Personal Life Vs Work Life

I feel miserable today, reason i could not make it to my cousins marriage,why?

I came from office late last night , i had to leave for the marriage early morning and today had truck loads of things to do in office!!

Woke up just in time but still was tired and had a long day ahead , so went back to sleep. Came to office and put in a grueling 14 hours but reality bites in. Why work so hard and compromise on personal things. I thought i could have done better today.

We are so enmeshed with work and spend on an average 50% of our available time in office that we think office is life .If we exclude traveling time and sleeping time , this percentage could well hit the 80 mark.

Even when we travel to and from office we only think about office and work barring few important occasions.

In reality,life is so beautiful that we miss many important things that do not come back to us . Those precious little moments,we miss them and then complain that life is dull and boring.

How many of us can honestly say that we really take good care of our near and dear ones . Many a times office work takes precedence that we even forego taking care of ourselves. I have seen my colleagues putting in 18 hour days , they haven't taken time off for themselves nor for their partners .

When subtly asked , standard answer is "We are young , if we do not work hard now , then when would we ?" Yes, that's true but at what cost . A sons first birthday or a marriage anniversary comes only once and a lost opportunity is lost for ever.

I have seen moms and dads in office who are furious on themselves because their son is ill and they are unable to take care of them or for that matter it is a marriage anniversary for them and they are barking at the stupid MIS which needs to be sent to someone.

We need to take conscious effort to try and enjoy our life because it is wonderful. How can we do that? Answer is planning things properly and ensuring that there is a divide between professional and personal life . If we can achieve this , then it would be a wonderful thing.

I need to try and do what i have said above and am still kicking myself for not making it to the marriage today!!!!

"Rubhino" The F1 Statesman

Its not my normal self to post two blogs in successive days ,quite unlike of me. However watching Rubens Barrichello win todays European Grand Prix in Valencia pushed me to salute formula 1's greatest servant and a true statesman.

Rubhino as he is fondly called has had more grand prix starts than any other driver in the world. Being in his late thirties, today he demonstrated to the younger generation how to keep your competitive spirit flying.

When Mclaren messed their routine pit stop for Lewis Hamilton ,boy o boy did Rubhino put the hammer down and set the track on a blitz .He showed supreme confidence and handled the Brawn Gp car to precision.He never looked back and neither did he slip . Drove the race absolutely inch perfect .

One can only get into Formula one if he is ultra competitive and being there for these many years and competing with drivers who are almost ten years junior to him tells us something about his fighting spirit.

Well people say age plays a big role in keeping ones fighting spirit going but Rubhino showed age has nothing to do with keeping onself fit,confident and moreover a will to win .

Someone like me who complains about hard work and all the stress,Rubhino has shown what's possible . Driving a car through grueling 57 laps under scorching sun, at an average of over 2oo mph and having to go through 5G lap after lap ,this was something extra special from him.Also teaches us lesson on what's possible.

What's more ,when he came up to the park his car ,there were all people rushing to congratulate him. The Ferrari's,Mclarens,Renaults. You name it everyone was there. Such is his charisma and being liked by so many people in a sport which is seen by many in the world as glamorous and politically driven says very highly about Rubhino.

Well done Rubhino , expecting more to come from him. When you hang-up your helmet,world will remember you as a great person and a true reflection of the competitive sport.

Savour this moment and bow my head down for a great sportsperson. Very special.

Hope he writes a Bio of himself,can't wait for that to happen.

I think i like him because he shares my birthday or rather i share his !!!!!

Frank Talk

I was being pushed to blog by my colleagues for the last two weeks. I just got sometime today to blog. Hopefully this is as interesting or as boring as subject like the others that i have posted . Opinions differ :- ))

Well what is "Frank" all about. Dictionary meaning states that "unbounded by anything or free" but it seldom occurs.

This week , i learnt how powerful "frank talk" is i.e. talk unbounded by anything ,very free and away from all the usual bull shit.

I learnt it from two angles , in one occasion , i was doing all the frank talk and in the next someone else did all the talking i.e. i was at the receiving end.

In the first case, there is this good friend of mine who was undergoing a harrowing experience in her professional life , there was a thought in her that she has not been performing well for whatever reason and somehow seemed to be out of place. She was generally a star performer and hardworking , something seemed to have been nagging her . During the few weeks that i observed ,it was quite evident that there she was not enjoying and something was seriously wrong with her . No idea what it was tough !

Deciding to help , i spoke to her , to talk her through and see what was happening and try and see if i could do something to help.

Unbelievably , as the conversation started, i found out that it was a simple problem of over expectation and the problem boiled down to this " I was all along a Super Performer and i am unable to do that now?".

I spoke for about one hour almost non stop as if somebody had written the dialogues for me beforehand and i had memorized it to the pause. Speaking with genuine concern,explaining what i saw as the problem , telling the strengths as i saw in her ,the potential weakness and giving no bullshit . I was stunned by myself as i ticked all the boxes for a great frank talk. The answer was instantaneous ,this person now became extremely positive and more importantly cheerful. Ever since i did this talk,she seems to be doing well and keeps telling me that weight has been taken off her shoulders . I don't know if performance indeed has improved but certainly happiness has returned .

Next in line was me at the receiving end of the talk and that happened just today.On some issue i was arguing with my mom for a week or two and was extremely annoyed on the way it was being handled . My uncle was at home and had just a thirty minute chat with me .He spoke extremely frankly,explaining the situation as is with me .With an age difference of about 35 years, it was quite natural that i was listening and he speaking.

As always we tend to ignore advices from elders or even evade them when they speak to us on things which we feel are sensitive but today it was quite different , i could feel myself change and inspired as the talk went on.It was pure bliss.

What i realised today was that ,when things are spoken openly i.e. frankly , we tend to listen and it is such a relief that once spoken we know the answer to questions we had in our mind ,in one way or the other . It is not necessarily positive , can be negative answers as well but at least we do not need to be extremely tensed about the subject , as we already know what the answer is or where to start looking for. There is a clear sense of direction in the mind,which i think causes the relief.

It sounds so silly to write about these two incidents but the subject of discussion is the same , and there is an element of truth in saying that Frank Talk did help in both occasion.

We don't understand these until we go through the experience ,both of them were wonderful moments. Speaking is natural but Frank Talk is nature at its cracking best!