APRIL 2021 is all about SLOWING DOWN

The phrase ‘Slowing Down’ may seem a bit counter intuitive, especially for the most of us running the mad races of career highs, business expansions, social gratification, material gains, or whatever version of success you are chasing. But Covid-19 has given us all a cherished moment to understand the real essence of slowing down. Something, that our run-of-the-mill lives could never have revealed to us.

Much like the speed breakers on the road that bring our vehicle to a standing halt, letting us reassess our options, take a deep breath and then pick up once again to enjoy the rest of the road; even the worst halts in life give us the exact same opportunities – to Pause, Catch a Breath and to Restart!

For over a year, the world has been gripped by the slowdown that Covid has caused our businesses, work life, education and lifestyle. For the larger part of last year, my business, among all others, had to remain shut. We suffered huge drops in sales, forcing me to reinvent my business approach, reassess my options and reorganize my setup.

But despite all the chaos around, I noticed that there was a sense of calmness in me. My experiences from the many highs and lows I had seen in the past 6-7 years came to my rescue (much of which you can find in my previous articles). So, when an external force decided to slow down all of humanity, I began experiencing the beauty of a slow life. It forced me to do an audit of my life, work, net worth, and most importantly, the way forward. I realized that I constantly striving to keep others happy, including my family, friends, employees, suppliers, bankers, so on & so forth.

I was over exposing myself to keep everyone happy.

My happiness & gratification were more of an accomplishment, like some kind of a trophy I liked to give myself every passing day. I was surrounded by thoughts & things, people & papers, stress & stigmas. Though I am still unable to steer clear of all this. But the good part is, I am aware of this today. And I am making inroads in cleaning my closet, although slowly.

And this was only possible because a catastrophic disruption slowed us down. 

I found that as you slow down, the decision making is much more holistic & helps us strike a great work-life balance.

Fine, it is a big change. But the way I interpret it, the disruption brought about in our life, family and our social and business circles is a much-needed opportunity to take a step back and reassess our options, redo our plans and move forward with the right choices. Most generations before us weren’t lucky to find themselves in the position we are at. Yes, I don’t hesitate to call this a lucky place, because I have started realizing the true value of this time. And so can you.

When life slowed down on me the last time around, I was exposed to the Mighty Mountains during the Everest Base Camp trek in November 2019. When I look back at life, I realized what I had missed all along. I wish I could have met the mountains much earlier in my life.

The Slow Down made me reflect deeper into many such aspects of experiential living which I missed because of the rat race that surrounded me ever since I got introduced to life.

Over the last few months, I have been nudging myself and my family to explore the new windows life has opened up during the lockdown. Hence, in the March 2021, our family trekked to Sandakphu (Darjeeling), including my wife and two kids (4 years & 9 years). Now there is a new discussion making rounds at home called ‘Mountains’, which was missing earlier. When we returned to base, I felt the urge to extend the experience further and soon took off with them to Goa where we spent another two weeks exploring off beat staying options. This time when I came back to my office, I could see that all those dependencies that always held me back from leaving my business unattended were gone.

Slowing down also helps us take note of all the clutter and the baggage we carry around.

 The journey is so much more enjoyable when you travel light.

A small example is about my email management. At a point, I had more than 10 personal email ids made for 10 different purposes. For eg, for bank related it was [email protected], for holidays it was [email protected], for general membership it was [email protected] & so on. I realized, I was thinking way too much about all this, piling on unnecessary things. Now I am moving everything to [email protected] & have started deleting all other email ids.

This has made me much more effective with my time on mails.

As you slow down, you start getting connected with your deepest self, and with that, you give yourself the chance to find the real YOU. Something that our fast life growing up had snatched from us. With that it also reorganizes your surroundings to adjust to the new YOU. So, don’t get too worked up about how your family, your colleagues, clients or friends will react to your new way of living. Give them the same space and time that you gave yourself to find the new YOU.

Here is a small excerpt from the poem ‘If’ by Rudyard Kipling, which I find very timely here.

If you can keep your head when all about you   

Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,   

If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,

But make allowance for their doubting too; 

Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,   

And—which is more—you’ll be a Man, my son!

So, in closing, I urge you to take a pause from your roller coaster lives and take a moment – To step back and find yourself –

TO BECOME WHO YOU ALWAYS WANTED TO BE!