I have a Problem

Friday evening 7:00 PM, most of the colleagues are rushing home. Access system at the door constantly beeping as an acknowledgement to every passer-by that ‘You may go home’. Excitement in every face which was hardly seen at the time of entry. It felt like many mechanical lives are just getting liberated. It feels like kids rushing out of school hearing the last bell. It feels like birds are leaving a cage after many years.

Saransh was watching these while his headphone was constantly supplying him information that he was hardly interested in. A meeting, he did not know how he landed up attending or even got invited to. He was doing everything except focusing on the meeting. For him It looked like every second is taking hours to pass. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Various news websites as well as WhatsApp on his phone were not able to keep him patient. He wanted to go home and get out of this place. He realized there were no plans for this weekend yet, but was sure will do something interesting with friends.

As soon as one ‘kind’ person in the meeting said, “Thank you all, for your valuable time…”, He disconnected the phone to get ready to fly off. Saransh got up, took his laptop from its docking station and was about to put it in the bag, he noticed one young boy who joined few months back sitting at his desk and passionately working on something. A strange scene to see on a Friday evening from a young boy. Saransh went up to him and asked, “Hey, what’s up. How are things going?”.

“I have a problem”, Young man said at once.

“What problem, may I help you?”, Saransh asked assuming it would be a two word answer and then he can fly off.

“Why are we doing what we are doing?”, young man asked.

“What do you mean?” Saransh asked curiously, He was clueless about the context and wanted to know more.

“I really don’t understand why we do many things at office and who is getting benefited by all these”, Young man asked with real concern in his voice.

Saransh was bit uncomfortable as he felt as if this lad has noticed him browsing social networking sites, personal email and many other activities while posing to attend a conference call. Saransh was a senior member in the company working since past 20 years, He has a reputation and he was the one who trained this young man when he joined this company six months back. saransh was not in the state of mind to hear from him what he should not be doing at work. He was feeling as if his ego was awakened from a deep sleep by a kid. His arrogance was getting itself armed to fight this boy out. His mind was trying to cloud its intellect with anger and arrogance. He was not ready to spoil his unplanned weekend over a kid telling him what he should not do at work.

“Hey just a request. Can we discuss this on Monday? I have something urgent to do so I have to leave office now.”, Saransh said to avoid the anticipated unpleasant conversation.

He politely acknowledged. Saransh was also thinking that young man might think he was avoiding the discussion but let it be. he was not ready now to talk.

But the discomfort that his question created in his mind could not get rest, despite his all attempts. Saransh used to think himself as one of the smartest guys in his circle and his every action has a meaning. But it seems he had lost himself somewhere on the way. He also realized that He was getting tired more often lately and have lost the enthusiasm to attack every task with full energy and get them accomplished with pride as he used to do earlier. He was just dragging himself on this journey for past few years. He was not sure what He was doing and why.

Went home and Sat next to his grandfather, who was reading books sitting on his bed. His grandfather was a voracious reader and extremely enthusiastic person. He is very inquisitive and has knowledge to talk on any subject. When I say any subject, I mean it. He can talk about computer programming as well. Saransh explained his problem with him.

“What do you need from me?, Grandfather asked.

Saransh was surprised by his question. He needed a solution. This time, He asked the obvious. “Okay, Give me solution to my problem”.

“What do you think your problem is?”, Grandfather asked to Saransh’s surprise. He was now getting irritated by his gransfathers strange questions.

“I have lost enthusiasm. I am not enjoying what I am doing. I am dragging myself throughout the day. In order to pass the time I am getting involved with activities which are just time killers and do not give any productivity.”, Saransh explained again in one breath.

“Okay, So You said, you lost enthusiasm. Can you elaborate that for me please?”, He asked with inquisitiveness.

“I am not enjoying the work I do at office. I don’t see any value in doing that. I don’t think my job is important enough and anybody can do that. I am just a place holder. I am a principal software engineer as per designation but I do the same work as any junior developer does.”, Saransh explained.

“I see!! Who do you think should fix this problem? Whose job it is to make your presence valuable and important”, Grandfather asked with a inquisitive look.

“My manager! He should give me some responsibility. I have proven myself again and again in past 10 years, it is time I should get some responsibility. That would make my job valuable and I will be excited”. Sransh said with great enthusiasm.”

“Okay. Good. So I think you know what to do now. I don’t know much about the nature of your job but in circus I always see the ring master always comes up with a new game ideas every season and trains the animals on that. May be your manager has to come up with a new idea to train you further so that you get motivated. “, He said casually.

Saransh was irritated by this response. He through, ‘Why is he comparing me with an animal. Why should manager be the ring master. I am a senior member and have lot of respect. Every manager respects me’. But after thinking over he realized what his grandfather meant.

“No!! I don’t think that’s the way to go. I think there is something more needs to be done.”, Saransh protested.

“Go ahead and tell me”, Grandfather said.

“I think I am not taking my job seriously. I don’t think my manager knows what extra I can do as a principal software engineer beyond the regular work. I think I should come up with the ideas regarding what all additional work I can do. I think I should be leading here and give a fight to the resistance till I am satisfied or other are convinced. Its me who needs to work and think, not others.”, Saransh said in a thoughtful tone as he was thinking deeply while talking but with great enthusiasm.

“Great!! I heard you saying “I” in every actionable statement. That’s the beginning and this is called self-realization but…you will not succeed.”. GrandFather said wearing a suspicious smile.

“Why? I will do all these? I will ensure I take action on each of these? Why do you say I will not succeed?”, Saransh was puzzled.

“You need to act and have you decided that you need to act. If so, what would be your action and when you will take the action, that is important to identify. Unless you prepare a good plan and strictly stick to it, you will not succeed.”, His grand father said.

Saransh realized that in past he promised big things to him but never took any action despite great intentions. Intentions don’t make you but actions. He quickly thought and wrote down the plans for future and started following on it. Every evening He made it a practice to sit next to his grandfather and update him on his progress.

Saransh realized that, we have good thoughts but we are either scared or lazy to take actions. A mediocre person is a person with great thoughts but self limiting beliefs.These limiting beliefs stop the person to take actions and let him/her spend the time with some or other mode of lesser quality entertainment. He was doing the same. He was expecting others to give him importance and invoke greatness in him with a great overconfidence that He is better than everybody around him. As all actions were expected to be taken by others, he had hardly anything to do other than entertaining himself through various toys that current age provides. If this thought would not have been triggered by the young boy sitting at the corner, he would never have realized that. But today with his grandfather’s simple yet powerful questions he came up with time-bound goals and he has more work than he thinks he could do in a day but enjoy every moment like a baby.

The very next monday he went to office and asked the young boy, “Hey I am sorry for leaving that day abruptly without discussing your problem. May we discuss now?”

Young man said. “Thats okay, It was not urgent. I am being asked to fix defects which were missed by senior members during the release and I have been doing this since past 3 months. I want to understand why I am fixing the defects when they can fix their own defects quickly and know what mistakes they made while developing it.”, He explained.

He got a sense of relief after listening to his question and understanding the context. He had an answer for his question, he explained him up to his satisfaction. Saransh silently thanked the young man for triggering the most valuable thought in him mind and he was happy that he did not discuss the problem that day. Otherwise he would not have got the direction in his life.

Namaste!!!

– Stray Dog

Note: This post is following the coaching techniques a life coach would use to help a client come out of any problem they have. This is just very minimal usage of the technique. If you have any problem you may contact me.