HOW TO SEE THE BIGGER PICTURE IN LIFE

Change is the norm, change is eternal and change is the inevitable. And when there is a crisis, change becomes the new normal. No wonder why it's aptly said that whenever there is a crisis, there's a paradigm shift in the people's behaviour. Along the same lines, we are still in the midst of a chaotic time and in alignment with the laws of human psychology, tangible behavioral changes are emanating. We are thinking differently, consuming differently and of course living differently. And the intriguing part is that this all is happening at a stupendous rate yet subconsciously. Let me ask you an unveiling question, what is the first thing you touch when you wake up? Is it your toothbrush or your mobile phone? Well studies delineate that a staggering 79% of people check their mobile phones within 15mins of waking up. And approximately people use their smart phones about 3-4 hrs a day which doesn't involve any official or scheduled work! And still people complain why aren't they getting ahead in life. And the piquant fact is that we don't actually realize that we are hooked or at times even shun to realize. This happens because we are raised in a society of instant gratification fanatics. We have inherited it subconsciously to repute short term benefits and quality of greater value than long term thinking and quality. But when we take the steps of courage and delve deeper into the subtlety of life, we cotton on to the bounteous payoffs that we get from long term thinking and the lasting liberation that it delivers from short term gratification. But don't worry, this is not a lecture but a solution guide to eliminate short sightedness and impregnate our with a better comprehension of long term thinking. This will assist you to conceive the bigger picture in life. Shall we commence?

SHORT SIGHTEDNESS v/s THE BIGGER PICTURE

I want you to choose between two options. First, I'll give you $1million or second, I'll give a magic penny that doubles itself every day for 30 days. Now the ball is in your court! Well if you chose $1million then hold up, let me show you the enigmatic power of delayed gratification and seeing the bigger picture. On day 1 with magic penny, you'll be having $0.01, on day 2, $0.02, on day 8, $1.28, on day 10, $5.12. Now here's where the game changes! On day 15 your balance will be $163.84, on day 20, you'll have $5242 and on day 29 you would well cross the milestone with $2.684 million. And on the 30 day mark, you'll be having a whopping $10.737 million. And that's the flabbergasting effect of seeing the bigger picture. It enables you to analyze some potential and unnecessary impediments and be way ahead of others in terms of knowledge, preparation and most significantly, it impregnates a winner's attitude within you.

This is one of the cardinal reasons why Socrates hated democracy. He divulged that democracy can be a breeding ground for manipulation and short sightedness can be the desired reaction by the masses from the evil. To sum it up in a shot, he pointed out an example of a confectioner and a dentist. The story goes with debates of dialogues between those two and guess who is left as the evaluating body? The short sighted masses! 

The dentist said that, "Consuming too much sweets is a retarding element for your health. And if you follow my advice, I will not only heal what has been tarnished but also provide with an explicit roadmap for future."

There interposed the confectioner, " This dentist is a fake ego maniac. He calls you to his clinic and gives you pain in the treatment which he offers. I, on the other hand, vouchsafe you pleasure and delight with my sweets."

You see, the dentist presented facts and practical emphasis of his ideology while the confectioner only inculpated the dentist. But the masses were short sighted and fell prey to the trap. But little did they know that the burden of evidence lies on the accuser and not the accused.

Well, enough of roasting short sightedness, let us now ponder over some solutions that we can approach to see the bigger picture in our lives.

1.) Don't fall in the numbers trap

Freshly, I came across an advertisement that went something like, " A 9yr old boy named XYZ took our course and got a job of 150cr." To the surprise, the advertisement claimed that the job was in a tech giant in which nobody, not even the least ranked employee, was at an age of 9 or even close. Yet the absurdity of the company of running such a false advertisement was horrendous. As if that tech giant was waiting for the same company to pioneer that godly course so that they can recruit a boy of an age group in which he doesn't even go to washroom without his mom standing outside near the bathroom and constantly assuring him not to worry and do his stuff properly cuz mumma is still standing. Seriously? Are we living a joke? And the lamentable part is that the consumer demand skyrocketed for the company's courses generating tons of revenues for the company. Everyday we are getting exposed to just bigger and bigger numbers which never slakes our appetite for this craving of more and more. We have got this craving as inheritance out of evolution. Early humans were, at a time, hunters and gatherers. Hunting was a tedious task. Hence they resorted to the strategy of "big wins the game." They shifted their attentions towards the Giants in the jungle because they were bigger and larger and they gave relief for a long time from hunting. Since our neocortex is the newest part or our brain, this deep craving of "something bigger" took a firm hold in our mind and we are now motivated and driven by this craving in our process of decision making. Hence all around us, we are getting exposed to bigger and better scheme to manipulate us to buy a certain product or service or follow a certain roadmap. Politicians use it, commercials use it and even social networking creators use it! That's why at a boutique, the butts and breasts are enlarged and made bigger in the posters and model dummies. Even at a shop, they use the number trap to trick us. For example, for a commodity that costs $45, instead of giving a $10 discount, they give a 20% discount. If they give the first discount then the S.P. would be $35 and if they choose the latter, the S.P. would be $36. And since our mind is ferociously after the big numbers, the "20%" discount resonates and looks better than "$10."

What we can do to is before making any purchase or decision, or fundamentally, before taking any step, ask ourselves that are we choosing quality or falling in the numbers trap. Here's a simple technique to do this effectively. Before making any decision, just check whether the promise is centred solely on numbers and get-benifits-quick or is focused on consistent synergy of long term payoff. Because it is not the 50 push ups that you do once a week what makes a difference. It is rather that few sets that you do every day consistently, what makes a difference.

2.) Get Out of the RAT RACE

Have you ever thought why do only some people manage to rise up in their career, achieve tons of success and fame and accumulate a whole bounty of wealth while the others just stay behind. A couple of months back, I also pondered over the same question. And the answer which dawned upon me was juxtaposingly endorsed by almost every one but absurdly never followed. For comprehending the answer in a tangible way, I woul like to expound it with an example. Imagine there are 2 employees of roughly the same qualifications, age group, background,etc. They are in the same company at the same post. Fast forward to 10 years one became the CEO of the company and the other merely got minor increments. Well to conceive the reason behind this disproportional difference, we'll have to he look back at the scenario behind the curtains. Well the guy stayed the same did the "same" old things that was requisite for his "job." He didn't invested in himself or did any extra effort to improve his skills. While the guy who became the CEO did the converse. He invested heavily in himself and his skills. He read books, listened to podcasts and experts, attended seminars and most importantly, practiced what he preached. And the results were tangible. The moral of the story is if you are doing the same ordinary things as others, then you shall get the same ordinary results. The pattern of following the standard dogma by slamming the alibi of "because that's how it's done everywhere" is a poor way of hiding yourself from the truth. Because if that would have been true then everybody would be earning millions, living without stress, having and of steel and living peacefully. The income of an average person increases by just 2-3% a year( if it increases in the first place) and that's the average inflation rate. In layman's terms, their intrinsic income never increases. They just get a false impression of making progress. Unfortunately 98% of the people are stuck in the rat race and rest 2% are able to imbibe the bigger and execute accordingly. The good news is that you have the autonomy to decide the your life. It all starts with a determined mind primed to make positive changes. If you wanna join the top 2%, you can resort to a simple strategy. While doing any thing in life, diligently answer these 3 questions:- 

1.) Where are you?

2.) Where you aspire to go?

3.) Is your current strategy leading you anywhere? If yes then where?

The first two questions will be most probably easy to answer. The third question is where you would have to be keen and primed to evaluate and either follow the current plan or engineer your own winning formula.

3.) Avoid the SOS

If I ask you which scenario best limns the carrots and sticks method of fooling the followers, I believe most of you will divulge about the donkey whose master sits on him with all his 9month luggage and hangs a carrot in front of the donkey to make him march towards it tirelessly, never actually be able to bag the delight of the carrot. This type of hindrance is similar to the rat race but here the donkey is actually making progress but in the wrong direction. And the donkey in unable to identify the fault because it is short sighted. We are able to see where the trouble is since we are seeing the bigger picture. The same thing you have do in life. Don't be the donkey! Refuse to chase anything which is out of your control and diligently work on those things you are responsible for. Going after something which is short termed and futile is the same like locking ourselves in a penitentiary. I call it the "SHINY OBJECT SYNDROME"( or SOS ). And the catch is that shiny objects reflect much more than they reveal. And every tongue must confess that winning an accolade is of much less importance than being persistently worth it. So the lesson here is that if you are stuck in a jungle, you wouldn't ask for a watch but a compass. Because time management is essential but direction management is paramount. To shun SOS, all you have to do is stop getting mystified and follow a simple, beautiful and badass approach. If you are making any decision or improving anywhere, decide what is the metric that indicates whether you are on the right side or not. For example, if you are improving your personality, then how do you measure something that intangible since there is no trophy to indicate that because the most important things in our lives are quite ineffable and intangible. Do you measure it by how many people you try to please everyday or how many likes do you get on your stories? Or do you measure it by how much you learn everyday, how many new things you try, risks you take, how much efforts you put and how do you feel about yourself (rather than tabulating what others bark about you)? 

I don't know how do you measure it but I do know that the latter is wiser. 

4.) The 80/20 Rule

Coming to the final but perhaps the most deliberate strategy you can utilize as your cup of tea. It is called the 80/20 rule. Its concept is actually very lucid. The emphasis is that in any activity executed, 80% of the output is the product of 20% of the input. To put it in layman's terms z suppose you have to do any assignment which requires you to merely get comfy and bring you stuffs and pour out your creativity. But what literally happens is a bunch of bullshit stacked subsequently including checking your phone at a frequency that hints you are Elon Musk, doodling, daydreaming and maybe abusing people you had a conflict with. After whole lot of fickle stuffs, you finally divert your attention to your work and effectuate it with splendid elegance in a much less time period. I also have a similar track-record. When I was planning to write my blog on this niche, I did quite a decent spadework. I arranged my stuffs meticulously on the table, kept some water near the table, had a cookie, turned on the A.C. and sat down with a mind primed to cut the mustard only to find myself behaving like a jerk, thinking about who will win the upcoming election, slamming my beloved pillow for a reason yet to be discovered and recording my own slow-mo of doing vault that precisely made me look like a crap-ass monkey. And I eventually discovered myself in my well embalmed flow in my balcony where there was no "comfy", no A.C., no water, but only a soothing environment with trees and buildings and a steady flow of wind embellishing the whole picture (and that felt blissful). The point that I wanna illuminate is that most of the things that we do have little or nothing to do with the job at hand. Conversely, 20% of the work we do is a whole bounty of productivity. So what you can do to minimize the time wasted and maximize your productivity is to foster the 80/20 rule in your daily lives. Here's a pro-tip to do this effectively: follow the ABCDE method.

A= What are those that can redound the most for you? Label them as "A" and commence to do more of them in your work and life.

B= What are those activities that you already do and continuing them can be good for you? Label them as "B" and continue to do them normally. 

C= What are those activities that if you do or don't do, don't make much or any difference. Label them as "C" and redress by saving your energy instead. This will give you a lot of extra time for yourself.

D= What are those activities that are not of much importance and you are doing them just to stay in your comfort zone and that might be retarding you? Label them as "D" and neutralize them by doing more "B" type activities in their place.

E= What are those activities that are radically infructuous and hold you back? Label them as "E" and eradicate them from your life altogether. Believe me, this is gonna make you unstoppable!

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Make sure to cultivate these bigger picture approaches in your life and so will I hustle for. Hope you learned something valuable and stay tuned until next time.

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