How are you doing?  Here I found very good article regarding managing finance during slowdown. I hope it this will help you in to manage future decade for your career and finances. Also, Let’s hope Indian economy will continue performing good and survive with global economy crisis.

We’ve learnt our lessons the hard way. But rather than wait for the next
recession blow, one can play it safe.   Sanjeev Sinha  ( The Economic Times)

10 points that can equip you to deal with similar situations

THE OVERALL impact of the financial meltdown, which is certainly huge, is
now evident across the world. Particularly, the pain of job losses and drop
in savings is being felt everywhere. This, in turn, has instilled a sense of
fear and cynicism in the minds of investors globally. Still, while we are
making vast efforts to extricate ourselves from the current crisis, little
effort is being made to prevent the next one. Rather than wait, however,
there are many things which can be done now to avoid another crisis, or at
least cushion the blow when it comes. Listed below are 10 personal finance
lessons we can and should learn from the meltdown:

CONTROL EXPENSES & STICK TO THE BUDGET

You are more likely to face financial problems, if you have been extravagant
in your expenses. However, in a bid to tide over the current crisis and also
avoid such crises in future, you need to adhere to some financial
disciplines, and making a budget and sticking to it is one of them. Sticking
to the discretionary budgets, in fact, can help you handle the uncertainty
in the non-discretionary expenses.

DON’T COUNT ON TOMORROW’S INCOME

Counting on tomorrow’s income to spend today is one of our greatest
mistakes, which has already been proved by the current crisis. In fact, up
until the financial meltdown hit us, the spending levels of individuals,
especially in the 25-35-year age group, have been almost equal to their
income, if not more. “With the easilyavailable loans and credit cards they
were tempted to indulge even without being able to afford the expense. Now
with pay cuts and job losses, they are facing the worse. However, even if
you keep your job now, the prevalence of pay cuts makes it clear that you
can’t count on an ever-expanding paycheck to make up for your spending,”
says Lovaii Navlakhi, managing director & chief financial planner of
International Money Matters.

MAINTAIN LOW DEBT

Prioritise your debts. Pay off your loans with the highest interest rate
first. Basic advice, right? “The problem is that people have been
reiterating this theory for years, but most do not put it into practice.
This step requires one to plan out one’s debts and then follow through by
reducing it regularly and systematically. True, paying off debt can be a
difficult task, but it can also be quite rewarding as it gives you peace of
mind,” says Navlakhi.

GO FOR STRATEGIC ASSET ALLOCATION

Time and again we will hear from the so-called experts that there is a
paradigm shift in the market dynamics and that investors need to revise
asset allocations more aggressively to meet the impending demands of their
future lifestyles. “But one should strictly avoid falling for such traps.
Though temporarily the portfolio may appear underperforming, sticking to
fundamentals of strategic asset allocation would always help investors come
out of such temporary market mishaps,” says Ramesh Patibanda, director -
financial planning, Advice America, world’s leading provider of financial
advisor software solutions.

HAVE EMERGENCY FUND IN PORTFOLIO

Having an emergency fund in your portfolio is an ideal way to tide over a
family crisis or meet unexpected expenses. Therefore, the need for
maintaining emergency funds has always been emphasized by our forefathers.
“Even standard financial principles suggest that you should keep aside cash
to cover three to six months of living expenses, which would also be able to
cover most emergency expenses. Your emergency funds can also come handy in
case of a job loss,” says Ashish Kapur, CEO of Invest Shoppe.

ORGANISE YOUR FINANCES

To those who are not used to monitoring and managing their finances closely,
this may sound like a lot of work. But once you get a system in place, it
should only take a bi-monthly monitoring to stay on top of everything.
Ensure that you maintain sufficient liquid funds for emergencies. Also,
monitor your loans and ensure that you make credit card payments before the
due date.

LEARN TO PLAN AHEAD

It’s no secret that poor planning contributed to why so many people are
currently in weak financial situations. However, don’t panic. Figure out
where you are, where you want to be and put in place a realistic plan for
getting there. Unique circumstances will come up and cause you to stray from
your plans temporarily, but structure is necessary in order to monitor your
progress and stay focused.

INVEST SLOWLY & SYSTEMATICALLY

The problem for many people is that they live month to month and don’t
develop healthy saving habits until they are in their thirties or forties.
“Contributions to a savings plan should be recognised as the first of your
necessary monthly expenses, so that money saved will never be thought of as
money that can be spent. Even if you start saving in small amounts now, you
can always increase in the future,” says Navlakhi.

TAKE CONTROL OF YOUR INVESTMENTS

The worst thing you can do in a slow economy? Panic and pull all of your
money out of your investments! Therefore, resolve to protect your finances
as the market storm rages on. Take this time to build up your emergency
fund, and set reminders to regularly review your portfolio’s asset
allocation. “Try to align the same with your mid-term and long-term goals.
Do not get distracted by the usual city traffic jams when your final
destination is miles away,” advises Atul Surana, certified financial
planner, Catalyst Financial Planning.

HAVE REALISTIC EXPECTATIONS

There’s nothing wrong with hoping for the ‘best’ from your investments, but
you could be heading for trouble if your financial goals are based on
unrealistic assumptions. Therefore, when Warren Buffett says that earning
more than 12% in stock is pure dumb luck and you laugh at it, you’re surely
in for trouble!

Source: Economic Times, Sunday, 28 June 2009

//

In your personal life, when attending to business or working on side
projects, how often do you spend 8 consecutive hours in front of a
computer? It doesn’t make sense because we lose the ability to
concentrate effectively within a few hours.Everyone goes through
alternating periods of high and low mental acuity. There are days
when I work on personal projects for well over 8 hours, but the time
is always divided into multiple sessions. I might spend a few hours
coding a design, a few hours writing, and a few hours reading feeds,
moderating comments, and responding to email.

I work this way because it aligns with my mental energy cycle. Any
more than 3 hours in front of a computer and my eyes start hurting
and I become restless. I lose the ability to do my best work.
Instead of forcing myself to continue, I switch to an activity that
allows my mind to recharge. These breaks maximize productivity by
eliminating down periods. It’s counter productive to force work when
the mental energy isn’t there.

The Problem with an 8 Hour Work Day

A continuous 8 hour work day is a relic of the past. It makes sense
for physical labor and manufacturing work, but with information
workers it doesn’t account for the mental energy cycle. The ability
of a factory worker to think analytically is irrelevant, he’s either
cranking widgets or he isn’t.

In the case of the modern information worker, nearly all tasks
involve creative or strategic thinking. The way someone answers an
email or interprets a piece of information can differ drastically
depending on his or her energy level. Nobody does their best work
5:30 in the afternoon after they’ve been sucking down coffee all day
to stay awake.

I can’t speak for all workers, but I’ve observed that productivity
levels generally peak twice a day — first thing in the morning and
shortly after lunch. The most productive period is the beginning of
the day. People are capable of creative tasks like writing and
solving complex technical problems. After a couple hours of intense
work, energy levels drop and workers downgrade to less demanding
tasks like responding to email and tinkering with existing
creations. Towards the end of the cycle, the mind is so cluttered
and drained that workers resort to “work related activities” that
appear productive but don’t contribute to the bottom line. The
afternoon cycle is similar but the productivity peak isn’t as high.
For different people the peaks and valleys will vary, but overall
I’d estimate only 3-4 hours a day could
be classified as highly productive.

This number isn’t caused by slacking. You can’t force an information
worker to be highly productive when the energy isn’t there. Workers
can try their hardest, but the work just won’t have that creative
edge. The low ratio of highly productive hours to total hours worked
is the result of the continuous 8 hour work day.

When workers reach the low energy part of the cycle, they can’t
recharge with a non-work activity. The only option is office
purgatory. You can’t be highly productive because you’re mentally
fatigued, but you can’t recharge because the 8 hour work day
requires the appearance of constant productivity. The result is
millions of unproductive workers trapped at their desks when they’d
rather be doing something else.

Alternative Work Arrangements

The obvious solution to this problem is planning around the mental
energy cycle by breaking the work day into multiple segments. The
traditional office setting doesn’t accommodate this because there
are few available recharge activities. People can’t do household
chores, run errands, or engage in recreational activities without
leaving the workplace.

Some companies have tried to make the work environment more
accommodating by offering meals, fitness centers, and special areas
for relaxation. Although these amenities are certainly an
improvement, they’re expensive for employers and only partially
satisfy employees.

The solution that makes the most sense is a remote work arrangement
because it reduces employer costs and allows employees to adjust
their work schedule to their mental energy cycle. When a worker
becomes mentally fatigued, they can go off the clock and engage in
recharge activities that are personally productive like exercise or
relaxation. When energy returns, the worker can start working again
at a high level, effectively cutting out the low productivity period
of the cycle. Employers don’t pay for unproductive time and
employees get to work in a more natural pattern that adjusts to
their personal lives.

Why isn’t everyone doing this already? Many workers already are, and
as commutes get worse and communications improve, the number will
continue to increase. Of course there will always be a need for
officeworkers in businesses (like doctor’s offices and law firms)
that require daily customer interaction, but for most companies it
really isn’t necessary.

There is also the argument that people need to collaborate in
person. This is steadily becoming less essential. Most office
communications are already done through email or instant messager.
Face to face meetings are certainly necessary, but for the vast
majority of lower and mid level employees meetings are the exception
and could be conducted via phone/video conference or condensed into
one or two days a week.

Another common objection is that employees will abuse remote work
arrangements by slacking off. I’m inclined to believe that most
adults value their employment enough that this isn’t a problem. In
cases where supervision is required, web cams and other technology
can used to monitor a worker.

I suspect the real reason remote work arrangements are still the
exception is inertia. Companies are used to doing business in the
office and are reluctant to change. There is also the presence of
office politics. If one person is given a remote arrangement,
jealous employees will complain. Doesn’t it make sense to give
everyone what they want and save a boat load of cash on office
space?

I may only be a kid in his 20’s, but I can tell when something just
makes sense. I perceive an increasing number of people are noticing
the same phenomena. Forty years from now we’ll be telling our
grandchildren about the olden days when everyone’s mommy and daddy
went to work in an office.

In the simplest explanation, balance in life means ‘time for everything’. Work-life balance means you undertake and enjoy the responsibilities and workloads of both, your work and your family life. Balance doesn’t necessarily mean having more free time. But it does mean that you utilize every moment in a way that is as pleasant and productive for your own living.

Why a work-life balance is important?

Life is obviously more important than work. But without work, life wouldn’t be a complete one too. The first and foremost reason to have a job is to build a life that is most comfortable and hassle-free. The years that have been spent for so much of studies are for getting a job like this. But once you land up with your desired job, instead of a new exciting life, you loose the balance just like a newborn trying to fly a kite.

You have already come through the reasons. Now let’s see the problems when there is no work-life balance. The basic problems happen due to the absence of a proper balance in life are,

• Health and fitness problems
• Stress and tensions
• Relationship problems
• Financial Problems

But these basic problems will give rise to unimaginable consequences. Diseases, most rare and fatal, mental disorders, memory problems etc may just haunt you like anything. But where is the help? What are the ways to find a rhythm of life? What are the necessary elements in your life that need a proper alignment and balance? Just scroll down….

Tips for a work-family agreement

Knowing when to disconnect, shut it off, unplug, or walk away from work is one of the essential keys to balance work and family life.

When was the last time you completely left work behind? How frequently do you take work home, check e-mail or voice mail from home, or take your work with you on vacation? Do you feel you can’t afford to not do these things? What’s the real impact on your personal sense of balance when you are consistently making work your top priority?

However, more often than not, you let work seep into your personal lives even when there’s not a bonafide emergency or time-urgent crisis. You’ve become so accustomed to the ever-presence of your work that you’ve unconsciously allowed further intrusions that have, in many cases, become unreasonable.

1) Plan your life

Plan your works and the time for each of them. Avoid working late or taking assignments home out of habit. Do it only when you have an urgent project deadline. It will not be a wise career move to be a clock-watcher or an Out At 5 kind of guy, but it is a good idea to make plans after work a couple of days each week. It will get you out the door at a reasonable hour and refocus your attention.

2) Work at work and family with family

Protect each role from interference by the others. When you are at work do your work with dedication. At home be a total family man. Turn off your cell phone, laptop, beeper, or email when you are at home, so that you can be fully “present” during this time. Similarly, when you are at work, try to limit personal life intrusions – this will help you be more efficient and effective during your workday.

3) Achieve a psychological balance

Time is not necessarily the main conflict you experience between work and personal life. Most of the time it is your psyche that destroys your balance. The psychological disturbances have serious impact over the work-life ongoing. The psychological conflicts (guilt, difficulty “turning off” work behaviors at home, pressure, anxiety) create the most problems. To balance here, you have to withdraw your mind from some of those unhelpful emotional participations. This will help cut all the negative emotions you have.

4) Utilize office options

Take advantage of your workplace’s family-friendly policies and supports. If your workplace offers discretion over the methods, timing, or location of your work, use this flexibility to improve your situation. Check for the availability of workplace options such as flex-time, telecommuting, compressed work weeks, vacation purchase plans, etc. Many companies are recognizing the importance of satisfied employees and are helping them achieve worklife balance.

5) Share the Load

Don’t assume yourself doing all the family necessaries. Get your partner or other family members to help you with all your personal/family responsibilities. Taking care of the household, children, or parents should not be the responsibility of just one person.

6) Take it easy- the best policy

Except living, everything is of no value. This is a great philosophy to be understood. Don’t give something an importance more than what it deservers. Let things go smoothly and easily. Learn to recognize the things that don’t really have much impact in your life and allow yourself to let them go.

Tips to balance your WORK and LIFE

Life is more than a series of meetings- emails and presentations. But when you get a job in one of your dream companies, when you start working, when responsibilities haunt you from behind, you tend to miss life somewhere under a pile of tensions and deadlines.

Since no steps are taken to bring back that LIFE into your life, by the time small tensions grow up to big diseases and deadlines broaden to your lifetime.

Absence of a work-life balance is commonest in today’s professional lives. Responsibilities are the criminals here. When your work demands more responsibility from you, the other side of your life starts struggling. When life, importantly personal or family life, calls for more attention from your side, your professional focus sinks. This kind of an aimless, unbalanced life-flow offers you tensions and stress lavishly and you fall as an easy victim to the diseases every time. No wonder, very strange and rare diseases befall, as you struggle from all the spheres of your being, the physical, psychological as well as the spiritual being.

Life of a technology professional: What’s wrong?

Let’s get down to the world of technology professionals. If you are a professional, sure, you wouldn’t have time even to scroll down to the bottom of this mini-course. But don’t escape; stay on, as it is going to save a whole lifetime for you.

Technology is the forerunner of life today. In the last 80-100 years, the world of technology has seen a high-speed growth. Today, it’s the beginning, center and the horizon of life. In order to come up with competing and cutting edge technological outgrowths, countries and companies are on a lifetime marathon. But in the meanwhile, no one puts a break to find out the miseries of the players, the professionals who are behind all the success.

IT has always been a tension-generating field of work. The life of an IT professional is an all time push-pull between deadlines and tension generating exertions. There are specific reasons why IT delegates such enormous pressures on the laborers.

• The extreme competition between companies. To produce the most competent technology or software and to acquire a top seat in the long time run, the companies compete endlessly. This battle directly puts the employees under extra work pressures, as the companies always want more from them.
• Deadlines. Frequent deadlines for projects that are very complicated and time-consuming take the employee out of a balanced life.
• Unmatchable growth of technology. Cutting edge technological introductions puts pressure to the professional most of the time, as it may be difficult to comprehend and follow.
• Poor team works. Teamwork that is below satisfactory levels gives pressure to everyone included in the team. Least performing and uninterested team-mates chop the confidence of the hard workers and untie their self-assurance towards the work. Personal relationship inside the teams too counts to the stress level of the employee.
• Due to strict work schedules, when there is no enough time to concentrate on the way of healthy living, the professionals face enormous problems in life. Add to that when carelessness originates, the balance of life slips almost completely due to unavoidable diseases and health problems. Frequent food avoidance, sleeplessness, unproductive habits that are fatal to the health are some of the widely seen lifestyle elements among professionals.

While the job rewards you with commensurate financial packages, a good part of your life is gone under the tight schedules of working. Constant pressures get you with fatal diseases. Deadlines hang before your smooth flow of life and takeout the interest to a large extent. Projects have to be completed in time so that your personal requirements are sacrificed. Family, friends, funs and fantasies appear blurred before your office tensions and temperaments. And some of you may even take those bites of pressures handsomely to your homes, thus making the scene worse than ever.

At one side there are personal responsibilities and physical complaints. And at the other end there are official responsibilities and deadlines.

Family against career! Responsibilities against obligations!

What can you satisfy? What you would quit? You get totally confused. You need to balance. You want that extra hold that helps you balance between the pressures of work and commitments of home.

The importance of this article is at this point. It has got those mantras of work-life balance. It really means a lot when you are reasonably tired of tossing your work and life time to time. So give yourself to this article for the moment. By the time you relax your tensions, it will carry you to a world, where the secrets of balancing your life are hidden like an instant treasure. But before that you should know what is meant by balanced life?

Accountancy firms and other professional service firms have long been competing in what has become known as the ‘war for talent’.

The only alternative one hears (the ‘battle for talent’) also sounds as if it belongs in a bygone era and is more relevant to the armed forces than to those providing professional services to their clients.

The war and battle descriptions reflect the difficulties that firms have in recruiting the people they need to provide the service they have promised to their clients. These recruitment needs may be a consequence of growth plans for the firm or merely an effort to replace professional staff who have left for pastures new.

1 - Beforehand – specifying the talents, skills and experience required. This requires more thought then merely assuming that you need to find someone who can fill the shoes of the person who has left. Remember too that the key criteria will probably change if work is reallocated after someone leaves and before someone new joins.

2 – Attracting the right people – whether you run ads yourself or you engage an agent, you need to identify and highlight those features, benefits and advantages of working at your firm that will make your vacancy more attractive than those in other ’similar’ firms. What are the real differences? Do you know or are you going to make the same broad assumptions, promises and assertions that the other firms make re your firm’s atmosphere, approach, absence of long hours, work/life balance? What can you do to prove your assertions are based on fact?

After those two preparatory steps we can now move onto the interview stage and what follows on from that:

3 – Positive Interview experience. Obviously you need to clarify whether the candidate has the skills and talents you require. Effective interview technique is critical and other assessment tools may be helpful too. My focus here though is on what you say and do to ensure the candidate will accept your job offer if you decide to make one. In the final part of this short series I will outline an idea that can also be used during the interview process to evidence your commitment and that you’re not making empty promises.

Equally if you have a two stage interview process you want to endure that your chosen candidates will want to come back for part two. This all involves clarifying what matters to the candidate, ie: what are their aspirations, motivators and needs? Do not make the mistake of thinking it’s all about money.

4 – Immediate follow-up. You need to strike a careful balance between apparent desperation and genuine interest. I used to write to candidates directly as well as feeding back through the agent that I had enjoyed the interview and thought it was worth taking things further.

5 – Induction. You never get a second chance to make a first impression. Over the last twenty years I have been a great advocate of induction packs for new recruits. These can be separate packs or supplemental to the statutory HR and payroll related material. The ones I have used are generally simple checklists with space for ticks and dates. Essentially they identify all the things, under various headings, that a new recruit (for the role in question) would need to know. Even in very small offices the amount of information that new recruits have to assimilate can be daunting. The checklist can become a prompt (reviewed as part of the induction process, over the first weeks and months) to help provide a balance between spoon-feeding and leaving the new recruit to use their initiative all the time.

The real value of such a checklist though is actually during the interview process. You can show it to the candidate to evidence your commitment to an effective induction process. Its mere existence can help evidence that you are not making empty promises about how you do things and how you care about your staff’s personal development and training.

Conclusion

So there we have it. Five simple steps that can help you win the war for talent. As a mentor to ambitious professionals I would be delighted to work with you to elaborate on each of these points.

Equally you may want to go one step beyond your competitors and evidence to potential recruits your genuine commitment to their future personal development. Imagine the impact of promising them that as part of their induction they will receive 12 months mentoring by an external expert who operates completely outside of the firm’s political processes and whose only task is to help with their ongoing personal and management development.

source : Five steps to winning the war for talent

Mind is very restless, forceful and strong,O Krishna, it is more difficult
to control the mind than to control the wind”
Arjuna to Sri Krishna

ARTICLE FROM M.P.BHATTATHIRY AGED 60 ( RETD. CHIEF TECHNICAL EXAMINER TO THE GOVT.
OF KERALA), RADHANIVAS, THALIYAL, KARAMANA, TRIVANDRUM. 695002. KERALA,INDIA

Introduction

India’s one of the greatest contributions to the world is Holy Gita.

Arjuna got mentally depressed when he saw his relatives with whom he has to
fight. The Bhagavad Gita is preached in the battle field Kurukshetra by Lord
Krishna to Arjuna as a counselling to do his duty. It has got all the
management tactics to achieve the mental equilibrium..

Management has become a part and parcel in everyday life, be it at home,
office, factory, Government, or in any other organization where a group of
human beings assemble for a common purpose, management principles come into
play through their various facets like management of time, resources,
personnel, materials, machinery, finance, planning, priorities, policies and
practice.

Management is a systematic way of doing all activities in any field of human
effort. It is about keeping oneself engaged in interactive relationship with
other human beings in the course of performing one’s duty. Its task is to
make people capable of joint performance, to make their weaknesses
irrelevant -so says the Management Guru Peter Drucker.

It strikes harmony in working -equilibrium in thoughts and actions, goals
and achievements, plans and performance, products and markets. It resolves
situations of scarcities be they in the physical, technical or human fields
through maximum utilization with the minimum available processes to achieve
the goal

The lack of management will cause disorder, confusion, wastage, delay,
destruction and even depression. Managing men, money and material in the
best possible way according to circumstances and environment is the most
important and essential factor for a successful management. Managing men is
supposed have the best tactics. Man is the first syllable in management
which speaks volumes on the role and significance of man in a scheme of
management practices. From the pre-historic days of aborigines to the
present day of robots and computers the ideas of managing available
resources have been in existence in some form or other. When the world has
become a big global village now, management practices have become more
complex and what was once considered a golden rule is now thought to be an
anachronism.

Management Guidelines from The Bhagavad Gita

There is an important distinction between effectiveness and efficiency in
managing.

Effectiveness is doing the right things and

Efficiency is doing things right.

The general principles of effective management can be applied in every
fields the differences being mainly in the application than in principles.
Again, effective management is not limited in its application only to
business or industrial enterprises but to all organisations where the aim is
to reach a given goal through a Chief Executive or a Manager with the help
of a group of workers.

The Manager’s functions can be briefly summed up as under :

Forming a vision and planning the strategy to realise such vision.

Cultivating the art of leadership

Establishing the institutional excellence and building an innovative
organisation.

Developing human resources.

Team building and teamwork

Delegation, motivation, and communication and

Reviewing performance and taking corrective steps whenever called for.

Thus Management is a process in search of excellence to align people and get
them committed to work for a common goal to the maximum social benefit.

The critical question in every Manager’s mind is how to be effective in his
job. The answer to this fundamental question is found in the Bhagavad Gita
which repeatedly proclaims that ‘you try to manage yourself’. The reason is
that unless the Manager reaches a level of excellence and effectiveness that
sets him apart from the others whom he is managing, he will be merely a face
in the crowd and not an achiever.

In this context the Bhagavad Gita expounded thousands of years ago by the
Super Management Guru Bhagawan Sri Krishna enlightens us on all managerial
techniques leading to a harmonious and blissful state of affairs as against
conflicts, tensions, lowest efficiency and least productivity, absence of
motivation and lack of work culture etc common to most of the Indian
enterprises today.

The modern management concepts like vision, leadership, motivation,
excellence in work, achieving goals, meaning of work, attitude towards work,
nature of individual, decision making, planning etc., are all discussed in
the Bhagavad Gita with a sharp insight and finest analysis to drive through
our confused grey matter making it highly eligible to become a part of the
modem management syllabus.

It may be noted that while Western design on management deals with the
problems at superficial, material, external and peripheral levels, the ideas
contained in the Bhagavad Gita tackle the issues from the grass roots level
of human thinking because once the basic thinking of man is improved it will
automatically enhance the quality of his actions and their results.

The management thoughts emanating from the Western countries particularly
the U.S.A. are based mostly on the lure for materialism and a perennial
thirst for profit irrespective of the quality of the means adopted to
achieve that goal. This phenomenon has its source in abundance in the West
particularly the U.S.A. Management by materialism caught the fancy of all
the countries the world over, India being no exception to this trend.

Our country has been in the forefront in importing those ideas mainly
because of its centuries old indoctrination by the colonial rulers which
inculcated in us a feeling that anything Western is always good and anything
Indian is always inferior. Hence our management schools have sprung up on
the foundations of materialistic approach wherein no place of importance was
given to a holistic view.

The result is while huge funds have been invested in building these temples
of modem management education, no perceptible changes are visible in the
improvement of the quality of life although the standard of living of a few
has gone up. The same old struggles in almost all sectors of the economy,
criminalisation of institutions, more and more social violence, exploitation
and such other vices have gone deep in the body politic.

The reasons for this sorry state of affairs are not far to seek. The western
idea of management has placed utmost reliance on the worker (which includes
Managers also) -to make him more efficient, to increase his productivity.
They pay him more so that he may work more, produce more, sell more and will
stick to the organisation without looking for alternatives. The sole aim of
extracting better and more work from him is for improving the bottom-line of
the enterprise. Worker has become a hireable commodity, which can be used,
replaced and discarded at will.

The workers have also seen through the game plan of their paymasters who
have reduced them to the state of a mercantile product. They changed their
attitude to work and started adopting such measures as uncalled for strikes,
Gheraos, sit-ins, dharnas, go-slows, work-to-rule etc to get maximum benefit
for themselves from the organisations without caring the least for the
adverse impact that such coercive methods will cause to the society at
large.

Thus we have reached a situation where management and workers have become
separate and contradictory entities wherein their approaches are different
and interests are conflicting. There is no common goal or understanding
which predictably leads to constant suspicion, friction, disillusions and
mistrust because of working at cross purposes. The absence of human values
and erosion of human touch in the organisational structure resulted in a
permanent crisis of confidence.

The westem management thoughts although acquired prosperity to some for some
time has absolutely failed in their aim to ensure betterment of individual
life and social welfare. It has remained by and large a soulless management
edifice and an oasis of plenty for a chosen few in the midst of poor quality
of life to many. Hence there is an urgent need to have a re-look at the
prevalent management discipline on its objectives, scope and content.

It should be redefined so as to underline the development of the worker as a
man, as a human being with all his positive and negative characteristics and
not as a mere wage-earner. In this changed perspective, management ceases to
be a career-agent but becomes an instrument in the process of national
development in all its segments.

Bhagavad Gita And Managerial Effectiveness

Now let us re-examine some of the modern management concepts in the light of
the Bhagavad Gita which is a primer of management by values.

Utilisation of Available Resources

The first lesson in the management science is to choose wisely and utilise
optimally the scarce resources if one has to succeed in his venture. During
the curtain raiser before the Mahabharata War Duryodhana chose Sri Krishna’s
large army for his help while Arjuna selected Sri Krishna’s wisdom for his
support. This episode gives us a clue as to who is an Effective Manager.

Attitude Towards Work

Three stone-cutters were engaged in erecting a temple. As usual a H.R.D.
Consultant asked them what they were doing. The response of the three
workers to this innocent-looking question is illuminating.

‘I am a poor man. I have to maintain my family. I am making a living here,’
said the first stone-cutter with a dejected face.

‘Well, I work because I want to show that I am the best stone-cutter in the
country,’ said the second one with a sense of pride.

‘Oh, I want to build the most beautiful temple in the country,’ said the
third one with a visionary gleam.

Their jobs were identical but their perspectives were different. What Gita
tells us is to develop the visionary perspective in the work we do. It tells
us to develop a sense of larger vision in one’s work for the common good.

Work Commitment

The popular verse 2.47 of the Gita advises non- attachment to the fruits or
results of actions performed in the course of one’s duty. Dedicated work has
to mean ‘work for the sake of work’. If we are always calculating the date
of promotion for putting in our efforts, then such work cannot be
commitment-oriented causing excellence in the results but it will be
promotion-oriented resulting in inevitable disappointments. By tilting the
performance towards the anticipated benefits, the quality of performance of
the present duty suffers on account of the mental agitations caused by the
anxieties of the future. Another reason for non-attachment to results is the
fact that workings of the world are not designed to positively respond to
our calculations and hence expected fruits may not always be forthcoming .

So, the Gita tells us not to mortgage the present commitment to an uncertain
future. If we are not able to measure up to this height, then surly the
fault lies with us and not with the teaching.

Some people argue that being unattached to the consequences of one’s action
would make one un-accountable as accountability is a much touted word these
days with the vigilance department sitting on our shoulders. However, we
have to understand that the entire second chapter has arisen as a sequel to
the temporarily lost sense of accountability on the part of Arjuna in the
first chapter of the Gita in performing his swadharma.

Bhagavad Gita is full of advice on the theory of cause and effect, making
the doer responsible for the consequences of his deeds. The Gita, while
advising detachment from the avarice of selfish gains by discharging one’s
accepted duty, does not absolve anybody of the consequences arising from
discharge of his responsibilities.

This verse is a brilliant guide to the operating Manager for psychological
energy conservation and a preventive method against stress and burn-outs in
the work situations. Learning managerial stress prevention methods is quite
costly now days and if only we understand the Gita we get the required cure
free of cost.

Thus the best means for effective work performance is to become the work
itself. Attaining this state of nishkama karma is the right attitude to work
because it prevents the ego, the mind from dissipation through speculation
on future gains or losses.

It has been presumed for long that satisfying lower needs of a worker like
adequate food, clothing and shelter, recognition, appreciation, status,
personality development etc are the key factors in the motivational theory
of personnel management.

It is the common experience that the spirit of grievances from the clerk to
the Director is identical and only their scales and composition vary. It
should have been that once the lower-order needs are more than satisfied,
the Director should have no problem in optimising his contribution to the
organisation. But more often than not, it does not happen like that; the
eagle soars high but keeps its eyes firmly fixed on the dead animal below.
On the contrary a lowly paid school teacher, a self-employed artisan,
ordinary artistes demonstrate higher levels of self- realization despite
poor satisfaction of their lower- order needs.

This situation is explained by the theory of Self-transcendence or
Self-realisation propounded in the Gita. Self-transcendence is overcoming
insuperable obstacles in one’s path. It involves renouncing egoism, putting
others before oneself, team work, dignity, sharing, co-operation, harmony,
trust, sacrificing lower needs for higher goals, seeing others in you and
yourself in others etc. The portrait of a self-realising person is that he
is a man who aims at his own position and underrates everything else. On the
other hand the Self-transcenders are the visionaries and innovators. Their
resolute efforts enable them to achieve the apparently impossible. They
overcome all barriers to reach their goal.

The work must be done with detachment.’ This is because it is the Ego which
spoils the work. If this is not the backbone of the Theory of Motivation
which the modern scholars talk about what else is it? I would say that this
is not merely a theory of Motivation but it is a theory of Inspiration.

The Gita further advises to perform action with loving attention to the
Divine which implies redirection of the empirical self away from its
egocentric needs, desires, and passions for creating suitable conditions to
perform actions in pursuit of excellence. Tagore says working for love is
freedom in action which is described as disinterested work in the Gita. It
is on the basis of the holistic vision that Indians have developed the
work-ethos of life. They found that all work irrespective of its nature have
to be directed towards a single purpose that is the manifestation of
essential divinity in man by working for the good of all
beings -lokasangraha. This vision was presented to us in the very first
mantra of lsopanishad which says that whatever exists in the Universe is
enveloped by God. How shall we enjoy this life then, if all are one? The
answer it provides is enjoy and strengthen life by sacrificing your
selfishness by not coveting other’s wealth. The same motivation is given by
Sri Krishna in the Third Chapter of Gita when He says that ‘He who shares
the wealth generated only after serving the people, through work done as a
sacrifice for them, is freed from all the sins. On the contrary those who
earn wealth only for themselves, eat sins that lead to frustration and
failure.’

The disinterested work finds expression in devotion, surrender and
equipoise. The former two are psychological while the third is the
strong-willed determination to keep the mind free of and above the dualistic
pulls of daily experiences. Detached involvement in work is the key to
mental equanimity or the state of nirdwanda. This attitude leads to a stage
where the worker begins to feel the presence of the Supreme Intelligence
guiding the empirical individual intelligence. Such de-personified
intelligence is best suited for those who sincerely believe in the supremacy
of organisational goals as compared to narrow personal success and
achievement.

Work culture means vigorous and arduous effort in pursuit of a given or
chosen task. When Bhagawan Sri Krishna rebukes Arjuna in the strongest words
for his unmanliness and imbecility in recoiling from his righteous duty it
is nothing but a clarion call for the highest work culture. Poor work
culture is the result of tamo guna overtaking one’s mindset. Bhagawan’s
stinging rebuke is to bring out the temporarily dormant rajo guna in Arjuna.
In Chapter 16 of the Gita Sri Krishna elaborates on two types of Work Ethic
viz. daivi sampat or divine work culture and asuri sampat or demonic work
culture.

Daivi work culture – means fearlessness, purity, self-control, sacrifice,
straightforwardness, self-denial, calmness, absence of fault-finding,
absence of greed, gentleness, modesty, absence of envy and pride.

Asuri work culture – means egoism, delusion, desire-centric, improper
performance, work which is not oriented towards service. It is to be noted
that mere work ethic is not enough in as much as a hardened criminal has
also a very good work culture. What is needed is a work ethic conditioned by
ethics in work.

It is in this light that the counsel ‘yogah karmasu kausalam’ should be
understood. Kausalam means skill or method or technique of work which is an
indispensable component of work ethic. Yogah is defined in the Gita itself
as ’samatvam yogah uchyate’ meaning unchanging equipoise of mind. Tilak
tells us that performing actions with the special device of an equable mind
is Yoga. By making the equable mind as the bed-rock of all actions Gita
evolved the goal of unification of work ethic with ethics in work, for
without ethical process no mind can attain equipoise. Adi Sankara says that
the skill in performance of one’s duty consists in maintaining the evenness
of mind in success and failure because the calm mind in failure will lead
him to deeper introspection and see clearly where the process went wrong so
that corrective steps could be taken to avoid such shortcomings in future.

The principle of reducing our attachment to personal gains from the work
done or controlling the aversion to personal losses enunciated in Ch.2 Verse
47 of the Gita is the foolproof prescription for attaining equanimity. The
common apprehension about this principle that it will lead to lack of
incentive for effort and work, striking at the very root of work ethic, is
not valid because the advice is to be judged as relevant to man’s overriding
quest for true mental happiness. Thus while the common place theories on
motivation lead us to bondage, the Gita theory takes us to freedom and real
happiness.

Work Results

The Gita further explains the theory of non- attachment to the results of
work in Ch.18 Verses 13-15 the import of which is as under:

If the result of sincere effort is a success, the entire credit should not
be appropriated by the doer alone.

If the result of sincere effort is a failure, then too the entire blame does
not accrue to the doer.

The former attitude mollifies arrogance and conceit while the latter
prevents excessive despondency, de-motivation and self-pity. Thus both these
dispositions safeguard the doer against psychological vulnerability which is
the cause for the Modem Managers’ companions like Diabetes, High B.P. Ulcers
etc.

Assimilation of the ideas behind 2.47 and 18.13-15 of the Gita leads us to
the wider spectrum of lokasamgraha or general welfare.

There is also another dimension in the work ethic. If the karm ayoga is
blended with bhaktiyoga then the work itself becomes worship, a seva yoga.

Manager’s Mental Health

The ideas mentioned above have a close bearing on the end-state of a manager
which is his mental health. Sound mental health is the very goal of any
human activity more so management. An expert describes sound mental health
as that state of mind which can maintain a calm, positive poise or regain it
when unsettled in the midst of all the external vagaries of work life and
social existence. Internal constancy and peace are the pre- requisites for a
healthy stress-free mind.

Some of the impediments to sound mental health are

Greed -for power, position, prestige and money.

Envy -regarding others’ achievements, success, rewards.

Egotism -about one’s own accomplishments.

Suspicion, anger and frustration.

Anguish through comparisons.

The driving forces in today’s rat-race are speed and greed as well as
ambition and competition. The natural fallout from these forces is erosion
of one’s ethico-moral fibre which supersedes the value system as a means in
the entrepreneurial path like tax evasion, undercutting, spreading canards
against the competitors, entrepreneurial spying, instigating industrial
strife in the business rivals’ establishments etc. Although these practices
are taken as normal business hazards for achieving progress, they always end
up as a pursuit of mirage -the more the needs the more the disappointments.
This phenomenon may be called as yayati-syndrome.

In Mahabharata we come across a king called Yayati who, in order to revel in
the endless enjoyment of flesh exchanged his old age with the youth of his
obliging youngest son for a mythical thousand years. However, he lost
himself in the pursuit of sensual enjoyments and felt penitent. He came back
to his son pleading to take back his youth. This yayati syndrome shows the
conflict between externally directed acquisitions, motivations and inner
reasoning, emotions and conscience.

Gita tells us how to get out of this universal phenomenon by prescribing the
following capsules.

Cultivate sound philosophy of life.

Identify with inner core of self-sufficiency

Get out of the habitual mindset towards the pairs of opposites.

Strive for excellence through work is worship.

Build up an internal integrated reference point to face contrary impulses,
and emotions

Pursue ethico-moral rectitude.

Cultivating this understanding by a manager would lead him to emancipation
from falsifying ego-conscious state of confusion and distortion, to a state
of pure and free mind i.e. universal, supreme consciousness wherefrom he can
prove his effectiveness in discharging whatever duties that have fallen to
his domain.

Bhagawan’s advice is relevant here :

“tasmaat sarveshu kaaleshu mamanusmarah yuddha cha”

‘Therefore under all circumstances remember Me and then fight’ (Fight means
perform your duties)

Management Needs those Who Practise what the Preach

Whatever the excellent and best ones do, the commoners follow, so says Sri
Krishna in the Gita. This is the leadership quality prescribed in the Gita.
The visionary leader must also be a missionary, extremely practical,
intensively dynamic and capable of translating dreams into reality. This
dynamism and strength of a true leader flows from an inspired and
spontaneous motivation to help others. “I am the strength of those who are
devoid of personal desire and attachment. O Arjuna, I am the legitimate
desire in those, who are not opposed to righteousness” says Sri Krishna in
the 10th Chapter of the Gita.

The Ultimate Message of Gita for Managers

The despondent position of Arjuna in the first chapter of the Gita is a
typical human situation which may come in the life of all men of action some
time or other. Sri Krishna by sheer power of his inspiring words raised the
level of Arjuna’s mind from the state of inertia to the state of righteous
action, from the state of faithlessness to the state of faith and
self-confidence in the ultimate victory of Dharma(ethical action). They are
the powerful words of courage of strength, of self confidence, of faith in
one’s own infinite power, of the glory, of valour in the life of active
people and of the need for intense calmness in the midst of intense action.

When Arjuna got over his despondency and stood ready to fight, Sri Krishna
gave him the gospel for using his spirit of intense action not for his own
benefit, not for satisfying his own greed and desire, but for using his
action for the good of many, with faith in the ultimate victory of ethics
over unethical actions and truth over untruth. Arjuna responds by
emphatically declaring that all his delusions were removed and that he is
ready to do what is expected of him in the given situation.

Sri Krishna’s advice with regard to temporary failures in actions is ‘No
doer of good ever ends in misery’. Every action should produce results: good
action produces good results and evil begets nothing but evil. Therefore
always act well and be rewarded.

And finally the Gita’s consoling message for all men of action is : He who
follows My ideal in all walks of life without losing faith in the ideal or
never deviating from it, I provide him with all that he needs (Yoga) and
protect what he has already got (Kshema).

In conclusion the purport of this essay is not to suggest discarding of the
Westem model of efficiency, dynamism and striving for excellence but to make
these ideals tuned to the India’s holistic attitude of lokasangraha -for the
welfare of many, for the good of many. The idea is that these management
skills should be India-centric and not America-centric. Swami Vivekananda
says a combination of both these approaches will certainly create future
leaders of India who will be far superior to any that have ever been in the
world.

s/d

M.P.Bhattathiry

Finally let us see what great people opine about this sacred text.

“No work in all Indian literature is more quoted, because none is better
loved, in the West, than the Bhagavad-gita. Translation of such a work
demands not only knowledge of Sanskrit, but an inward sympathy with the
theme and a verbal artistry. For the poem is a symphony in which God is seen
in all things….The Swami does a real service for students by investing the
beloved Indian epic with fresh meaning. Whatever our outlook may be, we
should all be grateful for the labor that has lead to this illuminating
work.”

Dr. Geddes MacGregor, Emeritus Distinguished Professor of Philosophy
University of Southern California

“The Gita can be seen as the main literary support for the great religious
civilization of India, the oldest surviving culture in the world. The
present translation and commentary is another manifestation of the permanent
living importance of the Gita.”

Thomas Merton,
Theologian

“I am most impressed with A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada’s scholarly
and authoritative edition of Bhagavad-gita. It is a most valuable work for
the scholar as well as the layman and is of great utility as a reference
book as well as a textbook. I promptly recommend this edition to my
students. It is a beautifully done book.”

Dr. Samuel D. Atkins
Professor of Sanskrit, Princeton University

“…As a successor in direct line from Caitanya, the author of Bhagavad-gita
As It Is is entitled, according to Indian custom, to the majestic title of
His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada. The great interest
that his reading of the Bhagavad-gita holds for us is that it offers us an
authorized interpretation according to the principles of the Caitanya
tradition.”

Olivier Lacombe
Professor of Sanskrit and Indology, Sorbonne University, Paris

“I have had the opportunity of examining several volumes published by the
Bhaktivedanta Book Trust and have found them to be of excellent quality and
of great value for use in college classes on Indian religions. This is
particularly true of the BBT edition and translation of the Bhagavad-gita.”

Dr. Frederick B. Underwood
Professor of Religion, Columbia University

“…If truth is what works, as Pierce and the pragmatists insist, there must
be a kind of truth in the Bhagavad-gita As It Is, since those who follow its
teachings display a joyous serenity usually missing in the bleak and
strident lives of contemporary people.”

Dr. Elwin H. Powell
Professor of Sociology
State University of New York, Buffalo

“There is little question that this edition is one of the best books
available on the Gita and devotion. Prabhupada’s translation is an ideal
blend of literal accuracy and religious insight.”

Dr. Thomas J. Hopkins
Professor of Religion, Franklin and Marshall College

“The Bhagavad-gita, one of the great spiritual texts, is not as yet a common
part of our cultural milieu. This is probably less because it is alien per
se than because we have lacked just the kind of close interpretative
commentary upon it that Swami Bhaktivedanta has here provided, a commentary
written from not only a scholar’s but a practitioner’s, a dedicated lifelong
devotee’s point of view.”

Denise Levertov,
Poet

“The increasing numbers of Western readers interested in classical Vedic
thought have been done a service by Swami Bhaktivedanta. By bringing us a
new and living interpretation of a text already known to many, he has
increased our understanding manyfold.”

Dr. Edward C Dimock, Jr.
Department of South Asian Languages and Civilization
University of Chicago

“The scholarly world is again indebted to A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami
Prabhupada. Although Bhagavad-gita has been translated many times,
Prabhupada adds a translation of singular importance with his
commentary….”

Dr. J. Stillson Judah,
Professor of the History of Religions and Director of Libraries
Graduate Theological Union, Berkeley, California

“Srila Prabhupada’s edition thus fills a sensitive gap in France, where many
hope to become familiar with traditional Indian thought, beyond the
commercial East-West hodgepodge that has arisen since the time Europeans
first penetrated India.
“Whether the reader be an adept of Indian spiritualism or not, a reading of
the Bhagavad-gita As It Is will be extremely profitable. For many this will
be the first contact with the true India, the ancient India, the eternal
India.”

Francois Chenique, Professor of Religious Sciences
Institute of Political Studies, Paris, France

“As a native of India now living in the West, it has given me much grief to
see so many of my fellow countrymen coming to the West in the role of gurus
and spiritual leaders. For this reason, I am very excited to see the
publication of Bhagavad-gita As It Is by Sri A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami
Prabhupada. It will help to stop the terrible cheating of false and
unauthorized ‘gurus’ and ‘yogis’ and will give an opportunity to all people
to understand the actual meaning of Oriental culture.”

Dr. Kailash Vajpeye, Director of Indian Studies
Center for Oriental Studies, The University of Mexico

“…It is a deeply felt, powerfully conceived and beautifully explained
work. I don’t know whether to praise more this translation of the
Bhagavad-gita, its daring method of explanation, or the endless fertility of
its ideas. I have never seen any other work on the Gita with such an
important voice and style….It will occupy a significant place in the
intellectual and ethical life of modern man for a long time to come.”

Dr. Shaligram Shukla
Professor of Linguistics, Georgetown University

“I can say that in the Bhagavad-gita As It Is I have found explanations and
answers to questions I had always posed regarding the interpretations of
this sacred work, whose spiritual discipline I greatly admire. If the
aesceticism and ideal of the apostles which form the message of the
Bhagavad-gita As It Is were more widespread and more respected, the world in
which we live would be transformed into a better, more fraternal place.”

Dr. Paul Lesourd, Author
Professeur Honoraire, Catholic University of Paris

When I read the Bhagavad-Gita and reflect about how God created this
universe everything else seems so superfluous.

Albert Einstein

When doubts haunt me, when disappointments stare me in the face, and I see
not one ray of hope on the horizon, I turn to Bhagavad-gita and find a verse
to comfort me; and I immediately begin to smile in the midst of overwhelming
sorrow. Those who meditate on the Gita will derive fresh joy and new
meanings from it every day.

Mahatma Gandhi

In the morning I bathe my intellect in the stupendous and cosmogonal
philosophy of the Bhagavad-gita, in comparison with which our modern world
and its literature seem puny and trivial.

Henry David Thoreau

The Bhagavad-Gita has a profound influence on the spirit of mankind by its
devotion to God which is manifested by actions.

Dr. Albert Schweitzer

The Bhagavad-Gita is a true scripture of the human race a living creation
rather than a book, with a new message for every age and a new meaning for
every civilization.

Sri Aurobindo

The idea that man is like unto an inverted tree seems to have been current
in by gone ages. The link with Vedic conceptions is provided by Plato in his
Timaeus in which it states…” behold we are not an earthly but a heavenly
plant.” This correlation can be discerned by what Krishna expresses in
chapter 15 of Bhagavad-Gita.

Carl Jung

The Bhagavad-Gita deals essentially with the spiritual foundation of human
existence. It is a call of action to meet the obligations and duties of
life; yet keeping in view the spiritual nature and grander purpose of the
universe.

Prime Minister Nehru

The marvel of the Bhagavad-Gita is its truly beautiful revelation of life’s
wisdom which enables philosophy to blossom into religion.

Herman Hesse

I owed a magnificent day to the Bhagavad-gita. It was the first of books; it
was as if an empire spoke to us, nothing small or unworthy, but large,
serene, consistent, the voice of an old intelligence which in another age
and climate had pondered and thus disposed of the same questions which
exercise us.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

In order to approach a creation as sublime as the Bhagavad-Gita with full
understanding it is necessary to attune our soul to it.

Rudolph Steiner

From a clear knowledge of the Bhagavad-Gita all the goals of human existence
become fulfilled. Bhagavad-Gita is the manifest quintessence of all the
teachings of the Vedic scriptures.

Adi Shankara

The Bhagavad-Gita is the most systematic statement of spiritual evolution of
endowing value to mankind. It is one of the most clear and comprehensive
summaries of perennial philosophy ever revealed; hence its enduring value is
subject not only to India but to all of humanity.

Aldous Huxley

The Bhagavad-Gita was spoken by Lord Krishna to reveal the science of
devotion to God which is the essence of all spiritual knowledge. The Supreme
Lord Krishna’s primary purpose for descending and incarnating is relieve the
world of any demoniac and negative, undesirable influences that are opposed
to spiritual development, yet simultaneously it is His incomparable
intention to be perpetually within reach of all humanity.

Ramanuja

The Bhagavad-Gita is not seperate from the Vaishnava philosophy and the
Srimad Bhagavatam fully reveals the true import of this doctrine which is
transmigation of the soul. On perusal of the first chapter of Bhagavad-Gita
one may think that they are advised to engage in warfare. When the second
chapter has been read it can be clearly understood that knowledge and the
soul is the ultimate goal to be attained. On studying the third chapter it
is apparent that acts of righteousness are also of high priority. If we
continue and patiently take the time to complete the Bhagavad-Gita and try
to ascertain the truth of its closing chapter we can see that the ultimate
conclusion is to relinquish all the conceptualized ideas of religion which
we possess and fully surrender directly unto the Supreme Lord.

Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati

The Mahabharata has all the essential ingredients necessary to evolve and
protect humanity and that within it the Bhagavad-Gita is the epitome of the
Mahabharata just as ghee is the essence of milk and pollen is the essence of
flowers

Madhvacarya

We live today in the most hectic and feverish world. For the most of us each day seems to be a race; a daily race or “rat race”, an exhausting daily routine that leaves you no time for rest and relaxation. What is alarming is that the speed of this race increase from day to day, we become a sort of “speedaholics”. And as if this wouldn’t be enough we borrowed from the PC world the concept of multitasking (running two or more tasks at the same time) and try to implement it in our daily life. We want to do more because, in this era of consumerism, almost all of us are conditioned to want/have more. Rarely we take into account to be more, to think and feel better rather than do and have.

Slow down when all around you are speeding up! But why slow down when I have so many things to do? So many possible unborn projects and so many unfinished things! Why slow down when all around us hurry up for the big prize: the result. Answer: because not the result is the key but the process. It matter less what I get at the finish and more how I feel on the way there. Being always in a hurry doesn’t make any good to our body as well as to our mind. Our body needs to find its own pace to work at easy and our mind need time to taste all wonderful things around us.

Keep a state of calm, whatever the cost may be! Many of us have learned to live in a state of agitation and anxiety. They think this state help them to keep the pace with the rapid change of modern times. But this is a trap; it will lead you finally to exhaustion. In hurry times we need a calm mind to manage agitation around us. Nietzsche wonderfully described this kind of people: “they live as if they are missing something”.

So all we have to do in speedy times is to preserve a state of calm, even if the cost may seem very big. This is a trap too; the real cost come when you lose this state of calm.

If a thing is worth doing, it is worth doing slowly! There are so many things that ask for our attention, effort and energy, that we have to be very very selective with our projects. Before spending our time and energy on any project that come in our way, we need a drastic evaluation of its worthiness. If something isn’t essential for our life we must get rid of it immediately and if something can make a great difference in your life just take action. But don’t act in a hurry, because all things worth doing are worth doing slowly. Only doing things slowly we have the possibility to enjoy the process of doing in itself, and so to enjoy life.

Slow Manifesto

Do less, slowly. Multitasking is a moral weakness.

If you can slow down when all around you are speeding up, then you’re one of us. Be proud that you are one of us and not one of them. For they are fast, and we are slow. There are those that would urge us to speed. We resist!

We shall not flag or fail. We shall slow down in the office, and on the roads. We shall slow down with growing confidence when all those around us are in a shrill state of hyperactivity (signifying nothing). We shall defend our state of calm, whatever the cost may be. We shall slow down in the fields and in the streets, we shall slow down in the hills, we shall never surrender!

Why? Because if a thing is worth doing, it is worth doing slowly. Some are born to slowness – others have it thrust upon them. And still others know that lying in bed with a morning cup of tea is the supreme state for mankind.

Imagine a scale of mind states with two extremes. At one extremity there is a state of mind full of certainties, at the other one a state full of doubts. And between these two extremities there are another three states of mind: the first one in which predominant are certainties but doubts are present too, the second one in which predominant are doubts but certainties are present too and finally the third in which certainties and doubts are in a relative equilibrium.

The two extremities exist only in theory, in real world is very hard if not impossible to find an individual whose mind is full only of certainties and no doubt at all or vice versa. Even an individual with a mind at an absolute equilibrium, between certainties and doubts, is hard to find. The majority of us fall in one of the other two categories: the first one in which predominant are certainties and the second one in which predominant are doubts.

The question is which one is the most beneficial to our lives? Which one is the path to follow? Before we can give an answer to these questions let’s see what each category is all about.

1. When your mind is in a state in which predominant are certainties you believe that you know for sure where you come from, who you are, what you know and feel, what you have to do and what you can do.
Pros: This state of mind is favorable to ACTION; if you love action then this is the path to follow. You have to believe you know for sure what you want and what you can do if you want to be an achiever. This state not only helps you achieve what you want but, at the same time, it makes you feel confident and happy.
Cons: In this state of mind is very probable that you aren’t receptive to others and their ideas; you think you are the only holder of the truth, even if the most of your certainties may be false. This state increases the probability to acquire and keep false certainties, and to act in the name of false beliefs, values, attitudes, practices and ideas.

2. When your mind is in a state in which predominant are doubts you believe that you don’t know for sure many essential things for your life.
Pros: This state of mind is the path that leads to TRUTH. You have to believe that you don’t hold the absolute knowledge in order to access truth. This state helps you get closer and closer to truth, making you a thinker, and most important to get rid of useless and time, energy consuming beliefs, values, attitudes, practices and ideas. Now, you are receptive to others and their ideas and so you can enrich your knowledge.
Cons: This state undermines determinant actions, because in this state you may doubt what you have to do and what you can do. In this state of mind you don’t feel too confident because you may doubt your knowledge and your power to act.

Now is up to you what path to choose consciously, because unconsciously you already are in one of them!