Living vs existing

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“Enabling endurance, robustness, sustainability for organisations”

Living vs existing Every professional’s dilemma

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Notes from my coaching journey--Bimal Rath

Working with leaders and their people

Working with talented leaders and employees across companies and industries, my own learning around the human spirit have been great.

One of these has been about the innate need for every person to find a meaningful purpose in their lives - and it is manifested in many ways—personal, professional etc. You can feel the passion and fire when you meet someone who has found their purpose or is on the path to their purpose.

As a coach, if one can help people find the meaning for their lives—and translate it down to day to day actions -- I believe one has done ones job.

Experience shows that the motivation to learn, change and drive the right behaviors in self and others is often an outcome of a really clear purpose.

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Our need to exist

Existing is purely a biological phenomena and part of nature.

Having worked with many professionals , it is amazing to see how many are ‘bored’ with pure existence. All of us, at some stage, are looking for a meaning, beyond mere existence.

The world around us appreciates purpose and contribution which comes from ‘beyond just existence’. However, the daily stresses and strains, and setbacks and insecurities, often push us into compromising towards mere existence.

Some inner force though, is always struggling to find meaning beyond existing—we can all see sparks of it in ourselves and ordinary people around us from time to time.


Our deeper desire to live

For most professionals, there is a need to make a recognizable contribution to their work and people around them—and be appreciated by colleagues, family and friends for their unique contributions. (some people may not even want the recognition—they believe that their contribution itself is meaningful enough as a reward)

There are few elements which go in:

Meaningful work

Effort and persistence

Finding uniqueness

Recognition (?)


What is living for each of us ?

Each one needs to define their own unique place and contribution in the world—a combination of their own passions and talents*, and find a way of making it real.

Living is also about removing ‘voices in the head’ which may not allow us to move to our true purpose.

What may hold I back are the noises around us –often from non-believers or those who have limitations /lack the courage to pursue their dreams.

The purpose and meaning for all of us is beyond pure selfish interest. Something truly contributory towards a larger purpose-- be it company, other people, a technology product, arts or society.

And best of all—you can make out people who are living a life—the energy, smile, magnanimity of dealing with the environment, and many other signals that we catch and feel.


* See the model of coaching –which allows for this discovery (www.newscoaching.com)

How can we make living real?

Introspect, reflect, and maybe get some ‘real’ feedback from people close to you—they will tell you what they value you for, and what they want to see you as. And use these to create your own picture of a dream future for yourselves.

Find a mentor/coach. Mentors who are living their dreams and making meaning are great as motivators. Taking help from such mentors is great for defining your own way forward. A professional coach can help in many ways to identify the way forward and help remove roadblocks.

Then finally—create a roadmap and act—there is no substitute for courage and action.

And read the quotes on the following slides—they are truly inspiring



Steve Jobs Charismatic pioneer of the personal computer revolution

“Your time is limited, so don't waste

it living someone else's life. Don't let

the noise of others' opinions drown

out your own inner voice.

You have to trust that the dots will

somehow connect in your future.

You have to trust in something--your

gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever.

This approach has never let me

down, and it has made all the

difference in my life.

The only way to do great work is to

love what you do. If you haven't

found it yet, keep looking. Don't

settle.”

“In short, we cannot

grow, we cannot

achieve authentic

discovery, and our

eyes cannot be

cleansed to the truly

beautiful possibilities

of life, if we simply live

a neutral existence.”


Armstrong Williams

An American political commentator, author of a conservative newspaper column, and host of a daily radio show and a nationally syndicated TV program.

Anne Sullivan Macy An Irish-American teacher, best known for being the instructor

and companion of Helen Keller.

“We imagine that we want

to escape our selfish and

commonplace existence,

but we cling desperately

to our chains.”


William Cowper An English poet and hymnodist

The forerunners of Romantic poetry Samuel Taylor Coleridge called him “the best modern poet”.

“Existence is a strange bargain.

Life owes us little; we owe it

everything. The only true

happiness comes from

squandering ourselves for a

purpose.”


Carl Jung A Swiss psychotherapist and psychiatrist who founded analytical

psychology.

“As far as we can discern,

the sole purpose of human

existence is to kindle a light

in the darkness of mere

being.”


Fyodor Dostoevsky A Russian novelist, short story writer and essayist.


“Deprived of meaningful work,

men and women lose their

reason for existence; they go

stark, raving mad.”

Thomas Merton An Anglo-American Catholic writer and mystic. A Trappist monk of the

Abbey of Gethsemani, Kentucky, he was a poet, social activist, and student of comparative religion.

“In the last analysis, the

individual person is

responsible for living his own

life and for 'finding himself.' If

he persists in shifting his

responsibility to somebody

else, he fails to find out the

meaning of his own

existence.”


James F. Cooper A prolific and popular American writer of the early 19th century.

“All greatness of character is

dependent on individuality. The

man who has no other existence

than that which he partakes in

common with all around him, will

never have any other than an

existence of mediocrity.”


Deepak Chopra An American physician, a holistic health/New Age guru, and one of

America's most notable alternative medicine practitioners.

“You and I are essentially infinite

choice-makers. In every moment of

our existence, we are in that field of

all possibilities where we have

access to an infinity of choices.”


Richard Dawkins An English ethnologist, evolutionary biologist and author.

“Intelligent life on a planet

comes of age when it first

works out the reason for its

own existence.”


Honore de Balzac A French novelist and playwright.

“An unfulfilled

vocation drains the

color from a man's

entire existence.”


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Living vs existing