Workplace Role Reversals can be painful. Especially, when the Horse is asked to play the Monkey!

Many years ago, I attempted to nudge out some timely career advice (I was gunning for my graduation degree) from an apparent family friend. In turn, I was stunned with an anecdote that continues to rattle my bones to this living day. “If only you chose Science when you had the chance; now, what kind of job options will Commerce bring you? Why be a monkey when you can be a horse???”. Right there, it felt as if the ground was swept off my feet and someone inverted the mirror in front of me to show how deranged I looked. This, besides the fact that I was equated with an ape! 

Many years later, I came across the very anecdote in a totally new setting – the one they call ‘the rat race’. As I climbed the revered corporate ladder, I recollect how ‘adaptable’ I was required to be, in order to get in line. As if I was unknowingly and unabashedly trading a piece of my soul for the next step on that ever-ascending ladder. But back then, who cared what soul stood for; I could almost see my pretty reflection on the gleaming ladder that my boss held steadfastly for me. It was not until I had partially transformed into some gibberish, robotic version of a ‘wanna-be’, and lost some valuable relationships on the way, did I wake up to a call – “Hey, where is the real me?” 

The 'race' is unapologetically real. While we can choose to ignore it for the time being, the frenzy around it is too much to not take heed. And while participation is a given, which avatar we choose to don while readying for this much glamorized event, is really up to the participants themselves. 

‘Self-discovery’ is key to being the lion that you are, while the rats continue to clamber all around you. As straight forward as it may sound, it’s actually a consciously developed knack; to de-construct oneself, then to carefully re-construct your true personality back, only this time, the way it backs your strengths. Strengths you have been naturally and uniquely gifted with, but had gone dormant in time. 

Pick out a sticky note and start listing these gifts that have long deserted your eye view. Bring them into perspective and see them in totality. There is some magic in the way our brains can process data when jotted down on a piece of paper and then re-imagined. Rhonda Byrne would further extend the argument to a point that ‘our minds can as much create the reality, as it can perceive it’.

This tiny step will empower you enough to shape yourself and your existing realities at the same go. To bring some more power to this exercise, try drawing up your vision by your own hands. A picture tells a thousand stories, they say. And so it does. Humans, learn and memorize better, that, which is conveyed pictorially. 65% better, to be precise.

Once you have adjusted that rear-view mirror just slightly enough, you will start seeing yourself and the road ahead in a very new light. There on, ‘being yourself’ will come as easy as gaining some extra pounds through Diwali. :)  

If a horse and monkey were to compete in a race designed to test one’s stamina, it’s a short debate on who would win. And we are no strangers to those friendly tree climbing matches (seems we naturally tend to our talents handed down from our ancestors) from back in our younger days, but how would a horse feel about that invitation. Worth a thought ha!

So people of the world - Get hold of that remote and pause the race for a brief moment, long enough to find yourself and so your mojo!