2021 has been a very unusual year. Beginning of the year we thought that we should be seeing the end of COVID-19 soon, but it was anything but that. We saw a ferocious second wave (especially in India), whose intensity took most by surprise. What followed was a very difficult period of human pain and loss. However, the year gone by was not just about doom and gloom. We also saw unprecedented growth and opportunities on the business side – booming stock market, spate of successful IPOs, many startups becoming Unicorns, and upsurge in demand especially in the technology space. How crazy yet inspiring has been the contrast between the pain on the human side and progress on the business side!! Resilience of the human spirit truly shone through in 2021. Nature threw many curve balls at us (we can argue they were of our own creation!), but we have found a way to not just survive but to adapt and thrive.
How do you make sense of these crazy times and figure out how to lead a fulfilling life? In my book, “Winning in the Digital Age”, I have used the concept of VUCA (Volatile, Uncertain, Complex, Ambiguous) to describe the Digital Age and the world we are in. COVID is as VUCA as it gets! Not just that, COVID has further accentuated each of the dimensions of VUCA. The volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity of most situations has intensified. Given this, I am tempted to coin a new term to describe our world, Hyper VUCA!!
Once you get your head around the key dynamics of a situation, the solutions begin to emerge naturally. I posed a question above on how do we lead a fulfilling life in these crazy times? Given the framing of Hyper VUCA that we just did, here are 10 mantras that I think will be helpful for 2022 (and beyond):
- Acceptance. We are constantly looking at people and situations with tinted glasses – tinted with our expectations and biases. This gap between our perception and reality is a key reason for lack of success of our actions and resulting frustration. Therefore, my first mantra is to develop the awareness to see people and situations as they are, and then to accept them for what they are. Not to impose our biases, assumptions, and expectations. This acceptance is not a passive process about doing nothing. Once you accept (as opposed to fighting reality), it clarifies your mind to take the right action.
- Mastering Duality. In business, executives are constantly faced with seemingly conflicting choices – growth / profits, short-term / long-term, customers / employees and many more. These seeming paradoxes are not just about business but are the essential nature of life – male / female, good / bad, left brain / right brain, and so on. We are conditioned to make simplistic choices. However, in this VUCA world given the increasing complexity it is more important than ever before to be comfortable with the seeming paradoxes and to master them for superior performance. This means that we need to increasingly work with ‘And’ rather being caught in ‘Either/Or’. I strongly believe that ‘Mastering Duality’ is a key leadership skill for the 21st Century. Now, how you go about mastering duality is a big discussion, but the starting point is what we discussed above – acceptance and seeing people and situations as they are and not what we want them to be. Once we start doing that, the inherent duality in situations will be more evident to us.
- Positivity. If most individuals, teams, organizations, and societies have come through the challenges of the last two years the big reason is the innate human positivity and resilience. The ability to keep going in the face of adversity and not let darkness submerge us. To keep pushing on the pain barrier to achieve higher levels of performance and realize more of our potential. To see the good in others and to support each other. Question is how do we nurture and expand the positivity within us? Positivity is a skill, the more you apply it consciously the more it grows. A starting point is to recognize that people and situations are not inherently good or bad. There are both good and bad possibilities in any situation. Key is to identify and focus on the positive aspects of any situation or person. What you focus on tends to grow.
- Adaptability. One of the few absolute truths of life is that nothing is permanent. Every aspect of the world around is constantly changing. In the Hyper VUCA world we are in the pace of change has got massively accelerated. Whether it is business cycles, product cycles or technology cycles, everything is getting crunched. So, it naturally follows that ability to adapt quickly and effectively must be a core skill both for enterprises and individuals (it was again very visible during Covid where many companies adapted their business models quickly and millions of professionals moved to working from home). Enhancing adaptability requires building high awareness of the world around us to anticipate the change and then the willingness and ability to un-learn and re-learn.
- Health. COVID has brought personal health into sharp focus. All of us would have heard the English saying, “Health is Wealth” and many of us the Urdu/Hindi saying “Jaan hai to jahan hai (if you have the life, you have the world).” These sayings have never been truer than now. Good health is necessary not just to live life fully, but also an essential safeguard in these times of pandemic. Health is not just your physical health but also your mental and emotional health. The latter topics have been largely ignored but have come into sharp focus during COVID. Work from home and extended periods of relative isolation have led to a silent but pervasive mental health crisis. This needs as much focus as physical health for all of us. Personally, last two years of COVID was a great opportunity for me to work on my physical health. Cutting down on travel created the space to build a regular sports and fitness schedule. A good example how the pandemic also created some positive opportunities for us!
- Relationships. One of the important concepts I learnt in my meditation practice is how visualizing your death can put what is important in your life in sharp focus. This might sound somewhat macabre but is a profound and effective concept. Many if not most of us have had personal losses during COVID and they brought out the realization that life is temporary and unpredictable. And, with that a reinforcement of the value of true relationships. There is nothing more powerful and energizing than the love and understanding that happens in deep relationships. They are not just a means but an end in itself – not just enablers to achieve goals but an important purpose of life itself! However, in the frenzy and constant noise of this Digital Age, there is a risk of relationships becoming superficial and distant. Relationships are our greatest asset in life but also require investment of another asset, which is our time and attention, and then most importantly a genuine sense of care and giving.
- 100% in the Present Moment. Human mind tends to keep flitting between the past and the future – regrets of the past and worries about the future – and that is a key cause of human misery. This inability to be in the present moment is accentuated in the Digital Age given the overwhelming barrage of noise and activity. Mobile and Social Media are the great tools of the Digital Age, but they have also made us a slave continually taking us away from the present moment. Very high awareness is key to many of the points I have mentioned above – acceptance, mastering duality, adaptability, relationships. How can awareness happen if we are not even in the present moment? Here are four methods that I am resolving to use to be more in the present moment:
- Meditation. I have been fortunate to be introduced to Meditation at a young age and found it to be invaluable for centering self. It calms the fluctuations of the mind and brings amazing clarity. I feel meditation is an essential life skill that should be taught in all schools and colleges!
- Slowing Down. One of the characteristics of the Hyper VUCA world is Speed. However, speed can also disbalance you and lead to being in a frenetic state. In a world where ‘Speed is King’, there is lot of value to slowing down. This is a good example of a duality to be mastered that I mentioned in Point 2.
- Effective Multitasking. It is inevitable that most of us end up juggling balls in the Hyper VUCA world. However, there is a big drop in effectiveness when we try doing too many things at the same time and are not able to focus on any one of them. Key is to focus on the task at hand in any moment. If you are in each moment with singular focus, you will eventually manage to accomplish multiple tasks more effectively.
- Reduce ‘Gadget’ usage. Mobile is a powerful asset but also a terrible addiction. It has the power to ensnare and distract from the present moment even the strongest willed. One of the great skills to build in the Digital Age is the discipline to use the mobile and other gadgets sparingly yet effectively!
- Depth over Breadth. This Digital Age abounds in opportunities and temptations. There is so much to do, to learn, to accomplish, to gain. This abundance is exciting but can also lead you to spreading yourself too thin and eventually drain you out of energy. Our sense of wellbeing and effectiveness is to large extent driven by our energy balance. I have found it helpful to focus energy on a few pursuits and then go deep on them (though I started out as more of a breadth person!). This requires not just ruthless prioritization and clarity of thinking (to focus on what is most important), but also realization that you can’t win it all in the Digital Age. If you chase every opportunity that you see (and there are so many of them), you will only waste your energy and not achieve much. Focus and depth give higher chance of success and allow you to manage your energy more effectively. This point on Depth over Breadth has a duality with the earlier point on Adaptability. Latter is about external awareness and change; this is more about internal locus of control (knowing yourself) and staying the course.
- Sustainability. One of the gravest challenge the world faces today is sustainability. Over production and Over consumption in all aspects is hurtling the world towards an unimaginable disaster. The sustainability disaster is playing out in so many ways – climate change, pollution, many species getting extinct, oceans dying etc etc. The root of the sustainability challenge that we see at the macro level eventually lies in our individual attitudes and behaviors. Mahatma Gandhi said it beautifully almost a century back “the world has enough for everyone’s needs, but not everyone’s greed.” Even more so in the Digital Age, it is so easy to be on an incessant treadmill of desires that will eventually drive us weary and crazy. It is critical that we reflect and try to moderate our greed and resulting overconsumption. That is necessary not just for sustainability at the macro level but also our individual sustainability and happiness.
- Daily Habits. Right intentions are important, but they will not mean anything unless we put them into actions. And the most effective method for action is daily habits. Over a period of time I have realized that consistency is more effective and sustainable than intensity. If you peel below the stories of highly successful people, you will find that their success is built on a foundation of positive daily habits. Rituals and practices that keep us anchored and on the path of continuous improvements. Moreover, numerous studies have shown that a consistent lifestyle is one of the important contributors to longevity! In my case, I have been blessed to have developed many good daily habits at a young age – meditation, playing sports, reading. Challenge is also to sustain the good habits and for them to not be crowded out by other priorities and distractions!
I hope the above 10 mantras spark some positive reflections for you and help you in some way to lead a more fulfilling life in 2022 and beyond. All the best!!
