Tag: happiness

  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

 

Uncertainties of Life


I was travelling back from Seoul to Mumbai after an official meeting last week. I was waiting in the lounge for my next flight for Mumbai.  When I opened my phone, I got a message that our employees’ union president had died.  He was a progressive union leader and a thought leader.  He was physically fit and used to run marathons every year.  He recently retired from our company after working for 40 years.  A rare feat for any employee.  He goes for a morning jog, then gets admitted to a hospital and is declared dead.  Life is so uncertain – you have to experience it to believe it.

If we look back at our own lives, it is no different.  We begin the day with some plans and end the day with something else.  Many a time, we have to manage the change without necessarily creating it.  Such is life.  We have to accept it and move on.  While it is easy to reflect on it,  it is very tough to face it.  Imagine being in the family of my union president.  He was a wonderful human being and physically and mentally fit.  I met him last week and we discussed on how we can further strengthen management and union relationships.  Such was the vision of the man.  Then one fine day after a morning jog, he collapses in a hospital bed.  How can one digest it ? Its unthinkable in anyone’s life.

However, such is uncertainty of life today.  I was reading an article on the flight of a very successful professional in the USA.  He was the envy of all his colleagues.  He had done excellently in his career and had a great family and enviable wealth. One fine day he gets up and gets the news that he has lost his job.  Can we think this was a bad dream ?  It is not so.  It is the reality of his life , that day.  Whether one likes it or not, one has to accept it and move on.

It happens in professional life and it happens in sport and in our personal lives too. We had a captain of our national hockey team.  He is prolific player and a great backbone of our team.  He had some personal issues and lost his captaincy one fine day.  One does not know if the personal issues led to his loss of captaincy but the fact that a successful player loses his recognition at the pinnacle of his career shows how uncertain life is.  An olympic aspirant was dropped from the national team when she had gone home to pack her bags for the trip.

The photo above was Uday Mahale, the president of our union, who was running marathons every year.  But after his morning jog, he collapsed on the jogging track and was declared dear on arrival in the hospital.  Such is the uncertainty of life.

Most of us postpone to live life to the fullest.  We think we can do that in the future.  We think today is not the right time to be happy.  We have a lot of responsibilities in life so our celebrations can wait.  We need to realise that tomorrow is today and today is now.  Lets try to live each day as if a tomorrow does not exist.  Lets try to do all the good we can today without waiting for that elusive tomorrow.  If we postpone for tomorrow what we can accomplish today, we can never be sure if we can make it.  We need to learn to live life as if it exists only for today.

The best time to live life to its fullest is now.

What do you think ?

S Ramesh Shankar