to people who have made us prosperous in life – materially or otherwise. It could be our parents, teachers, friends, relatives or colleagues at work or in business. 

    We are also grateful to many of such people for what we have become today. But sometimes when we encounter someone who is ungrateful, we start wondering whether human beings are more attached to things than people.  We wonder why they love things and use people. But, we hope that everyone loves people and uses things.

   While easier said than done – this is a revelation for us as an individual. It could be a turning point in our own lives. We may look back and reflect on our own lives. We may have also used people and loved things as we grew up in life. So, life is a cycle and may be we need to make mid course corrections as we go along. We may have to seek forgiveness from people, whom we may have used and not loved in the past. We may have to forgive people, who may have used us and not loved us as we think.

    This awakening in us makes us transcend to the next stage in life. We learn from own mistakes and grow in life. We understand the value of and need to “Love people and use things. ” and not the other way around.

S Ramesh Shankar

Racing against time


We all try to live life as if tomorrow does not exist.  Is it good or bad ?  I do not know.  Sometimes, I feel that life should be enjoyed everyday as if tomorrow does not exist.  But, at other times I feel bad that we are in such a hurry that we do not have time to sit and reflect on life every day.  Its a dilemma for me and may be true for you too.

We are aware that time does not stand still for us.  It does move on irrespective of whether we want it or not.  But to lead a life as if we are about to miss a train is in our hands.  Nothing stops us from getting up early and admiring the sunrise.  There can no melody, which is sweeter than the chirping of birds at dawn.  The formation of the clouds, the chillness in the air are for us to sit back and enjoy.

What do we do in real life ?  We get up late and sometimes are willing to sacrifice our breakfast since we may miss our bus or train to work.  Then we have a busy day at work and put ourselves on stress as if the whole office only depends on us.  We rush back home to beat the traffic on the way.  The pollution around us makes us tired and house hold chores leaves no time for us to relax and enjoy.  We skip the evening walk on the pretext of being exhausted at work.

Life goes on this way.  We do not plan a holiday with family or friends.  We think if we take a holiday we may lose our competitiveness at work.  The belief that employees who do not take leave are valued more than others is our own making.  After all these sacrifices, when we do not get a promotion on time or get an increment less than what we expected, we are stressed.  This adds to our health issues and we are physically and psychologically strained in life.

We postpone our holidays to be recognised at work and also to help our children be successful in school and college.  By the time, the kids grow up, we grow in our career and believe that we have to lead by example in not taking leave and working 24 x 7, 365 days a year.  I sometimes wonder what motivates us to believe that we are being the right role model for the younger generation following us.

We have given up our hobbies, the games we enjoyed playing and even listening to music or admiring nature.  Life passes on at such a speed that we do not have time to even realise what we are missing.  Then we have responsibilities of the family and friends to shoulder.  As we grow older, we want to give back to society as we have benefited a lot from it.  This is a noble thought but again does not tell us not to relax and enjoy life every day.

By the time we realise that we need to sit back, relax and enjoy life, we develop health issues since we have never bothered to take care of own health.  We spend more time visiting doctors and gulping medicines.  We still do not get into a habit of daily exercise and healthy food.  We believe we can make up for the same in the future. By the time the future arrives, it is time to hang up our boots and prepare for retirement.

Now is time we realise that life could be slower and wish we had the time to rewind and relax.  It may not be late even today.  Let us spend a few moments to reflect on our own lives.  Are we racing against time or can we learn to live life the way we want to.

Let us give life a chance.

S Ramesh Shankar