Life balance

Happiness and Satisfaction are two very important aspects in one's life!

Happiness is the present moment feeling here - mentally engrossed, thoughtless state, joyful state, no mental strain from thoughts and thinking! This need not be due to any productive activity which produces values for others. In this modern information age, there are so much interesting stuff around that one can practically live most of their time in happy and engrossing activities which are not of any value to other people. One good thing about this is you are always distracted from the thoughts and the mental strain that comes associated with it! Examples include playing sports, music, other arts, watching interesting videos, reading interesting stuff, any of the drug addictions etc.

Satisfaction is the worthy/achievement feeling when you look back in your life - involving thoughts, assessing life, contentment, facing truths, processing ideas etc! This will be due to the productive activities and the value produced for others in one's time. It is quite difficult to produce a great value for others in this age of distractions if you don't have any of the following,

1) a very strong self-discipline

2) an important cause or purpose that has great chemistry / passion for you

3) an addictive and productive activity, like the ones noted in the Happiness description above.

Now, the Ideal situation in one's life would be to have one's favourite activity as their main work as well! Examples for such persons include Roger Federer, AR.Rahman, or any other genius worker. This would seem the most effortless among the others. It is easier if the activity has started much earlier in one's life, say as a kid, before one's mind starts losing focus with all the interesting options! But, this can start later in life also with a focused and conscious effort. Now, this is not to discount the self-discipline they would have needed to make their favourite activity productive! One thing here though is that this may not be the value that people need the most. Because one's favorite activity usually does not start with the people's needs, but rather with the ones that is of most interest to them. So, a Federer does not produce as much value to people as a Gandhi does of course!

Now, lets look at the various life balances that are typical of some of the standard categories in human society.

1) Close to 100% Happiness & close to 0% Satisfaction

These are the extreme cases of drug addicts, TV addicts, internet addicts etc. They feel joyful and engrossed most of their time, but would have nothing good to look back in their lives.

2) Close to 0% Happiness & close to 100% Satisfaction

This is the case of Necessity or Great Cause. One works out of grave necessity or for a great cause, and the activity is not enjoyable and does not give any present moment happiness. These are typical of philosophers who live a life full of misery and leave behind a great value to others. Also includes people like Mahatma Gandhi, Mother Theresa etc.

3) About 65% Happiness & about 35% Satisfaction

Typical balance of a modern hedonistic person's life. Having some engrossing hobbies which are not producing any value to others, a few of the common addictions, following a lot of news, being a fan etc.

4) About 25% Happiness & about 75% Satisfaction

Typical balance of a modern "responsible/steady" person's life. Accepting the job and other social responsibilities as a whole package, thrown in with some share of happy moments. A decent life balance that's quite practical and sustainable in these modern times.

5) About 75% Happiness & about 75% Satisfaction !!

Yes, the percentages doesn't add up here and that's why this is the ideal & effortless combination. You are happy and in-the-moment during your main work hours. And also you are creating great value to others directly or indirectly, using some self-discipline. I say "some" self-discipine because though a great amount of self-discipline is still needed, it works in a kind of synergetic way with the actual passion. Its definitely easier than pushing hard without that much passion or chemistry ;)

Loving tennis - My Fun Fitness story!

83 kgs ( 182.6 lbs ) & 23% Body Fat, Oct 2008 -->

71 kgs ( 156.2 lbs ) & 14% Body Fat, Oct 2009 ( ..and maintaining there till date! )

This is not some kind of how-I-acheived-my-weight-target-goal story. I did not start anything to reduce my weight at all - this is the side benefit when I did what I truly enjoy! This is the change that gets externally noticed in real life by people who had known me, and then the questions & story follow! So, let me start with the same opening here!

I was not looking to reduce my weight back then in Oct '08 and I didnt feel dragged down carrying around that weight or anything! After all, my BMI (the so-called standard!) was in the normal range! Few months prior to this we had a comprehensive health check-up for our group in office, sponsored by my company. There they did various tests and told me that my ideal weight should be 10kgs less! 73kgs they said!! I was bemused by this, and thought that they are some kind of fitness freaks and that these recommendations are not for normal people! Fat percentage was 23% that time, while the normal recommended range for male adults is between 10 and 20% it seems! Okayyy, there is something here - yes, I was not in any kind of regular fitness activity during that time! I could not sustain any motivation for yoga, gym, running or any other similar fitness activity during that time! So, that kind of explains the high fat percentage! But, still in spite of all this I did not feel any special urge to work towards this, as there are always other important things!

One important thing was, I had always been a sports fan and especially tennis had a special chemistry for me since I was a very young boy! But during my childhood and teenage years, in the towns where I grew up in India there were not any decent tennis facilities, and also I did not have that much money or time, being a job-focussed Indian middle class school boy! After joining work in the Bangalore city in 2005, I found the facilities and money to register for a course! It was really awesome to learn the techniques of the game that I have followed for many, many years! One interesting thing that came out of it was that the coach and the other students in the course instantly recognized the vast theoretical knowledge I had about the game. They could see that in my execution style of the techniques - well I had so many images in my mind to just copy! ;) This is where the chemistry helps you to sustain your motivation and puts you in a positive loop!

But then, soon after we moved to Finland, and I found it very challenging to continue playing due to many reasons including lack of partner, high costs, lack of local language etc! But, I always had an eye for it and tried various possible avenues intermittently till I found a partner by chance, who also had great interest in tennis, and was at the same playing level as me! The rest is history :) We have been regularly & consistently playing for the last 2 years now! I am also part of other local clubs now & play some club-level tournaments! I acheived the current fitness levels gradually in the first year after starting and has stayed there since then! The incredible thing about this is I started waking up early for this - and I was not dragging myself out of bed, I was in fact waking up with high energy and great enthusiasm! Waking up very early had always been a difficult thing for me and hence I decided to leverage my tennis interest to manifest this habit :) Of course, nowadays I wake up at 5AM regularly whether I am playing tennis during those days or not! Even during the dark and cold Finnish winters!!

Another important aspect is I feel very light and energetic compared to two years back! As I mentioned in the beginning, I was not feeling specially heavy or anything during those times, but now when I look back from this lighter state I can see what feeling I had been missing during those times! You will know how it feels only when you lose it! Changing all your trousers from 36 hip size to 32 ones is a nice feeling of course :)

So my fun fitness story is this - its very easy to get fit if you take up something for which you have some good chemistry / passion to start with! Any sports, dance etc. This way you get a great head start, but thats not the end of the deal of course. You have to take up classes to learn the proper technique which will sustain your motivation for a long time! You have to look at it as a long-term / life-long investment! And of course, you should join corresponding groups / clubs to sustain it very easily afterwards!

This is not to say that this is a better idea compared to yoga, gym etc. But, if you are like me and lots of other people, without enough self-discipline / motivation to start with, then this is a great way to become unstuck and start moving! Of course, I understand that you have to get fit / strengthen your body to play sports beyond some level, without injuring yourself. Nowadays I am at this level where I have reduced the playing time a bit and am doing some body-strengthening exercises instead to improve my tennis when I play!! So, there is now the tangible connection and motivation for me to do the boring exercises ;)

This is quite similar to do-what-you-love-and-everything-else-will-follow-automatically story... though the stakes in your career are a bit higher! ;)