- There are too many things vying for your attention. From the spam in your email inbox, to those countless hoardings, to TV, to your social media apps like WhatsApp. Let alone your work, your family, your friends and your peers. Quite a few of it catch your attention and make you think or respond. They may not be important, or a priority for you, but you still interact with them in some way or the other. This is a kind of overload that plays on your mind, and may keep you preoccupied or diverted from your current goals. In such a situation you may want to rethink and reduce or block some of the unimportant and stress causing “mindshares”, even if it means closing down that app or social media site, or the frequent visits to some shopping sites. You may want to rethink how much of outgo is desirable for you.
- Keep that health of your’s intact. If you choose to neglect your health at the cost of other things, including your career, you may be paying a price down the line for it. Take care of what and how much you eat, how much you rest and how much of the muscle you flex on a daily basis. It’s good to be a little keyed to these things lest you “forget”.
- Keep your office hours sane, even if that means a little delay in promotion or a salary hike. You may need to see how much of office life is healthy for you and it is not eating into your other things, including your health, personal and family life.
- Do not join a “race” unless you see any real value in it. It may be the “in thing” at that time, but you may need to evaluate the downsides of joining the party in terms of other factors, and judge the kind of lifestyle that you will have consequently, and if the costs that you pay for joining that race is not more than the “proclaimed” benefits.
- Before you make a mark for yourself in the world, you need to make sure that your own house is in order, and that you are not neglecting your responsibilities towards your home at the cost of everything else. Do not reach a point where you start regretting some of the decisions of your’s towards your family.
- Spare some time to keep your spiritual side up and running. Practice some time to be alone and contemplate on your life. Find some time to pray and commune with God so that you may find inner peace and insights into your current life and the world around you. Go and visit that shrine or temple once in a while and spend some time there. All this will not give you peace, but it will also give you inner strength to face the ‘complexities and stress in the world today.
- Develop a habit of thinking over things or situations before you act or take a decision. Lot of times emotions may make us impulsive or may make us react in an undesirable way, which we may regret later.
- Keep yourself updated and abreast with what is happening in the world around you. Quite a few times we are more keyed into the work that we are doing, but broader your understanding of the situation, the better decisions you will take. You may be surprised at the insights that you have into a problem or situation if your reading is diverse.
- Guru, or no Guru, that is the question. Most of us need a “goto person” so that we may be able to understand our problem and find some ways and means to solve it. If you feel that you have somebody reliable, and you have faith and confidence in that person, do approach him or her. But you may need a few “hits and trials” before you find the right person. But also remember that a single person may not have answer to all your questions, so learn to seek answer from the right resources, even if it means reading some particular kind of literature.
- Try to make your life a little more predictable, even if it may sound a little boring. You can do this by creating a daily routine for yourself and following that routine on a regular basis. What time you sleep, what time you get up, by what time you get ready for office, when you have breakfast, lunch and dinner (and also, what you have for breakfast, lunch and dinner), when you come back from office and when you will spend time with your friends and family.
- Manage your finances well. Do not get into a situation where you are hard pressed for money. Keep it simple and always have a buffer in your hand to take care of your exigencies. Financial crunch can be very debilitating, and you may not want to get into a situation where you make it real.
I would have loved to add more points here, but these are some bare basics to get you started and thinking. If you have any query, question or doubts, do drop me an email at s.k@outlook.in.