Sanjiva Dubey - Life is Limited..Live Unlimited

Life is limited .... Live Unlimited

Life is limited .... Live Unlimited

SIMPLY, SAFELY, STRONGLY

Sanjiva S. Dubey

Copyright 2014 Bloomsbury Publishing India Pvt Ltd

All rights reserved.

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Bloomsbury Publishing India Pvt Ltd

Vishrut Building, DDA Complex Building
No. 3, Pocket C-6 & 7, Vasant Kunj
New Delhi 110 070

ISBN: 978-93-84898-13-7

Typeset by Eleven Arts

The content of this book is the sole expression and opinion of its author, and not of the publisher. The publisher in no manner is liable for any opinion or views expressed by the author. While best efforts have been made in preparing this book, the publisher makes no representations or warranties of any kind and assumes no liabilities of any kind with respect to the accuracy or completeness of the content and specifically disclaims any implied warranties of merchantability or fitness of use for a particular purpose.

The publisher believes that the content of this book does not violate any existing copyright/intellectual property of others in any manner whatsoever. However, in case any source has not been duly attributed, the publisher may be notified in writing for necessary action.

Dedicated to my parents,
Late Vidyawati Dubey and Late Sidheshwar Dubey

Contents

Preface

The hyper pace of our times, aggressive competitiveness and desire to amass everything almost instantaneously has taken a toll on our lives. This is manifested in unmanageable stress, poor health, emotional breakdowns, physiological problems or just feeling lost in the world. Talk to any bright young professional, matured mid-career executive or professional veterans; majority of them rue that their life could have been better. Most agree in private that the pace of competitiveness and increased consumerism is proving counterproductive and look for simple answers, none of which seem suitable. They struggle to manage their day-to-day chores and tend to lose the larger perspective of their life while taking a roller coaster ride of their career journey. All of them need to strike a balance with life, work and the external environment, before it is too late.

Our life, our most prized possession, is not to be splurged on meaningless pursuits, aimless endeavours and worthless relationships. This is truly a gift of God and must be spent happily, responsibly and purposefully. Neither do the isolated society and trembling family systems provide adequate cushioning from emotional upheavals, financial uncertainties, nor do they provides a sense of security. Nuclear families or single parents who have meagre support from their extended family have very little to connect with their roots. In the event of major disappointmentsemotional, career-related, study-related or financialthey take extreme steps to end their life or withdraw into themselves, and while away their time doing nothing. They need a framework, a positive method that can help them adopt a balanced approach to life comprising work, pleasure, family responsibilities and also things that give them a sense of worthiness. Some can find purpose in life by making a hobby their means of living, some in social service, some in research or some in an organisation that they are part of. They also need a simple framework that they can apply to balance various aspects of their life.

How does work life balance of employees help organisations? A well balanced life is a treasure, not only for the employee but for the employers as well. Leading corporations have initiated steps to enable their employees maintains this balance. These enterprises are cognizant of the fact that a well-balanced employee is far more productive, stable team-player and long term asset than a hyper active, dangerously competitive and a damagingly aggressive one. The later may show short term results, but will also vitiate the work environment. Most progressive corporations emphasise, educate and mandate employees to take necessary steps for their work life balance. These efforts include developing policies, creating a climate that respects such initiatives, promoting self-help groups and communities amongst others. They must take these steps to arrest the chaos that we see today of skyrocketing attrition, issues of corruption and increasing work force militancy in developing world. We have a chapter for the employers to take action in this direction.

What will happen if we dont strike a balance? We have seen dangerous consequences for people who fail to balance their work and personal life. Their struggle in the multi-aspirational world is frustrating and confusing. The greed to garner more money or higher status, excessive consumption or lust for sensual pleasure, all of them without moderation is like a bubble that will burst one day. Many promising individuals have decimated too early to become fodder to the breaking news stories. That includes poster boy CEOs as well as stepping in the door youngsters. In contrast there is thousands of silently suffering but rarely complaining professionals who are living their life from one frustration to next depression. They have accepted their life as it comes a day at a time without any desire hope or goal achieving nothing that ultimately matters. All These people need similar treatment for rebalancing their life.

While nursing our career sometimes we tend to forget that our life needs a balanced approach to succeed and be happy. In the interest of career we drop all our other interests, hobbies and at times family and community responsibilities. If we are successful in a way, we pursue the beaten path with punishing doggedness. Come a failure, the extreme frustration, superlative tension and bout of depression engulfs them all. They have no other dimension of life to look up to. The net result is the occasional and disturbing news of extreme steps like drugs, suicide or crime, taken by youngsters, budding professionals or end-of-life celebrities, which comes to us with constant regularity.

Ironically no age group is isolated from such imbalance. From tender teens to twinkling twenty, thriving thirty or fearful forty, funny fifty to surrendered sixty, all ages face such behaviour. Balancing work life habit can not be picked up as a grown up venture but should be inculcated right since the childhood. As the years pass by it becomes tougher to value work life moderation. Enlightened parents advocate balance to their children and advice them not to worry too much when disappointed and avoid too much of elation on their achievements.

The book will help these silent sufferers of work life imbalance to road map from what they are doing to what they should ideally do in their life.

So how do we go about attaining work our life balance? The protagonist of this book is a person of you-and-me variety who realises after a serious life threatening accident, that his life is not just about living in the fast lane but doing something more meaningful and enjoying. He took a resolve to change its course by bringing balance to make it more holistic. The transformation to peace and serenity in his life was achieved through simple self discovery, extensive reading of this subject and picking up practical ideas for implementation. He gradually started to implement these ideas to find phenomenal results. Not only his career satisfaction improved manifold, his life looked more enjoying and family far more comfortable. In the process these ideas have crystallised into an actionable framework that this is book is all about. This book is a culmination of extensive and distilled research of this subject, rigorous experiential trial and arriving at practical wisdom. This book is also an honest confession of accepting why it is not easy to practice what someone preaches.