Life was so perfect when we were kids. My parents always knew what I needed to do. I was extremely planned through my school and college, knew exactly what I had to achieve. I ended up being very successful in school and college. Right after college I started working in Microsoft which was an awesome achievement for me and my family. First few years in Microsoft just passed by, with that initial momentum. I then started my soul searching exercise.
One of the questions that came up to my mind was - Why was I so planned all my life? Was planning in life good or was it making life very monotonous? What did I achieve by being so planned?
I think planning is important for anything in life – personal or work. Everyone around me has been thinking I have been doing great in my life, but I was never completely happy in last few years... I don’t know why nothing (Diamonds/Cars/Good clothes etc etc) made me happy. I think the reason was that I didn’t know what I wanted in life. When I don’t know what my end results are, I don’t work toward anything/ I don’t have any plans. Even if I do something, how do I find what I have achieved /accomplished in life?
So in the coming year... I am going to get back to my planning mode now that I have a fair idea of what I want... hmm... I am already super excited about this new phase of my life
Happy New Year!
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Welcome to the world of blogging...
ReplyDeleteOne suggestion: Consider changing the blog template. I did have the same template in teh beginning. Black bkgrnd and white font makes it really painful for the eyes. Try reading ur blog for a few mins u'll know what i mean... so having a lighter bkgrnd and darker foregrnd shud help the readers a lot....
Happy planning...err... blogging :-D
@rams - done
ReplyDeleteI quite agree with your comments on planning. Planning makes life easier and makes me feel good about myself when I do it right. But it makes life less exciting, everything is as expected.. I dont see my stress levels go any lower if things dont go as per plan :)
ReplyDeleteIm glad you figured out what you want to achieve in life. Very few do.. Good luck with whatever you've decided to pursue!!
Hey Madhu! Welcome:) I agree that planned life gives you that sense of acheivement, yes. Just starting to observe yourself will bring in front of you what you really want. Have a great year!!
ReplyDeleteplanning is for mortals ;)
ReplyDelete@Harini - I agree with you on the fact that no matter how much planning you do, things might not go as you planned. There are lots of things to do in life, if you keep doing random things without a plan to reach end goal - you mostly wont achive anything. Even if you plan things, things might go wrong - there you have an experience(as mentioned in Randy Paush's Last Lecture). You will learn why what you thought would work didnot work. Also when you plan, you think ahead about what could wrong and make alternate plans accordingly. So you will be definitely more prepared.
ReplyDeleteI think I agree with Harini here.. The question is whether being prepared kills the fun out of life? Sure - you would be better prepared, succeed more (if that is an important factor in life), but if you always know what you have to do, then there is no spontaneous, impulsive things that you do.. whether it is how you prefer to live life is a different question... How many of us decide to skip work tomorrow, take a sudden day off and go to Hawaii?
ReplyDelete@Sriram and Harini - Some ppl tend to be really spontaneous and dont plan anything - and are very happy. What might be the perfect world for one man need not for another. As far as I am concerned i cant be 100% planned or 100% spontaneous. I am still searching for the right balance for me :).
ReplyDeleteBtw i would like to plan my vacation to hawaii :)
Template for planning:
ReplyDeletePlan A: Do this
Plan B: Do that
Plan C: Pray u never reach here
The most exciting thing to do would be, plan something very well and just dont do it the way u planned it. You would enjoy it ;)
You should have expected this from me.
ReplyDeletePlanning and working towards a goal makes me look at life as if you were born in this world with a todo list to complete and fixed number of hours for that. if you don't finish it in time, alas, you burn in hell.
The moment you think that 'once i get there or do that, I'll be happy', you should stop and realize that you are under a strong delusion. if you cannot be happy with present, you will always be working for that extra special tomorrow which never seems to come.
I'm not against planning here. But its more about how good you are in accepting that there are far more variables outside your control that you may not even know about.
It is the jouney you must enjoy, because when the destination arrives (well ofcourse thats only if you dont believe in afterlife.) Trying to keep comment shorter than original blog ;)