Finding what you really love to do

Finding what you love to do is not easy. Lets admit this much. Often the answer gets confused with our hobbies or our interests. At other times, it gets buried under sheer inertia. Sometimes, the enormity of choices out there causes inaction.

Now, there is a minority who just knows what it loves. As early as school or Uni, these people know where their hearts lie. They are blessed. I envy them.

For the rest of us, its hard work.

We get into our 1st job without really knowing what we are getting into. Often, our choice is driven by Prestige or (mis)Perception. And before we know, we are stuck in the daily rut - hate going to work every morning, spend the day cribbing about our boss and return home jaded. However, the paycheck at the end of 30 days makes all this worth it - its the carrot that keeps us going.

For a lot of us, this is life. We do this routine for 20-30 years and the money we make keeps the questions in our head at bay. Again, these people are blessed. I envy them.

But there are some rebels, some mavericks who continue to be haunted by the pursuit of what they really love to do. This minority has 3 choices -

One, Leave the drudgery, take the plunge and start doing what you think you'd love to do. After all, there's nothing like actually doing it. But this is risky. What if you're wrong? What if 2 months into your new attempt, you realise that's not it? And how will you sustain your lifestyle while you're learning this?

Two, Make the best use of your evenings, weekends and breaks. Even better, take a sabbatical. Net, keep trying your hand at activities you gravitate towards. Always, try to ask yourself if you'd love to do this for an extended period of time. After, a while, you'll detect a pattern.

And you can find out what you love to do while keeping your day job and earning the money needed for your lifestyle. But this is a long, patient and draining process. You have to keep your resolve against Newton's 1st law - inertia.

Three, take one of those tests that help profile you. These give you a broad domain to operate in - a kind of filter to sort through all the choices. www.tickle.com has some and www.strengthsfinder.com can also help.

Any other that you've come across???

What is work?

What is work?

I obviously don't intend to explain the definition of work as per ICSE Std IX Physics textbooks.

For most of us, work is something we do to make a living. Obviously, we all aspire to a certain lifestyle. And to realize that lifestyle, we need money. And we work to earn that money. Its quite simple, really.

The problem happens when you don't really love your work. But you still have to do it because you need to earn your living.

This gives rise to 2 questions:

1. Do we really know what we love?
2. Why does work and earning a living have to be linked?

Over the next few days, I'd love to engage in a conversation with you to answer these questions.

Strength Finder 2.0: My Results

Got hold of this interesting book: Strengths Finder 2.0. Based on Gallup Organization's research into people's innate talents, the book talks about 34 themes that map the different talents that we have.

The book points you to a website http://www.strengthsfinder.com/ where you can take a test (using a unique code provided in the book) that tells your top 5 themes.

Mine were (in order):

Strategic
Intellection

Input

Futuristic

Ideation

If any of you have taken this test, do mention your Top 5 strengths. It'll be great to engage with people with similar strengths to share our experiences. It'll be even better to find people with complementary strengths (I, for one, can do with an association with someone who has Activator, Focus, Discipline or Analytical strengths!)

Looking forward to building a Strengths Network.

The Great Indian Novel

Often, the best ideas deserve their acclaim because of their improbability. Shashi Tharoor's 'Great Indian Novel' is one such idea. It just seems miraculous for someone to conjure up a parallel between the great Indian epic and the great Indian freedom struggle.

Ofcourse, there are creative liberties and we should indulge the author with them. Ofcourse, there are times when the parallels are stretched but fiction by definition has a long rope. Ofcourse, umpteenth characters from epic and history are ignored but a tome of 418 pages can only accomodate so many.

The beauty of the story is in its idea and credit to Tharoor for sustaining its purity from start to finish. When reality offered no recourse, he resorts to dreaming, to extend the comparisons. When prose falters, he switches on his poetic abilities to carry the narrative further.

Often, the very act of printing a rumor gives it credence and when people repeat it in other forms and publications, they only serve to burnish its veracity. The book does it bit in furthering rumors surrounding the leaders of India by weaving them in its storyline. Whether it is Nehru's dalliance with Edwina, Gandhi's 'experiments with truth' or Morarji Desai's flirtations with urine - its all there.

The Great Indian Novel is great because it emanates from a moment of brilliance. A moment when Shashi thought that the Indian Freedom Struggle and its proponents share similarities with the heroes of the Great Indian Epic. The reader is richer for it.

Grand Trunk Road - Becoming Grander

Yesterday's road journey from Jalandhar to Pathankot swelled my heart with pride and gave me renewed hope about India's future.

Four laning of NH 1 had started 4-5 years back and the 30 odd km section from Jalandhar to Bhogpur was finished 3 years back. Work in the remaining section had been progressing slowly.

Now after 1 year, I saw significant progress. Most of the piling and earthing work is completed. Bridge foundations have been laid and only small sections remain to be acquired and prepared. From Jammu, 4 laning has been finished till Samba. There's a flyover coming up that'll bypass Pathankot and meet NH1 near Malikpur.

In 2-3 years time, the time taken for a road journey from Jammu to Delhi will take 6 - 7 hours instead of the 12 - 14 hours it took 5 years back. This should have a multiplier effect and the end result is only limited by our imagination!

Delhi - improving

Walked out of Indira Gandhi airport last night into an oppressive atmosphere of heat and dust. However, as the taxi pulled out of the airport, I was heartened to see wide roads, neatly marked and with paved footpaths running along. This was a marked difference from Mumbai where you drive out into a narrow lane, lined with slums and garbage.

Traffic was another thing though. People were taking to the wide road with gay abandon with scant regard to lanes. But I guess, that'll improve too with increasing education levels and a bit more effort on driving civility among Delhites.

Overall, Delhi seems like a much more agreeable place to live in than 5 years back and definitely more palatable than Mumbai. Safety - esp. for women - remains a concern and it'll be interesting to watch the trend on that front.