September 2010 Editorial

Life – A five ball game!
“Imagine life as a game in which you are juggling some five balls in the air. They are Work, Family, Health, Friends, and Spirit and you are keeping all of these in the air.
You will soon realize that Work is a rubber ball. If you drop it, it will bounce back. But the other four balls – Family, Health, Friends and Spirit – are made of glass. If you drop one of these, they will be irrevocably scuffed, marked, nicked, damaged or even shattered. They will never be the same. You must understand that and strive for it. Work efficiently during office hours and leave on time. Give the required time to your family friends and have proper rest. Value has a value only if its value is valued.” – Bryan Dyson
A friend shared this with me as one of the shortest and effective speeches given by the Former CEO Mr. Bryon Dyson of Coca Cola Co. This seems to be an aspiring thought for many of us who want to prioritize as per Mr. Dyson. But most of us do exactly the opposite all the time. WORK is usually treated as the Glass ball. Most of us are slaves to this Rubberball perceived to have been made of Glass. Competition, hunger for success, unending desires and the jungle rule – “survival of the fittest” are some of the characteristics that have become a second nature to all of us. And why not, when all of these attributes put together give you the power to achieve life’s set goals, and live a worthwhile life as we dream it to be! This Rubber ball has definitely made its way to the top of our wishlist, since it is impressed upon us to be a key to all our troubles and worries. Yes I agree, this is that ball which opens our doors to one of the most powerful privileges, The Power to BUY! WORK gives us the power to buy almost everything under the sun. Yes when I say almost everything, I literally mean ALMOST everything, but not EVERYTHING! Work gives money, and money can buy a movie ticket, a candle light dinner at one of the most expensive hotels, a car, a house, a holiday, etc. etc. But it can’t buy you TIME which is what you need the most to be able to enjoy all these pleasures of life! And it definitely can’t buy you PEOPLE to share this time with, as we all know, life’s precious moments don’t have any value unless they are shared! Shared with your loved ones i.e. family and friends! This reminds me of one of the popular ads of a credit card, which emphasizes on these priceless moments and tries to nudge us to experience these moments of spending our time effectively with those people who matter since that is priceless, and for everything else there is money that can buy you anything!
Recently I had visited my sister in the US for a good one month. I tried observing the work patterns of most people living there, one of them being my brother-in-law. He holds a senior position in his company, and is a successful professional there. What was most impressive about his work culture was their respect towards OTHERS’ time and the accountability they hold towards the job. These have been the defining factors of their work culture in my opinion which drastically differentiate them from us. They not only respect your time while on duty, but also respect your personal commitments and allow flexibility because they know that you will be accountable for the job assigned to you. Here in India if you ever come across such people, we put them on a pedestal and call them ‘professional’. But no one looks at it this way that in a “profession” we all are meant to be “professional”.
A Professional set up at work helps in maintaining good spirits, which is then carried forward to our homes as well. A healthy atmosphere at work always escalates one’s efficiency leading to faster turn-around time for all jobs and projects undertaken, thus giving us scope to wind up each day on time, but that rarely happens! Every organization has its own set of people who are typically known for wasting their own and others’ time. Well nowadays there are innovative ways of wasting time. Most men or nowadays even women spend their productive work hours in smoking. This smoking is also accompanied with loads of gossip and grapevine which they term as networking! Umpteen number of “cutting chai” through the day is the other culprit both for longer working hours and heaps of acidity!! Computer games, social networking sites, untimely snack breaks, and if all this was not enough, then “Project BOSS” is always on agenda! Well “Project BOSS” only is a nicer way of putting one of the most used formulae by many inefficient fools in our organization known as “CHAMCHAGIRI”. I’m sure we all know at least two to three ‘chamchas’ in our office who are forever wagging their tails around the BIG BOSS. May be that is their only route to success, since their work rarely speaks for them!
We often fear the thing we want the most. A skyrocketing career is what we all want and the thought of not being able to get it is what we fear the most! So automatically we have one person in our lives that we fear by default – our boss! However great the camaraderie between the boss and his team, his juniors always have something to crib about their bosses behind his back. For that matter, even I always made an attempt to memorize things I have disliked about my boss so that when I become one, I don’t repeat the same. But I must confess that today many of my reactions remind me of my boss, and I sometimes wonder if my team ever detests me on any occasions. In either ways, the bottom line does not change; this boss-subordinate relationship will always remain constant. In a bid to carve a niche at our work place, we spend a lot of time doing everything but work during work hours, a lot of time is spent pleasing this most important and scary person in our lives – OUR BOSS and then by the end of the day, we often realize that the actual work has remained pending. But the fact remains that whatever we are willing to put up with is exactly what we will have. All this stress, and workaholic behavior definitely fetches us accolades in our career, but one of the most vital aspects of our life gets ignored in this bargain – our health.
The most popular phrase used and heard around is ‘health is wealth’, still in the struggle to earn this wealth we allow our health to take a back seat, sometimes let it slowly deteriorate. Today’s fast life leaves us no scope for a healthy lifestyle. Sedentary jobs, loads of stress and unhealthy and untimely eating habits are a standing invitation for all chronic cardiac problems. Constant exposure to pollution while travelling only adds to our health woes. We are allowing health hazards like diabetes, obesity, hypertension a permanent residence in our bodies. Health is that glass ball which if broken once, will collapse the other balls in the game too!
All said and done this rubber ball called WORK is the one which needs the most attention to keep the other balls juggling. The ones, who are willing to risk it, either have a back-up plan or tremendous confidence to make it big anyways. Probably they have their own success stories to share. But, every success story has a painful experience behind it, without which success does not taste as sweet. Which means at some point in their lives they have had to sacrifice one of these balls? Then the question is which ball are we willing to hurt to get to success? May be of all of them hurting the rubber ball could be the best bet for a few, but for some it could be the only ball they live for. Though broadly we all have similar priorities in life, but our approach and experiences in life compel us to take decisions which then decide the fate of these balls in our lives. It is therefore difficult to generalize and pass a verdict on how each of us have to prioritize or play this game of balls, as we all will seem right in our own circumstances. May be mastering the art of juggling, so that we are able to balance all of them at any given time of our lives is the best answer. Whatever we do, enjoying every moment to the fullest is important because it is not about how LONG we live, but about how BIG we live our lives that will decide how worthwhile our life has been. Life is like a road trip, where the journey makes the trip enjoyable and at the end of this road all we can do is introspect! So let us all play the game such that when we introspect we emerge as the winners of the game!

- Mayura Nayak