The world as I see it, in the future

Often we hear people say that the world will soon be so polluted that we will have o inhabit another planet. But the interesting thing is that there are certain things happening that we may not put together , but if seen from a long-term perspective , may have a significant impact on the world.

There is a much greater awareness today regarding the kinds of food we eat and their impact on us as well as on our health. Today doctors are much more aware of the benefits and side effects of the various food and drinks that we consume. There  is a great movement afoot to move away from processed and packaged foods towards fresh and organically grown fruits and vegetables as well as meats, fish and poultry.

In the western countries , their is now a great realisation that a lot of the diseases that are afflicting mankind , such as heart diseases, obesity, diabetes, cancer, etc. is because of the kind of foods we eat and the lifestyles we follow. Increasingly, we have resorted to eating fast foods, packaged and processed foods which make our lives convenient and also good on the palate.

But this has disastrous consequences on our health , as seen by the alarming increases in lifestyle illnesses . By researching further, it has been seen that the least harmful are fruits and vegetables. Meats, dairy products, processed foods, packaged goods are all harmful to our health , in the long run , because of  harmful chemicals  and unhealthy fats which are there. They cause inflammation and toxicity in our systems, which further lead to the life-threatening diseases.

Now, this awareness is restricted to a small section of the population worldwide . But, slowly more and more people will become aware of the need to move away from harmful foods towards more organic fruits and vegetables, fish and poultry. When this happens, what will be the impact on land. Huge amounts of grass lands are used up for cattle fodder; as the demand for dairy and meats dip, a large amount of this land will be freed up, leading to lower carbon emissions.

If our lifestyles undergo a change, drugs and medicines as we know it will also undergo a drastic change. The pharmaceutical and health industry will also have to rethink the way medicine is practiced.

Now, lets look at another scenario; the impact of the IT innovations on our lifestyles. Due to constant innovations , habits and lives of people are undergoing a dramatic change.

Many people are working from home and its acceptable to do that. Earlier , only women who had just delivered or had small children would work from home , as to not have to totally write off their careers. Today, increasingly many people, and even many men choose to work from home and its seen as acceptable.

Its possible today to talk though a variety of devices. We can have conferences with clients, talk them through a video presentation, together with our own colleagues, without leaving our own homes. If all this is possible, then it is also possible that many companies will not have  such large set ups but hire people to do their different jobs from home , as a consultant. Then the need for such massive offices may not be there anymore. If most people work from home, those massive movements in all cities worldwide to the Central Business Districts will not be there. That will significantly reduce pollution levels due to car movements. Less commuting traffic; lower carbon emissions.

Another big movement is online retail . It is taking off in a big way.Again, the need for such massive amounts of expensive real -estate for retail may not be necessary.

If all of this were to happen,  the doom and gloom story regarding our planet  may not be true. Life as we know it will change drastically. It will be possible to give the benefits of learning to all inhabitants of the world, give them an opportunity to eat  healthy, live longer, disease -free lives and work to their satisfaction. People will be able to have a good income too, thanks to access to opportunities through the net.  But this will only be possible if
1.All governments consider the planet as a common resource
2. Create laws which are respected by all countries and benefit all countries equally.
But , life as we know it will change forever- how we work, study , what we eat, how we take care of our health, etc. will change dramatically in the future. It will be more in the hands of the people. Today it is not.





































 

The workplace

Work is an area which takes up a large part of our adult life. In the modern age , there is a tremendous emphasis on working for a living. However, work entails skills of a totally different nature than what we need to negotiate through family or social life. We need technical skills or knowledge to actually do the work assigned to us and we also need people skills as a large part of our work entails working with others.

When we begin our working life, we have to largely follow instructions and do what others tell us to do. As we move up the ladder , we either work in groups or start getting things done. Trouble starts when we are not adept at doing these things- following orders or getting things done or getting others to work in a productive manner with us.

My troubles began when I started working about 30 years back. I was naïve and at that time, there were hardly any people I knew who worked in the corporate world. My family were either lawyers or in business or were landowners who earned money from their properties. Working for a living, especially for a woman was really looked down upon. It was  really done in the direst of circumstances. My mother came from a family where no one had ever worked for a living !!

However, education had become very important by then and men were certainly expected to work. For women, teaching or secretarial work was considered very respectable. Nevertheless, given my education , I chose to enter corporate life, never realising what lay ahead !!

I was very young when I entered corporate life and I soon realised that it was very different from college life. I worked hard and enjoyed my work. But over the years , I had good experiences and bad experiences at the workplace. Those companies where I did well, I attributed it to my bosses and my work environment being good. Those companies where I did not enjoy my experiences, I blamed on my bosses and environment. It never occurred to me to think any other way!!

Today, I feel and know differently. I know that people treat you the way they perceive you. If you are fearful, people are going to take advantage of you. And that is exactly what happened to me. I had no exposure to corporate life and people sensed this and took advantage of this fact. I went along with many unfair things , not daring to protest or raise my voice. When I look back, I can see that I had no confidence in my own abilities and so, the environment reflected that lack of confidence, by giving me fewer opportunities or putting roadblocks in my way.

So, the workplace or any other situation is only a reflection of our attitudes , behaviour and actions. If we believe that we are good , the world believes the same of us and treats us accordingly. If we believe that we are capable , then again the world reflects that. But if we have no faith in our own abilities, understanding or capabilities, then we should not blame other people for treating us badly. They are only reflecting our own behaviour and attitudes.

Once this became very clear, I was released from the agony of blaming others. In fact, today, any untoward incident is a source of rejoicing as it indicates what needs to be handled or changed in the situation or in my own behaviour or actions. The outside world has become a barometer of my own actions, thoughts and behaviour. If I know what needs to be changed, I know how to overcome my own pain or suffering quickly.

This realisation taught me some very important lessons regarding the workplace. Its that knowledge or expertise in ones area of work is not enough for success. Its also important to handle the relationships with others, be they colleagues or seniors very carefully. The main part of being successful at work is to  get along well with others.  If we don't do that, then we cannot become successful.

First of all, I realised that my relationships with my bosses depended on how I actually felt about them. If I respected them, they respected  me in return. But I had an inner tendency to be judgemental and that reflected in my relationships with them.  They would do the same and that did not result in a happy working rapport with my bosses.

Secondly, in the beginning, I did not always go out of my way to support my bosses . I did my own work extremely diligently but any work that I felt was being fobbed off on to me by my bosses was not looked upon nicely.In such situations, obviously I did not do well. But over the years , I realised that it is very important to be a team player and I understood this best when I was given my own team to work with.

 Lastly, its very important to love ones work and create value. I have always enjoyed my work. But that does not mean that I always got jobs which I liked or enjoyed. I made it a point to understand the business I was in . In the process, though I started with Market Research, I was able to move onto Account Planning, a new and emerging field , then onto Business Strategy and finally onto Training and Mentoring. I hear many people talk about how they hate their jobs. I have never  understood that . Maybe there could be some parts of our job that are repetitive and somewhat uninteresting. But there is always scope to make our job interesting and challenging.

I have always learnt a lot from every assignment. I may at times have been worried or fearful about tackling things . But I have never felt unhappy about what I am doing, except in situations where I have  been deadlocked in some way. As soon as I was able to come out of the situation, I was able  to get back my enthusiasm for the job. And I think the answer lies in this.If we can love what we do , we will be able to deal with all the other aspects of the work itself - the people, the money, the perks, the long hours, the poor facilities, the lack of empathy, etc.

The problem begins when we start to evaluate  our efforts vis-à-vis our pay. Instead, if we try to see how much value we can create and go ahead and do that, we will be far more happier at work. Then we can also bargain for better pay and perks at the job by showing these results or move on to a far better opportunity with a clear conscience knowing that we have contributed  to the organisation  in a big way. It always works at making us happier as the control remains in our hands . But when we complain , we give up the control to others.

So, the real crux of the learning is how much value are we creating. If we continue to create value , the organisation is bound to value us sooner or later. and, if they don't , there will be others who will do so. So, this is always going to be a win-win approach, which ever way we look at it.