Category: Uncategorized

“Goal” or “No goal” – which is better ?

I was reading an article recently on whether having a goal for anything is better than not having a goal at all. This was insightful. I always believed that it is important to have a “goal” in life and at work so that we have something to look for.

The author of this article challenged this mindset of mine. She said if you have a goal, you may get limited in your thinking. You may think if you have achieved your goal, then you have arrived in your life. However, if you do not have a goal, your search for excellence never ends. It is an unending quest to improve yourself.

I liked this idea and hence decided to reflect on the same. I love driving and always plan for the same. I am clear on my destination and the stops on the way. I book my accommodation and even plan where I would have my breaks for food and so on. This is like setting a goal in life or work.

However, on the other hand, imagine going on a drive without a destination in mind. Just take your car out and drive on any road which you like that day and let it take you to an unplanned destination. Isn’t this exciting ?

I recently was driving from Chennai to Bangalore in my car. Both me and my wife all of a sudden decided mid way that we will divert our journey to Salem and take a break. We neither had planned for it nor were prepared for it. We bought some clothes, booked a hotel online on the way to Salem and spent a few days there. This was one of the most exciting holiday of ours.

Life is no different. It may be a good idea to plan a goal and put in all our efforts to achieve that goal. But once we achieve that goal, we may sometimes wonder what next and set another goal. Sometimes on our new year resolutions, we keep resetting our goals to suit our needs. This way the goal itself may become infructous.

Even at work, it may be a good idea to set our goals and strive to achieve it in our given time frame. But then if we reach a stage of life or work when we are able to excel without even setting a goal, we may have achieved “nirvana”. A stage where we are able to thrive in life without any goals, we may reach self actualisation.

What I enjoyed about this article was it challenged and changed my mindset. We sometimes start believe in everything to be structured and finite. Sometimes a pandemic may challenge the way we live and work. It may be a necessary situation to challenge our mindset. For eg, the pandemic made many CEOs & CXOs believe that “work from home” is a viable flexible option and need not hamper productivity at work.

Everything in life is similar. We start believing that what has worked for us over the years and what we have learnt from our elders and seniors are the only way to do things. An alternative view may shock us sometimes but if we are willing to be open and challenged, we may look at life with a whole new perspective.

Lets us keep the windows of our mind open always. Life is fun this way.

S Ramesh Shankar

16th Oct 2022

Back to school

The other day I was returning from the market and I was pleasantly surprised to see groups of kids returning from school. There was a spark in their eyes and they were playing around and fooling with each other.

The pandemic paralysed life in different ways. One of the worst affected were the kids in school and college. They lost two years of real life learning in their lives. No class can teach you what life can teach you when you interact with others. The best lessons I have learnt in life is the interaction I have had with other students and teachers in my school and college life.

It could be attending a class and learning from one another by asking questions or answering them. It could be doing a project together. It could be just playing on field and fighting with each other but at the end , learning lessons on conflict resolution.

While I am a great believer in technology and use it to the hilt both in my personal and professional life, I do believe that there can be no better way to learn than experiencing life lessons every day in the real world.

The fate of employees in organisations is no different. The virtual office, video meetings and all that ensured that , life goes on and we earn our wages and serve our customers to the best of our ability. But real lessons at work are learnt when you meet one another, work along side in a project and celebrate deadlines together.

We may have attended multiple programs on conflict resolution and team work over the last two years and even got certified. However, we may find it difficult to resolve a real conflict on the shop floor ,when a section of the union , strikes work.

It is like all of us would have attended live fire fighting sessions but find it difficult to put on a fire extinguisher when a real fire hits us. Imagine the fate of the employees who have attended fire fighting course online and have never seen a fire extinguisher in real and do not even know where they are placed.

Hence, I was pleasantly surprised when I saw children returning from school after attending physical classes the other day. I hope employees are also able to get back to work and interact with one another and learn from real life experiences every day.

It is time to realise that the virtual world is not necessarily replicated in the real world. It is like the postings on social media which may not reflect the true feelings or actions of a person. It is what we see in real, which is real, the rest is illusory.

The pandemic has made life difficult for all of us. But it has also enabled us to adapt and learn. A good example is that of digital payments. We see the road side vendors, the small grocery stores or even the milkman or maids being comfortable to deal with digital payments. We possibly are the country with highest digital payment density in the world.

We need to find the gap between the virtual and the real world and learn from real life experiences every day.

Lets make life real every day

S Ramesh Shankar

8th March 2022

Living life on my own terms…

 

I have always wondered if it is possible to live life on our own terms. My life experience teaches me that we can if we want to. I have come across people from different walks of life who live life on their own terms. They may not be the rich and the famous or the outlaws of society. But they determine what they want to do in life and how they want to do it.

I recall my childhood. I lived in a Army campus and always dreamt of becoming an Army officer. Then we moved cities and my school was inside an Air Force campus and it was my dream to become a pilot. As I grew older I realised that I neither wanted to join the Army nor become a pilot. Then my father prevailed on me to study science, which I did at the graduation level. It is at this stage I decided what I wanted to and how I will achieve it.

I pursued my post graduation in personnel management on my own volition and after convincing my parents that this is what I wanted to do. Then I started my career in Human Resources as I started enjoying working with people.

Similarly, I hail from a middle class family. I had my own dreams and aspirations. I was fascinated by nature, loved travelling and visiting places. I enjoyed photography and videography. So even at the early part of my career I managed to live my dreams within my limited financial capabilities.

As I progressed in my career, I could buy my own second hand car in 1987 and then my first video camera in 1997. Many of my friends and well wishers thought it was a luxury I could ill afford. May be they were right but I had a dream and wanted to live life on my own terms, so I did what I always dreamt to do.

Although I bought things which I dreamt and aspired for , I was always financially prudent. I never took money on credit from anyone or took a loan from any individual( except for rare emergency situations) or financial institutions ( except to buy my car and house). Even the loans I took, I repaid well before the due dates. So, I realised that it is possible to live life your way if you are grounded and prudent about your spends.

My family and friends supported me in all my dreams. Ofcourse, there were some critics too, who felt that it was not worth spending so much on a car or a camera. But, they did not know that having food in a five star hotel or buying luxurious pens etc was not my cup of tea.

So, it is upto us to dream the way we want to live life and how we want to live it. Then plan your life and fulfill your dreams when you are ready for it. What you aspire may be quite different than what others do. It does not matter as long as you are independent and are able to thriftily balance your income and expenditure in life.

I do realise that sometimes we may end up fulfilling our dreams at the cost of more important things in life. It is here we need to prioritise for ourselves and make our own judgements. We may go wrong sometimes but as long as we do not depend on anyone else to sustain our living, it is fine.

It is fun to live life on your own terms and realise your dreams. It is gratifying to buy your first car or build your first home using your own savings. It is good to realise that no two individuals may have similar dreams and aspirations and that is the beauty of life.

Lets learn to live and enjoy life in own way from today.

S Ramesh Shankar

29th August 2021