Do I know myself ?

I am not sure. Every time I think I know myself I am wrong. I find I have discovered something new which I did not know. Life is full of possibilities and and I am no different than life. I do believe that human beings have unlimited potential and I am not an exception.

Let me recall the events of my life from my childhood. At school, I had never participated in any debate or elocution competition. My english teacher called me one day and encouraged me to participate in a hindi poetry recitation competition. I was nervous since I had never done so. But he said I will do well and that I should try. I did and not only did well but got a prize.

I was always keen to contribute my little bit to society. At college, I was in the first year of my graduate course. My chemistry professor nominated me as the president of the Rotaract club. I was nervous again since we had members who were senior to me from the second and third year of the graduate courses. But, I did serve the full term and contributed my best to the social causes, together with all the other members of the club and with support from all.

Then at the work place, it has happened many a time. My managers have made me volunteer for many projects and even made me lead projects where I thought I was not capable of. I remember I was asked to lead a SAP HR project, where I did not know much except a bit of HR. But It was executed in time and to the satisfaction of all stakeholders.

I had successfully completed my corporate career and returned to Bangalore to settle down and enjoy life. This time my community elected me as the President of the residents’ association. Again through the difficult years of the pandemic, there were many challenges but we did succeed as a team and executed more than 26 projects successfully during our term of two years.

All the above instances prove that I still do not know what I am capable of ? Every time I get into some project or activity or lead a team, I realise I still have some potential to discover in myself. We possibly grow up in a society where realising one’s potential may be left to ourselves. I was lucky to have teachers in school and college, managers and leaders at the workplace to enable me to realise my talent. Everyone may not be as lucky as I have been. But I do realise that I also may have put in some efforts to discover my latent potential.

Today when I look back at my life so far, I realise that may be I am still discovering myself. The journey of life may be filled with crests and troughs. But, it is upto us to sail through these challenges and realise our potential. If I give up when I am down and out or if I do not grab opportunities coming my way at different stages of life, I have nobody else to blame except myself.

The most auspicious day to start is today and the time is now. Lets just do it.

S Ramesh Shankar

12th August 2021.

How to make life and work fun everyday ?

I have enjoyed my work life right through my career. I worked in public sector, private sector, joint ventures and multinationals but always found ways and means to enjoy my work. I have been asked by many of colleagues the secret of my enjoying work under all circumstances.

I would say the answer has been simple for me. Every day I used to think that I will try out something new. We have so many issues to deal with in life and at work. We always struggle to find solutions to all the problems we face in life. But the day we decide that we can always try something new to solve a problem, life and work is fun. We may succeed in our efforts or we may fail. Either way, it makes work and life more interesting for us.

Many of us feel that we do not have the freedom to experiment. We forget that we are the CEOs of our life, so nothing can stop us from experimenting in our own lives. Similarly at the workplace, if we want to try out a new way of solving a problem, nobody is going to stop us. Most of the time, it is our own lack of will which comes in the way. Like Albert Einstein said “Where there is a will, there is a way.”

The “will” is within us and it is upto us to set the fire to try out new things every day in our lives. It is like if we cannot get up early for a morning walk or job, nobody stops us from cycling or playing badminton in the evening. Similarly, there is no problem at work, which does not have multiple solutions. Generally, we try one or two and then tend to give up. If we try out something new, it not only makes life interesting but fun too.

I remember I used to have a white board in my office to note down all the crazy ideas I got every day. I would then try them one by one as I could experiment or would request my team members to help me try out these ideas. Jokingly, many of my team members refrained from entering my room for fear of getting new ideas to try out every day. On a serious note, I found most of my team members enjoyed experimenting as much as I did and together we had a lot of fun.

It can be as mundane as ideas for a fencing in our home garden. My wife was fed up with shrubs outgrowing and the need to trim them regularly to keep them under check. She suggested that we try laying brick separators. I went ahead and explored wooden and pvc partitions. When we went around our community garden, we realised that the options were many. We could use stones or even old bottles as separators. So the choice before us is limitless if we are willing to experiment and try out.

Life is fun when we are willing to look at every problem as an opportunity to find innovative solutions. On the other hand, if we look at work or life as a series of obstacles to make our life challenging, then we may be losers. It is upto us to try and fail or succeed. If we succeed, we could celebrate and if we fail, we can learn and move on to try out another idea.

Let us view life and work as full of possibilities every single day from today.

S Ramesh Shankar

6th August 2021

Social Media & Relationships

 

We all live and breathe in the “WhatsApp world” today. Everything in life is like 2 minute noodles. We neither have the time nor the patience to listen or communicate for more than a few minutes. The social media is like an instant fix for everything in life today.

People started with facebook and then moved to WhatsApp. Now its snapchat and Instagram. We do not want to waste time writing a few lines to post on social media. We have moved on from words to pictures and reels. We want minimum effort but maximum impact.

Today if we look at our life, it is something like this. We post on social media and if nobody reacts or responds, we get negatively impacted. We may not react to what others post but when nobody reacts to our posts we go crazy. Like someone beautifully said – “You will be the most successful person in your life, if you follow all the advices you give to others”

I am reminded of a very old quote in communication which I heard way back in 1989. It reads as – “ I know, you believe, you understand, what you think I said. But I don’t know whether you realise that what you heard is not I meant. “. This was not only prophetic but well ahead of the time.

We need to realise that everyone is just like us. Nobody has the time or the patience to react to every post of ours. Most of us are members of multiple groups on social media. If we have the courage to post something and not worry if nobody reacts, we should continue to post or else, we should back off. Nobody is waiting in the wings to react to every post of ours. Neither do we.

Life is not different. We need to live life on our own terms. We need to be self dependant and self reliant. We can do whatever we want in life as long as we do not expect anyone else to do what we want. We need to realise that everyone has a right to live life their way. As long we are independent and harmless to others, it is fine. Of course, if we can help people along the way, it is great, if not let us not interfere in others affairs too.

While all forms of social media has helped us technologically to connect with people, it cannot help us express our emotions in real life. Meeting a friend in real or calling a near or dear one cannot be replaced with any number of virtual hugs or kisses or emoticons.

As long as we are willing to accept social media as a means to an end and not an end itself, it is fine. The day we think social media is an end in itself and will transform our lives forever, we are mistaken. Technology can at best be an enabler to human kind and not a substitute for human interactions.

Let us learn to communicate with or without social media but with real emotions in life.

S Ramesh Shankar

1st August 2021