Is Twenty Four Hours Enough?

I am no different from you . I keep repeating the golden verse "i have no time for it" .

No time!

I found out how foolish it is to say it . Ever since i joined my management course in IIM , its become so routine that i slogged my heart out. May it be a race to finish a project/assignment or it could be preparation for next class. All this on top of my routine day job and host of other activities.I also found time to go for my driving classes. Now i think that there is lot of time at hand and how valuable it is to put that time to good use .

What i realized is that the time at hand when put to good use benefits us immensely. That is extremely easy to realize but i wonder why i did not realize it nor do host of humble souls around me. It is a given that we should be looking at it as a matter of priority but some how eludes us .

Last four months i have been doing my management course, reading scores of books almost two a month , taking host of online quizzes ,making new friends,learning driving and feel still lots more could be done, definitely time is there . Before which it was only office and home ,life just stopped there.

How come all of a sudden availability of time has exploded? Nothing has changed it is still twenty four hours a day.

Phew! why did i realize this so late . Pondering the question , reality hits . All these years, i have been in the so called "comfortable zone" . When pushed i realized how much could have been done and how much time has been wasted.

However it is better late than never .

Is twenty four hours enough to do things which we want to? Well answer to that is "I guess yes" because people who have achieved notable things in life also had the same twenty four hours. So why should it be any different for us.

Work-LIfe Balance

Folks, don't beat me up if this doesn't go the way you want to.

Work-Life balance , this is the buzz word these days ,as the going becomes tough and the economic crisis not seem to be abating anytime in the near future, it is getting very stressful at work place as we get very emotionally drained with all negative news surrounding us.

I hear people say they are working "ridiculous" hours and its too tough for people to cope with the pressure and unable to balance work and life.

Let's ask ourselves a simple question "Who is to be blamed for the position we are in?" - Managers,Organization,Family,Colleagues,Current economic situation who should be blamed. should it not be ourselves to blame.

Why do i say so? The reasons are multi-folded. Lets analyze this in a very pragmatic way.

By definition work-life balance is prioritizing between work/career and personal life. So if that is what is defined as work-life then the one element that differentiates good work-life and probably not so good is "Priority" .

Who can do the prioritization , it can only be us and no one else. No one apart from the individual can decide what he or she wants to be the priority. So why don't we go ahead and do it.

Reasons lay in the root of our upbringing. Parents say that this world is ultra competitive and one needs to work hard to come up . We take that in literal sense , for us a sixteen hour work day is the hard work part. We think working long hours equals rewards or recognition . I know people in various organizations who being at the helm are able to balance work and their personal life .

The recent incident that comes to my mind is that of the new CEO at the ailing insurance giant AIG - Robert Benmosche. He basically took a vacation in Croatia for about two weeks,when his firm was in turmoil and so much of media coverage was been given . However he defended his position and rightly so .When a CEO of a giant corporation having offices in many countries and in such a problem can balance his work and life . Why cannot we do it?

Just take a moment to think about it ? It is a serious matter . We need to plan our work and also plan how we want to do things .

One of the strong things that iam encouraging new mom's and dad's is to teach their kids how to plan things . It is extremely important .

Although i do agree that there are other things that some times hinder proper planning but even if we get 80% planning in our work , we would be much better of in terms of work and life . Else its going to be a sad story of people being in office for those ridiculous hours and keep cribbing.

We can change the way we want to do with due respect to work . Let's also bear in mind the concept of work was certainly not defined in 20th Century . Let's appreciate the fact that people have been working for ages and in many of them in hostile/tough conditions but the work-life issue is a recent phenomena. Why would be so . Primarily due to the attitude of people. Our attitude towards work has to be slightly altered and we need to understand work is not end all . Work is just one part of life.

It's just a matter of applying ourselves and planning . Remember a time and health once lost is lost forever .

Hope with this blog iam able to change the mind set of at least few people.

Friendship!

Several people who have read my previous blog came up to me and let me know that they like some of my blogs and some they have different views. Which is always good.

I was thinking why do they come up to me and why do they need to share . There should be something that drives them . Truly unrelated people who come together and try to be together accepting each one as is. It can only be friendship.

A lot can be written on this topic but will try to add my two pence.

If iam what i am it is definitely due to m friends a true tribute to all of them .

Goldi as Gaurav is fondly called, Brat as Bharath is called, Dinks as Dina is called,Vags as Vagmi is known and the entire college gang which has so far shown what friendship can do .

I still vividly remember Goldi , the ever brilliant came into our first class , sat in the front row.Typical of these studious guys , i was in the middle . Then Brat et all . We formed our gang , coming from very different backgrounds and with different ambitions in life . Its very suprising how we gelled together and are still glued together even after eight years post college.

They said college is different work life can be different. Well not truly, it can be as enjoyable as college or even better if you get good friends. My first friend , Ra Venki , Kushti aka Jr Venki , Goks , Uduppa aka Anand, Suku aka Sukumar,Chitrappu aka Deepak, Major sir aka Sundar Sir , Vazhai aka Vinod , Kutta aka Shenith, Mapla aka Harish , Goindsamy aka Anand, well the list is endless .

So many people , varied back grounds, different mind sets but whatever it takes , they all help each other at times of need.

I still remember that first week of June 2001 , when i needed 7000 Rs urgently to payoff some one . Ra Venki saw me in the verge of tears that night speaking to my mom on a borrowed cell phone . He came up and asked what's the problem . As anyone would typically do , i did evade that question by saying nothing but he insisted then i broke down.

He ran upstairs brought me a cheque and it was written 7000 favouring me .I was just dumb struck and could barely comprehend what was happening and why would someone who knows me barely for couple of weeks do such a thing . It was that day that the friendship blossomed which i cherish to this day.

Another vivid incident that i remember is when Goldi and Brat played a trap to make me comfortable speaking with girls , i would not delve into what they did , they have done many of such stuffs and have ensured that i get comfortable . They had so much of interest on me getting out of the fear of speaking to ladies(girls) that they kept tabling that as an agenda whenever we met. Well thanks to those guys that iam able to keep up their names and also is good in a sense.To this day i quote that incident wherever possible.

The list of incidents are endless but its always positive ,even a bad situation is soothed by a close friends shoulders.

Iam always grateful to all of them and friendship is invaluable let us not have ego and arrogance play a part to spoil it . Because once a gem is cut improperly its never going to be a gem and lost is lost forever.

Bow my heads to great friends! I might think of writing part 11 of this as well because i have missed so much and lots more can be written now that there are new found friends as well!!!