Chapter 7 of 7 – For Oft When On my Couch I Lie, In Vacant or In Pensive Mood…..

This last piece is awfully late – to be specific 14 days late. These two weeks was lost in two things – one mundane routine stuff which I keep myself busy with and a bit of personal turmoil – but that is not the topic of this article – I am just giving two alibi. So now that this has to end, started wondering how do I do it. Then I got inspiration from my professional life – prioritisation. The picture above is the word cloud of my hashtags - let me take some of them up

1.      The top ones are #mylife, #takechances and #attitude – yes these are both means and end – both guiding principles as well as trophy attributes. These are what makes a humane professional.

a.      #mylife is neither selfish nor narrow – it is how my life has been shaped by things – but most importantly I allowed #mylife to be influenced (sometimes wrongly) by external factors. Don’t resent those changes, don’t criticize them – imbibe them as much. And in that if something wrong gets imbibed – so be it, it is better than missing out good ones. You can always #unlearn the wrong ones – if you want. I didn’t – even they shaped me.

b.      #takechances is a very simple truth. There are two sayings “Nothing ventured nothing gained” and “everything comes to he who waits”. Seeming contradictory – they both are right. Opportunities to #takechances comes to the one who waits – but when it comes it is very important to evaluate it and then if possible, venture to take it. Well it is common sense that if it is worth taking then it should be taken. The question is if it seems “not worth taking enough” what do you do? One, you can let it go. Or you can ask “okay doesn’t seem like a great chance but what is the harm, the downside if I take it?” This is the zone from where you surprise yourself. The clear cut zone – there is anyways a race over there to take that chance. So as opposed to “great chance – let me take it’, get to the zone of “seems nothing much to loose – let me try it”.

c.      #attitude is not a chip on the shoulder. It is a belief system. It actually encompasses everything - whether it is things you value the most or things which are negotiable or are not important at all. Consistency in #attitude is something which I have seen as a common factor in all successful people (not necessarily professionally successful). It is a very large all-encompassing term – let me just say, as you absorb more in your #mylife, your #attitude gets refined to reflect what you are, what you want, what you believe in, what you strive for, what you don’t accept, etc. And this guides you when you #takechances – and if that happens you have harmony between these three values.

There are others like #lovemywork, #commitment, etc which afre straight forward but I would like to discuss some more specifically.

2.      #personalpride is something which should be the building block of your #attitude. Make sure you are so FULL and CONSCIOUS of it that you become super-protective of it. You shall not allow anyone to even dent it a bit – and if by chance that dent happens, you will work overtime to repair that dent. This is not ego – this is self-esteem. This is not saying “no bowler can get me out”, it is saying “I will not get out on a ball pitched outside off stump”. Remember that inning in Jan 2004 at Sydney where Sachin Tendulkar played for 10 hours (more than 400 deliveries) for his 241 not out – without a single drive on the off between gully and extra cover. Reason his last 5 scores were 0,1,37,1,44 and a few of them while driving balls pitched outside off. This is all about protecting #personalpride

3.      #continuetolearn and #unlearn are difficult things to do – we often become victims of our self-construed dominant logic. And since it is built over years of experience and most likely successful ones, they seem to be the only way to go about doing things. Look for the underlying reasons for success in your experience, generic ones – not the loud specific ones. They are the true situation agnostic learnings. Like keeping fall-back options ready or choosing the opportune time to strike. Just keep those and forget how you did it. When the next challenge comes learn afresh how to manage it – keeping some of those generic learnings in mind. But loose no time to #unlearn. Trust me when I say this and it applies to most of us – there are smarter people than us and most likely then can find a better way of doing things. Now do you want to obstruct that thought by your dogmatism or want to embellish it by #unlearning yourself is a question you need to answer. And by the way, most of these smarter people are junior to you!!!

4.      The last one is a personal favourite #humilitywithrespect. Well you don’t always need this quality. But just like you can have car with a out of tune engine and still drive it but it is far better to tune it and then drive, similarly you can lead your professional and personal life without humility and paying respect. But if you chose to show those qualities,, it is so much more worthwhile to live, to be respected in return.

Well I am not someone who is outstandingly brilliant or has had outstanding success in life. But I am a living proof that an average joe practicing the qualities mentioned in my hashtags with reasonable luck & grind thrown in for good measure can get a professional life which often surprises one’s own self. I know not what future has in store but till now – it has been great! And remember as you grow "do unto others as you have them do unto you" - with great power comes great responsibility! Then you really have your head held high!!!

As usual, if you have read till here, do drop in your comments.

PS – for the interested, find below the count of mentions of all the 35 hashtags by chapter indicating recency.

The VIEWS expressed are personal and consequences of them are mine & none else. Title is from William Wordsworth.