Written by Raghuraman
27 Oct 2014
Everyone is busy. Right now, I am involved in 2 serious projects, 2 ‘fun’ projects, have a small part time job, working on career development (internship applications, CV, LinkedIn profile, cover letters, overall career outlook and goals etc, I know boring hardcore career stuff, but hey, someone has to do it for me!), plus weekly parties and quieter evening mingles, studying Swedish (admittedly this isn’t going so well) and am studying in quite an intensive masters program which mandates compulsory attendance! hahaha. I know. And most people in my class are involved in such feverish activity (and have a relationship or two 😋). The school and Stockholm also have an insaaane amount of things happening.
Who and what makes us happy and whom do we make happy?
But everything I am doing, I really want to do. I haven’t been this productive in a long time. And the course really helps. We have sessions every two weeks or so where everything is slowed down and we are just made to reflect and think (and sometimes meditate!). I find it very useful cuz it adds so much perspective. And perspective is something we lack the most. So caught up in living everyday life, we often forget the bigger picture.
Who and what makes us happy and whom do we make happy? Why am I doing a certain project and how did I imagine I’d work on it? Do I like to study alone sitting in a room or do like walking around in park and reading stuff? How much time do we actually spend on things we like? What output do I have when I look back on my day?
Plus peers help, we have students who have kids, a beautiful lady who is expecting a baby, a person who runs a company, couple of students doing two master programs, they put things into perspective when I feel like cribbing!
Passion is the key!
This may be too much, but I know I am pushing myself. I may burn out and I may fall. But I am up for it. Of course, it is not the end of the world. I am here to experiment, learn and push my limits. If I wanted an easy course, I wouldn’t have come here. For me, the best learning comes when I am outside my comfort zone. Sometimes it is easy to lose perspective and feel lost, and feel overwhelmed. And sometimes I do feel lost and I do feel overwhelmed. But that is also when I take a break, go for a walk and think about it. It helps me prioritize and often I realize I can’t do everything, so what is really important?
Then the gut kicks in, I always know what I really want to do and what I just got into (maybe peer pressure, lack of foresight, whatever stupid reason you can name!) This is so important for me. And its nice to have this weaved into the course as well. Like I have to do this even if I don’t want to, even if I am too lost to even know that I am lost, I am gently reminded of it, woken up and awake.
