No wonder he chose me to shower his wisdom on. I was the person who was most clueless about what to do with his life. In fact I still am.
I asked him innocently, ' if you don't look at the obstacles you can bump into one of it and injure yourself'. He had no answer. He looked at me disappointed,...and went away. He knew I was a lost cause.
How do you measure success at the end of your life?
Money?
Status?
Nah!
It is all about how many red dots you have in your excel. I will explain that in a minute.
To me there is only one criterion of success- Happiness.
Happiness is made of happy memories. By focusing too much on ambition you make just two memories. One where you set the target, and another where you achieve it. Just two memories are not going to make you a happy person. You need more happy memories.
A rudder guides a ship to know destinations. To discover new places you need to throw away the rudder. Columbus would have never found America if he was not lost. My teacher was right...I am lost....and happily so...
Now let me come back to the Excel.
This is what I made. A 45*24 martix.
Ideally you should make a 90*12 matrix.
Every year has 12 months and the assumption is that you live till 90.
So every month of your life is a square in that excel.
90*12 is same as 45*24, just easier to handle.
When I looked at that I said ... boy it is not that big! One month passes at the blink of an eye. All my month fits in just one screen!
The first thing I said is ...I don’t have much time left.
The more I looked at it the more it got worse.
I have already spent 35 *12 boxes.
I retire at 58.
The last decade or two, if I survive that long, I am going to be really old.
The message is clearly out there...there aren’t many box left!
Now mark all your happy memories in the excel as red dot. The number of red boxes in there is the actual measure of your success.
I request all of you to make this excel. Put all the important events of your life in it, that has happened or will happen. If you have wishes ...decide a date and put them there. Then check how many red boxes you have...and how many you have planned for.
Follow the following four steps to plan your goals:
STEP 1 Reflection: Color all the months that you have already spent from your life’s quota. Which is nothing but colouring the cells starting from the month you were born till current month when you are making the excel. Then take a pause and reflect back at your life. Think about all your achievements, experiences and events that made you happy or things you did that you are proud of. Put all those important events of your life in the excel by colouring the month cell as red. If you want you can put a unique number in the month and write a note somewhere describing the event corresponding to the unique number.
STEP 2 Ultimate Desires: We already made a vision about our life that came from the ultimate desires. Ask yourself when you want to achieve them. Most of us tend to plan a lot for the future. We try and save a lot for the future. If your plan is to save now and enjoy after retirement, think again...how many cell will you actually have at that time? Believe me, no matter how young you are, your life still comes with an expiry date. That is not necessarily a bad thing. Accept the reality and don’t keep you desires waiting. Instead of planning your retirement start enjoying retirement now. Break your retirement wishes into smaller wishes, or instalments. Like a systematic withdrawal plan, organise the retirement instalment into yearly plan. Think of a date and put that in the excel. This would give you a complete perspective about your life and might even help you find its meaning.
STEP 3 Kaizen: Kaizen is a Japanese word consisting of two separate words: “kai” meaning “change” and “zen” meaning “good”. Kaizen philosophy was first introduced by Toyota back in the 1980s, and it means continuous improvement. Productivity can be improved gradually and continuously by taking small firm steps. Small improvements give immediate results. Teresa and Kramer have written many articles about the power of small wins that can ‘can boost inner work life tremendously.’ The opposite is also true. Progressive small losses can set in motion a negative feedback loop. Precisely for this reason we need to break down your ultimate desires into smaller achievable goals. Each goal must have a realistic but challenging timeline. Now mark these smaller goals in the excel. This is critical because every achievement will push you toward a better performance.
STEP 4 Update: As told earlier, all great ideas comes crushing down at the first touch of reality. Some of your goals are bound to fail. Don’t be disheartened because that is how it is supposed to be. Periodically review your progress and improve upon your goal. This is a live excel that will keep getting updated with time. Ideas can come any time. You cannot really plan for it. Unfortunately, a lot of time they come at wrong time or place. Then they just get lost in the memory. Device a way to record all your ideas, any ideas so that you can update your excel when you get a chance. Don’t judge your ideas as good or bad before its time. Pen it down. The little notes app in your phone is a great tool to make sure your ideas are never lost. Find it, reflect on it, and then make a decision.
The four steps of excel of life will help you excel in life. Innovate and create your own methods to use it. You can use it as a reminder tool or even a tool to automate important things. This excel can help you make your financial plan by telling you how much money you need and when to achieve the things you want. For example saving money monthly for a dream vacation, or for your kid education expense. You can also take a small printout of the excel and keep it with you. This comes with a warning. Do not over think or over do it. Do not get too bogged down by your vision and the hunger to achieve it. You can review your goals every six months, or a month at best. Do not spend more than few hours on it. Then just stick to the plan and focus on the journey. The idea is to be happy at every instant that you got. Present is a gift. Let this excel trigger you to enjoy your life.
