It’s
an Inside Job
It was a couple of months ago
when I had the opportunity to interact with Mr Shiv Khera; he was in town to promote his latest
book, You Can Achieve More - Live by Design, Not by Default. I was part of a small group
of journalists, representing my newspaper Asian Lite. What was a media interaction turned
into a masterclass with the celebrated motivational writer and speaker.
I was fortunate enough to
develop a video of the event which I am sharing in this link. It
will be a three part video as my meager subscription does not allow me a long
upload.Hence, I am not summarising the talk
with him into a written piece. However, there is one aspect of his interaction
with us that stood out the most for me, and I share that below.
I had posed at a later stage, a
question about how does one know when things are right or not, in one’s life.
By the way, the question is not in the video because chai-nashta had been
served by then, and the later scenes were more of gupshup over a cuppa, far
removed from the more formal tenor of the interaction in the previous part of
the video.
When asked this question, I had
taken a cue from his TedX
talk, he replied that the others know when things are amiss in our life and so
do we. The barometer for that is our happiness. So, it is an inside job whether
we want to be a millionaire or a saint who gives up every material possession.
The test to know whether we are doing the right thing or not is to know our own
happiness quotient. In fact, as I reviewed the tape before posting, and number of times at that, I realised that this
is the crux of everything.
If I am happy, independent of
every outside factor, then I am doing the right thing. The same stands correct
for choices v/s compromises. If I am happy with my choice, it stops being a
compromise. It is so easy to not to end up compromising. If am happy with a
work or a job, my passion shines through, and in some cases the other
capabilities, their presence and absence, may not even affect my performance at
that job. I will acquire the requisite skills out of my own volition, and will
become actually competent to do the job. The list goes on.
Being the unabashedly spiritual
person that I am, I feel this is the mantra for living life. For why else does
God place us on this planet, but to indulge in its joys and be happy? We just
have to work on our inside happiness to live life the way we intended to at the
beginning, as nothing else is ours to keep.
A good note to begin the new
year with.
