Saturday, July 2, 2011

Destination Vs Milestones

How to make this life happier and more fulfilling?!

Some time ago, I had blogged about the concept of Job Satisfaction*, wherein I looked at the factors that contribute to, and the way they affect, job satisfaction, by comparing an Investment banker and a Pizza delivery Boy.

I found that the key to job satisfaction is to break one’s targets into smaller and more easily achievable tasks and find satisfaction in completing each of them, instead of being fixated on the larger ultimate goal.

The subject has continued to interest me, always widening its perspective. The more I think about it, I find that the above principle can be emulated to other aspects of life as well. We can easily peg our goals at achievable levels and find satisfaction in conquering each one of them.

Consider a marathon runner. She has to cover 42 kilometres to successfully complete the marathon. Don’t you think running as many as 42 kilometres can be so boring and devoid of any happiness? How does she manage to continue to motivate herself for so long? Well, it is easy... just take away your concentration from the destination that is 42 kms away and break the run into, say 42 runs of 1 kilometre each. Wouldn’t it be more satisfying to complete each of those 1 kilometres?

I have seen from close quarters, people who vigorously followed their destinations but never had time to celebrate their achievements. For they never realised that in life destinations are not finite but always changing. Our life’s play is not with a fixed goal post but constantly changing one. Without realising this simple truth of life, we often end up chasing the mirage of ultimate success just to find that success itself had moved further away. Often, these unfortunate people perish in their chase itself.

We may have larger visions in life, but we must learn to set smaller goals... while striving for winning the war, let us learn to enjoy the successes in our battles. Set smaller targets; as in high jump, raise the bar inch by inch and not by feet. If we have the potential no one can stop us from reaching the heights- well except our own over-ambition!

Remember- the destination may be far away; yet we can celebrate each of the milestones that we cross! It is those milestones that will let us keep going until the destination.

*Job Satisfaction: http://confused-ambadi.blogspot.com/2009/09/job-satisfaction.html

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