Vitamin A(ppreciation)

I walked into the grocery store this week on a late Friday evening with some thoughts about how I could have presented a better suggestion at work, about trying to do a better job keeping in touch with friends, investing time to build a community, and a pending vacation trip to plan. While picking a bottle of my favorite drink and a cup of dessert, I started thinking about how I would enjoy them during dinner, and it struck me all of a sudden.

I spent most of my day thinking of several things I could be better at, and I spent very little time focusing on things I have, and I enjoy doing. Every moment feels like a race against others or myself, without much emphasis on the present.

The world has changed so much over the past couple of decades, and with what we have been able to learn with the pandemic over the last two years, we realize our expectations from people and our workplace have changed. We all sense a very strong need for enhancing our overall wellbeing over anything else. A very strong work culture has become an absolute necessity.

If you take both Yuval and Gaia Vince's shared approach to our learnings from history, Human experience in today's world is primarily built through the evolutionary triad of culture, genetics and environment, and is the most dominant facet that shapes pretty much everything around us - economics, politics, and society.

Story telling shaped our growth after cognitive revolution more than 50,000 years ago, and I think for the next several centuries, appreciation, and empathy would be the two most important ingredients in our story telling, that would help us make sense of the chaos around the world.

In my opinion there are several ways we could leverage and boost both appreciation and empathy for ourselves, and everyone around us.

1.Democratizing Appreciation and Gratitude at work: widely evolving technology platforms in corporate have made it so easy to just about anyone to recognize efforts for anyone else in the org. The key part here is to create multiple avenues of appreciation and acknowledgement flowing in an infinite loop to boost morale and confidence. What I like about it the most is it allows selflessness and ambition to co-exist as you no longer have to compete for effort acknowledgement in selective forums or with only some key people. Democratizing the flow of appreciation through co-workers, also reduces the burden from the management in doing so.

2.Keeping expectations low in social transactions: Dan Ariely has mentioned in his books about the fine balance of market and social norms in everyday engagements, which relies on several gestures or social norms being constantly balanced. The moment we assign cost to a kind gesture, it gives rise to expectations that are bound to impact the relationship in one form or the other.

3.The compounding effect: As small appreciations compound overtime, they go a long way in improving someone's overall wellbeing, in how valued they feel. Isn't that an opportunity we should all jump on to.

Overall well being = appreciation you give( 1 + (consistency/100))^(time period)

4.Embracing the fear, appreciating the change in new : I love how Cecilia Ahern through her books has advocated for making the most out of the present moment, ?life has no do overs. And, since these moments come with a expiry date, we could always have some courage to experiment, and appreciate the goodness novelty and change could provide. Leap of faith in people by default, and new opportunities for personal and professional growth can go a long way in identifying the global maxima in life.

5.Be Curious Don't be Judgmental: I tried to share my thoughts in the article I wrote sometime back. If pre-conceived bias takes control in our outlook, and we lose out on the opportunity to fully appreciate the true power of a relationship built on good unbiased footing.

6. Explosion of choice: Simplify to appreciate things better. For E.g. if you kept only healthy fruits in your fridge , you would only eat healthy when you get really hungry for a snack. Whenever we are excited or nervous about a prospect, we fill our lives with countless options. When these options exist, and you need to make a choice, you only tend to get anxious, besides even appreciating each of those options fully.

7. Frame of reference and Einstein's relativity: Einstein explains from different frames of references there could never be simultaneity of events. Such is life, each person is busy managing intricacies of their own lives, and every engagement you have with a stranger should be treated with some realistic slack before it clouds your perception. If someone is rude to you, assume positive intent, and you may still be able to make so much more out of the moment, rather than allowing the thoughts of an assumed bad experience linger in your head.

8. Savoring the pause: This isn't about being restful, it is giving yourself the ability to identify, and zoom into things that really matter to you. Savoring the pause is allowing yourself to appreciate and zoom into your true goals, relationships, and what you think add meaning to life.

9.Reaction to External: In one of my favorite books this year " The comfort book" Matt Haig talks about viewing external events being completely non-partisan or unbiased, and our current state of mind priming an early biased judgement. Take a step back to learn and understand the context, intent, and implications of any external event before letting it consume your inner space. Remember Benedict Cumberbatch in the movie Dr. Strange. He is able to get out of his physical form, and into the astral form, to notice everything around him through a different lens.

10.Lens of finitude: Growing up I noticed I valued moments more when they were fleeting. I studied harder in the last few days of my exam, I stayed up overnight to complete school projects, and even today I do most of my work a day prior to a trip, and try to make the most of things if I know they are limited with time. We all could appreciate a lot more from materialistic and spiritual moments in life if we knew they were limited.

I feel Vitamin Appreciation is just like Vitamin D, but even more universally ubiquitous and free of cost. The goodness we get from it relies solely on self-reflection and sharing it with others. Above everything else, we must learn to appreciate ourself, and our unique journey in life. The journey that has investments from our mentors, friends, family, and thousands of years' worth of learnings from human evolution.

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