There are times in all our life when we just cannot let go of things. There are things at job, new questions for which either you do not have an answer or you feel there is no point in asking for an answer – but the voices keep coming back at you, pounding your head giving you sleepless nights. All of us have gone thru this including me.
This is especially true when 1000’s of people across organizations stand outside their department head’s room and wait for the verdict to pass. Will I get an A or a B or a C? Because, that will decide the amount of variable pay I will get. I know the feeling – the rush of blood, racing heart beats, cold n sweaty hands, because I go thru the same and I know many of my team members will go thru the same. More importantly in today’s high inflation market for many middle employees the variable pay will just about tide them over and maybe buy that LCD TV or plan for that holiday which they have been discussing with their better half or parents/brothers.
For many of us this is a make or break point in their relationship with their organization. Because that day or moment when the “verdict” is made, the company makes a statement of how valuable he/she is. It’s a statement which is the outcome of last 364 days spent in hard work and a noble intent of taking the company or a project forward. For all those people who do not have direct subordinate a “B” is a downright insult. Most “C” feel / know the verdict and would have planned an exit. But for those who have people reporting in to them “they start appreciating the bell curve” and realize that all cannot be A or C so most of them will be B.
But over a period of time I realized these are really the small things to sweat for. Ultimately life is not about to hold on to the grade / rating. Yes that is important but there are so many other things – like the learning’s which you would have had over last one year, the amount of knowledge you would have imparted to people below and above, the time you would have spent with your family because your boss & company was understanding enough, the time when the organization and your boss stood behind you when you screwed up on the artwork, the time when the organization listened to you and told you. “Go ahead. We are with you on that. Let’s take the plunge.”
Compare this with your children, what’s important – the grades she gets or the smile on her face when she says she is singing in the choir or when her poem got selected for the school magazine, or her teacher came home and dropped your daughter because the school van did not turn up. Do you grade your relationships with your family, friends, and relation and keep upgrading it every year. No, you do not let go of such relationships, on the contrary you work hard to fulfill small promises made to your family, treasure the small moments as your children grow up.
“Letting Go” as a core principle of life and has been the key premise for “satisfaction n fulfillment” by many spiritual leaders (especially in today’s materialistic world)….but I always debated the same and my contra argument was “Life is not always about letting go but it’s about making the right choice of what to let go and what not to let go. We are often forced to make this choice on a daily basis. It’s better we be wiser now or regret later”.
Every time I see birds in a cage, I want to free them I want them to fly and soar. Be free, now & forever. I clicked this beautiful snap....even inside the cage when they are trapped and caged for life they share a moment of togetherness unaware (& not bothered) about the surrounding. Yes we all feel caged once in a while - at home, at workplace but then this is our place our little world & we have to be sensitive to each other to make this place (& life)worthwhile place to be in.
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