What will you do to make the world awesome?

Disclaimer: We do not claim that this is an original piece of writing- it is a composition of stories we have read online, discussions with people we have met and general shower/toilet thinking. We also do not mean to inspire you in any way but if we manage to then what the hell, your world will be more awesome 🙂

Statutory Warning: Some amount of amateurish Philosophy ahead. Stop reading right now if you are not in the mood for extra gyaan.

Getting trapped in the grand scale of things, maybe it was never meant to be.

There comes a time in everyone’s life where we ask ourselves the modern age ultimate question “Am I in the right job?”. There are multiple triggers for this question- we might be stuck in a bad traffic jam on the way to work, we might have a stack of unfinished files on our desks or we might be missing a football match with friends because of a late work related assignment.

The problem is that the modern age ultimate question is wrongly phrased and a better version is: “Am I passionate about what I do and does it make the world awesome?”. This question can be answered in a few simple steps:

Step 1: Mapping the passion points, low points and neutral points in your career.

The problem with life is that it is easy to get consumed by the constant activity and routines all around us and there is no time to pause everything and think for a bit. We are reacting to our lives rather than responding to it. We take time out to strategize and have big meetings at our respective workplaces so why not do it for our own lives.

So step 1 involves make a graph with your happiness quotient on the Y (vertical) axis and work you were doing on the X (horizontal) axis.

This will require a lot of thinking- it is easy to say that you were having lots of fun at a job because there was a lot of free time for water-cooler gossip and checking match scores online. Also, every job will have its mundane daily activities which can be discounted to a certain extent. That is why the key words here are “passion points”- you need to know what kind of work you were doing when you were completely absorbed by your work and the other stuff was just noise outside that could be blocked out. What kind of teams did you enjoy working with? How much responsibility did you like taking? Are you a face to face client meeting kind of person or quiet introvert who likes working on his/her own? Make your own list of questions depending on what field you are in.

Other key questions you can ask are: When was work effortless for me? And when was it meaningless and why?

Step 2: What can I change, starting tomorrow.

Now, a lot of us have read stuff like: “Imagine what you would do if you could be doing anything and all jobs paid the same”. This is quite a thought provoking statement but the harsh reality is that we are all equal but some are more equal than the others (Animal Farm by George Orwell- used out of context here but makes some sense). It is not possible for all of us to leave what we are doing right away and follow a passion or a dream due to some social weight or the other. But once we have identified what we like doing, we fall into 3 categories:

• We are in the right line of work but just dealing with the wrong people or job roles. Probably the easiest- start looking for a new job

• We are in the wrong line of work and have financial/parental backing to change over- start looking for a another job or make one

• We are in the wrong line of work but cannot switch due to some reason or the other. This is the category most of us come under, unfortunately. Here the key is making time to do what you like and this will involve making some amount of sacrifices in terms of time spent sleeping, outings etc. Do that part-time course that you have always wanted to do, buy that expensive piece of equipment that you need to pursue what you like, try to meet people in that field to learn from them. If you are good at what you do then in time you will probably find a way to attach some monetary value to it- every individual has a different level of monetary satisfaction.

All of us know enough working class heroes doing cool stuff at work or after work. There is no reason why we can’t put the mask and cape on ourselves.

Step 3: For those of you who thought that this was a lot of mumbo-jumbo and you have “been there, heard that”, ask yourself the following question:

“Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?”- Mary Oliver

It should get the “Life Strategy” ball rolling and you will have some nice conversations with yourself in the bathroom 🙂

Incase you were wondering if we missed out on the “making the world awesome” part, well as long as you are having an awesome time doing what you like, the world will take care of itself- awesomeness lies in the eyes of the beholder.

Cheers & Look Alive.