Category: Uncategorized

Tools that Actually Matter

In a time when external excess and internal emptiness co-exist, a reminder about the ‘tools’ that matter.

image to show the importance of skill vs fancy tools

Sam had called a plumber for a leaking pipe in his kitchen. Soon, a middle-aged man with a faded tool-kit walked in, calmly but purposefully.

As he started working, Sam noticed certain things that made him question this man’s qualifications as a plumber. A wrench with a cracked handle. A saw that had half its part missing. But Sam also noticed something else that left him puzzled- despite these broken tools, the plumber appeared unbothered. In fact, he was doing the work with his characteristic calm and, rather skilfully.

Ten minutes ago, Sam was almost convinced that he had called the wrong man for the job, but soon enough, Sam had to also change his mind. Although he remained puzzled.

The plumber had identified the issue correctly, worked with these seemingly broken tools. The leak was gone and the tap looked as good as new. Impressed and grateful, Sam decided to give the plumber extra money.

The plumber shook his head and refused, further adding to Sam’s puzzlement. ‘Who refuses extra money in this day and age?’

The plumber responded, ‘Every job has a fixed worth. If I take extra money today, I will expect the same or even more tomorrow. When that doesn’t come, I will be disappointed. I prefer to be content with what I have.’

Now Sam’s puzzlement was mixed with admiration and pity. ‘At least buy yourself a new set of tools with this extra money. It will make your life easier.’

The plumber again responded in the negative, saying ‘The tools work perfectly well even though they might be slightly broken or rusted or old. Just like us old people!’ He let out a warm chuckle, which Sam couldn’t help but mirror.

The plumber went on, ‘When you write with a pen, it doesn’t matter if it is a simple pen or an expensive one. If you know how to write, any pen will do. And if you don’t know how to write, no expensive pen in the world will be of any help. The skill lies in the hand, not in the tool.’

The words sank deep. As Sam stared, at the resolute but content face of the plumber, the initial puzzlement and pity were gone, and only admiration was left.

Contemporary times make us race for comfort and wealth. We do what gets us these ‘rewards.’ Everything in excess, nothing being enough. We work long hours for jobs which never really satisfy us. We have bank accounts full of money but we do not feel wealthy or even worthy. We have all the tools- shiny and expensive- yet our outputs always seem to lack that unnameable something. That is probably because we seem to have forgotten the value of the real tools- the tools called:

  • Honesty
  • Hard work
  • Gratitude
  • Contentment

With these intact, even ‘broken tools’ can create miracles and become worthy. Beyond fancy jobs and degrees, it is the work ethic. The work ethic that values honesty and hard work, an attitude that finds gratitude- these ultimately show us what’s worthy. Swanky offices with swankier technology to work with and the swankiest certificates are good but honesty, hard work, gratitude, contentment are the ultimate technology and the ultimate certificates: these are the ‘tools’ that ultimately matter.

The Art of Being Patient and Impatient at the Right Time

There is much merit in knowing when to be patient and when to just ‘go for it’.

Seema and Shriya were having a little debate about whether the ‘slow and steady’ patience wins or whether it is the fast-paced ‘go for it’ approach that helps one get ahead in life.

You know, that classic hare or the tortoise race fable. Seema believed that it was impossible to achieve something where steps had not been taken after careful consideration. She believed success required planning, and planning required you to be patient. Shriya believed that it was impossible to move forward if one kept on patiently waiting and planning and analysing the small details. She believed in planning as little as possible and developing the ability to just ‘wing it’.

Seema believed in patience, and Shriya believed that patience was a waste of time.

Seema believed in trusting the process, Shriya believed in trusting your abilities.

Both approaches had merit, and no wonder everyone else in the office was torn between the two. On some days, you do need to be meticulous, and well-planned, and think about the short-term and long-term implications of the decisions you make. On some days, you just have your gut feeling and you must simply ‘go for it’.

Finally, after much debate, they decided to consult Zeenat, their boss. Zeenat had built the company from a small room, and now, here they were, years later in an office full of employees: COOs, CFOs, VPs, seniors, juniors, from all walks of life. They felt she was the best person to consult, with her experience, wisdom and success to show. Zeenat, their boss. Zeenat, the resident ‘Zen master’ !

As they laid their arguments to her, Zeenat took a pause, rested her palms on the table, and meditated on the two sides for a minute or two, and finally said:

‘You are both right. And you are both wrong’.

Spoken like a true Zen master, no?

Looking at their Seema and Shriya’s puzzled expressions, she continued,

‘You should be patient and impatient both. But being patient and impatient at the wrong time and place will not work. Let me put it this way: you must be patient with results. Results don’t always show up overnight. You must trust the process. You must be patient for the seeds to grow.

‘You must plan ahead, you must work hard and be patient with everything that you do before the seeds of your work show up. If you are impatient, you wouldn’t do one thing properly and will end up going all over the place. You mustn’t be impatient with the results. You see, soil doesn’t yield anything if you don’t let the seeds grow.

‘At the same time, you must be impatient with one thing, and that is effort. If you keep planning without doing anything to execute the plan, you won’t achieve much. If you keep waiting for the ideas to come to you, to trust the timing, without putting in the time into efforts, nothing will happen. You must be relentless and impatient with your efforts. With your execution of ideas. You know what they say- good luck comes to those who work hard. ‘

We need impatience and patience both, at the right time and context. Impatience with efforts. Patience with letting the results show up. This is how the cycle of effort and results harmonizes.

Handling the Post-Festival Blues

With a lull in the long stretch of festivities and having to return to the ‘normal’ work routine, are you also experiencing post-festival blues?

As the long Festive spell from August to October, sees a Break, before we enter into Christmas and New Year Festivities, we have a little Lull.

Lull in the festive energies, lull in the mini- and big- office parties. The Navratri and Diwali decorations are slowly being put aside now, and the office suddenly seems too…normal.

Getting back in the groove after a stretch of festivities can be difficult. There is a lingering feeling of wanting a longer break. If you had no break, you at least wish that the office space would suddenly not go back to being so quiet again. We have cases of the ‘post-festival blues’!

Let us have a look at some ways in which we can use our ‘post-festival blues’ to our advantage:

Enjoy the Routine: Breaks often mean our daily routine goes out of the window- slow mornings, long lunches, no deadlines and evenings spent with no plans for the next day. Going back to routine work after a long stretch of festivities can be tiresome. It may need a lot of motivation….at first.

The beauty of routine is that once you actually get back to it, you discover a lost ‘rhythm’. Sometimes, we actually need things to be structured to have a productive day. That daily commute where you gather your thoughts for the day ahead. Or the positive kind of pressure you put on yourself to meet that deadline. Or the ‘eustress’ or the good kind of stress that propels you to innovate and work hard. All this and all other kind of ‘hard work’ helps us to rediscover the rhythm we may have lost during the festive stretches.

Enjoy the Quiet: The sound of the gentle murmurs, the shuffling of papers, the beeps of machines and the tapping of keyboards- the ‘quiet’ office is often considered one of the best environments to work in. After the din of celebrations, a calm, quiet environment in the office means better focus and better productivity. Now is the best time to use this to the best of our advantage after a refreshing break.

But wait, the festivities are not over yet…

If you are someone who just cannot get over the post-festival blues, well, Christmas is not far away! There are more celebrations, breaks in the routine to look forward to. We can also remember that the ‘diya’ within can always remain lit up- it doesn’t have to end with Diwali. So, light up the office space with your bright presence! We can still wish everyone well even without any festival around. We can bask in the abundance of our life through gratitude. We can keep our work area decorated with small reminders of our loved ones. The gifts of kindness and empathy never go out of season. And there is no wrong time to celebrate hard work.

So, are you ready to turn the festival blues into the joyous lights of the productive routine?

Learning from the Navdurgas

As the festive season sets in, there are ways to enrich ourselves by understanding the Navdurgas.

image for article about learning from navratri

As Navratri sets in, we begin with the festive stretch of the year.

Whether you are here for the devotion, the culture, or just the festivities, there is something for everyone.

Festivals are not just here for our enjoyment, but also our enrichment. They teach us important life-skills, approaches and enable us to live a fulfilling life.

So, without further ado, let us dive into how we can wield the festive spirit to the best of our advantage!

Understanding Differences in Approaches: Navratri has nine forms of the goddess (the ‘devi’), the ‘Navdurgas’ and each form represents not only a quality but an approach to life and the world. Every form is equally valid and no approach, no quality is of less importance. They are ultimately part of the universal shakti, the energy that runs the world according to the mythology.

Shailaputri represents stability, Brahmacharini represents ascetism, Chandraghanta beauty and peace, Kushmanda creation, Skandmata protection and motherhood, Katyayani courage and strength against evil, Kalaratri destruction of fears, Maha Gauri radiance and enlightenment, Siddhidhatri accomplishments and fulfilment.

Different situations require us to channelise the different approaches. Some days we need patience to approach a task. Some days, anger helps to get things done. Some days we need wisdom with our decisions and some days fearlessness. Some days we need to lead and nurture, and on other days, we need to be still.

Thinking about a task with the question of ‘how do I need to approach this particular situation?’ enables us to develop flexibility and context-specific decision-making.

Understanding your Own Strengths: Closely related to understanding how each goddess-form represents an approach to life, is an understanding of each one’s strength.

Each one of has a strength, a characteristic quality that we can wield like no one else.

The goddess-forms too have their own defining characteristics. The grounded nature and stability of Shailaputri is unparalleled. The anger of Kalaratri and the warrior-spirit of Katyayani are literal forces of nature. Maha Gauri’s calm energises us in an altogether different way. Do we try to find the energy of peace when we are looking for the intensity, or vice versa? No, right?

Similarly, each one of us has a strength that almost works as a gift for us. Instead of comparing ourselves to others, why not find out our strengths and channelise them to our advantage? One might be an excellent organiser, while someone else might be an excellent communicator. Another might be an excellent multitasker, while one might excel in deep focused work. Finding our strengths is the key to understanding how we can contribute to our own development as well as development of those around us, whether our loved ones, or the company we work for.

The goddess-forms ultimately are a part of the cosmic ‘shakti’, the energy. They are not really separate from each other- the approach takes the centre-stage based on what the situation requires. Similarly, we have everything within us- calm, strength, anger, agency, wisdom. It is tapping into what works for us the best that enables us to run things. Whether it is running the universe, a company or a team!

Why Working Smart is the Result of Working Hard

Before working smarter, we may need to work hard. Read on.

image showing a representation of smart work

Work smarter, not harder.

We all must be familiar with the above quote.

But there lies a paradox behind this which we often don’t understand.

Before we work smarter, we need to understand how something actually works, thoroughly. It is only then we will be able to understand that what is the smarter thing that we can do. We will have to engage with the task at hand. We will have to undergo multiple processes of trial and error. We might even have to fail, succeed, fail, succeed in cycles. It is then that we will understand what to do to work smarter.

In other words, to work smarter, we will have to work hard at it first.

Let us think about certain examples regarding this:

An artist will have to understand thoroughly how the colours blend with each other, the exact texture the canvas has that enables it to bring out the best in the colours. They will have to understand how perspective works, how life translates onto the canvas and so on.

In other words, they will have to work hard at their art first, and then once they have gained the mastery, they can start working smarter, and make use of techniques that work the best for them.

In a new job, you will first have to understand your work responsibilities thoroughly. For that, you will need to perhaps give an hour or two extra for your shift. You may have to do some double, triple checks initially before you learn how to figure something out in a single glance. You may have to make some mistakes before understanding how to do something without making those mistakes.

Any professional, in whatever field they are can’t become a smart worker before becoming a good worker first. They must experience learning, making mistakes and learning again.

Even AI needs to go through hoards of data, and course correct the self-learning to work smartly!

Not just in skill development. Think how:

To deal with a ‘difficult’ client smartly, you may have to work hard at understanding their previous records, go over multiple files. You may have to understand how the earlier meetings have gone, what has worked and what has not worked, how your other colleagues have dealt with them and so on. Only then you will be able to deal with them smartly.

Or how in order to conduct a smooth meeting, you must work hard on developing the agenda structure, so that when the meeting does come up, you can make smarter decisions about task management, the issues in focus, and delegation of objectives.

Working smarter isn’t simply about using shortcuts to achieve something. It is not about working less. It is not about avoiding work. Working smarter comes from working harder at first. To quote author Shane Parrish,

‘Smarter approaches aren’t universal shortcuts, they’re contextual insights uncovered through deep, sustained effort.’

To cut out unnecessary work, you need to understand what unnecessary work is. To develop a shortcut, one must first understand what is wrong with the longer route. Working smarter is a ‘smart’ blend of effort, experience, and hard work. Smart work is the eventual result, not an immediate substitute for hard work.