I had completed 2 decades working in the corporate space sparsed with a few holidays for not more than 2 weeks at one time maybe once a year. And there is no sign of stopping. The pace at which it is going makes me feel stifled and breathless at times. Though I love my work and cannot imagine a life without being mentally challenged, still somewhere deep down I feel that it does not allow me to flower and instead may also be snuffing life out.
Having said that, I cannot completely blame it on the corporates and its target-oriented way of working in order to achieve efficiencies with less resources and in turn less costs and the works. It is our choice when we select a corporate job either for a better standard of living or could be our skills or talent that got us there or even just the need to feel a sense of importance in a farce society. It is our choice again on how we react to how life unfolds.
The problem is that we consider ourselves powerless and slaves of any situation. We give our power to external situations and people around us, then get ourselves to play the victim in our own drama and get sadistic pleasure out of the same. Flip side is that, this is slowly becoming a part of our sub-conscious psyche and we only end up hurting ourselves in the process, all the while blaming someone or something else.
It is like a trap we make for ourselves. As humans we are never satisfied with what we have and are always looking at how we can be more than what we are today. Unfortunately, our idea of success is skewed. Even the oxford dictionary meaning of success is – “the fact that you have achieved something that you want and have been trying to do or get”. What it does not tell you is that success is a relative term and not a constant.
What you want to achieve is something that is already known or heard about and maybe you want to raise the bar of what was already achieved in the past. It also does not tell you what to do after you have achieved your goal. The trap starts from there – where you get sucked in to this meaning of success that you have defined for yourself. And the bar keeps raising after you have achieved the first milestone with the end not in sight. You have sat on this lovely merry go round, enjoyed the ride and now do not know what next apart from continuing the ride.
So, is this the end of the road? No. What can we do to ensure we strike a right balance between working and living? Firstly, we could start by acknowledging the fact that yes, we feel trapped – what are the symptoms?
Once you have acknowledged these symptoms, the next most important step is to just analyze these situations and think whether the stimuli for your stress is outside or is it you. Try not to discuss with a third person as it helps for you to battle it out with yourself, unless you are completely depressed and need clinical help. Most of the times, having an unprejudiced dialogue with yourself and being accepting of the situation, helps you make leaps and bounds ahead in this journey that I would term self-re-discovery.
One of the most important things to aid you in this journey is to try and keep the child within you always awake
It may seem very foolish, but just try it once! After you’ve seen what it brings, you will not be able to stop yourself from indulging in it again. It will make you feel relaxed and also help you understand to not take life too seriously. We have come with nothing and will go with nothing. Whatever happens in between should be done joyfully and whole heartedly.
If you agree, that this whole universe is made up of energy, then it is the kid’s energy which is closest to being an offshoot from the source. Hence if you have observed, we are at our highest energies as a kid. A kid is ready to imbibe by observing and is also most importantly accepting. They do not discriminate between cast, colour, creed or hierarchy. They are also able to forget and forgive more easily. Two minutes after crying, they will be able to smile at the same person who screamed at them. They are more adaptable to situations as compared to an adult.
Somewhere in the process of having an identity of our own, we have forgotten these qualities are already within us. It is only a matter of keeping that child within us alive in whatever we do. Imagination, like Einstein said, is sometimes more important than knowledge and to imagine you need to be childlike.
Being in a corporate world does not mean it gives you a license to be stressed at all times. Instead, you can be happy even at work and try to strike a balance by indulging in some fun without feeling guilty.
In the end quoting Terri Guillemets – “We mature in knowledge and wisdom, but never leave the playground of our hearts.”
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