That is the problem!

We all know of people who are in the same company for over twenty years but every time you meet them they are unhappy and tell you they will leave. They are waiting for some stock option to vest, kids to grow up. They neither leave their job nor their complaints! They are the holders.

We all also know of people who jump from one company to another, from one city to another. You will see a pattern. They are deeply unhappy where ever they are. They feel underpaid, overworked, trapped with a bad boss and so on.They join somewhere else and are very happy initially and then the same pattern repeats. They keep moving but find themselves in the same place! They are the runners.

A student of Zen is watching his master take questions. A visitor is thinking of moving from Pune to Hyderabad and asks the master for his opinion. “So how is life in Pune?”, asks the Master. “Oh it’s a terrible town. People are racist, traffic is bad, summers are scorching ”. “Don’t move” says the master. “Hyderabad is exactly like that”.

The next visitor asks the same question. “So how is life in Pune” asks the Master. “Oh beautiful, friendly neighbours, all cities have traffic but this has lots of places to party, you get to enjoy the weather, great schools, am so happy.”, says the visitor. “ Ah! Hyderabad is just the same, you will love it!”, the master says.

The student is looking at the master incredulously!

The master clarifies, “Wherever you go, you take yourself with you. And that is the problem.”

We blame the country, the company, the city but we forget we bring the weather with us. Some of us carry charged clouds and in bright sunshine we can create thunderstorms and some of us carry our sunshine with us.

We can either find peace in the chaos of the markets or we will create ruckus on a Himalayan mountain top. We can escape situations and places, but from the self, there is no escape!

Plants get stunted if moved. A Banyan tree has to adept to all kinds of winds and weathers! Careers are similar. Observe the Fortune 500 or NIFTY 50 CEO careers. You will see most of them stayed put in a place or two. It is not that they wouldn’t have got offers for a few dollars more or that they were never disappointed on a missed promotion. In a long career all of us will experience it. If running away from problems becomes our natural response, we will keep running. Anything worthwhile is achieved by taking on tough problems and seeing them through.

Life is a game of Poker. Most of us are not dealt a Royal Flush but our job is to play with what we have.

We neither live in a city nor work in a company. We live and experience life between the two ears. We make our own weather and the outcomes of Joy or Misery…those too are inside jobs!