Part 10: Today I am going to talk about our surroundings - physical layer :) We have come across the term many times from our managers (specially in IT) - they say you are too transactional or your thoughts are transactional. What they mean is they have a bigger picture and we only look into nitti-gritties. Dont know how true it is in this domain but it indicates we all feel nitti-gritties or transactional items are matter for inexperienced/junior guys and bigger picture is what we should aim for to grow/progress. Lets see how we are transactional in our life. No I am not going to bore you with what we all know. We will look at some of the examples where we feel proud but may be they are also transactional. Ex -1: We plan for a holiday to come closer to family, to come closer to nature, to see new places/things, to have fun etc. Is it transactional? Ok we want to have fun, to refresh ourselves and what is wrong? Who is saying wrong? The only thing is we are not able to keep the fun/happiness when we are coming back. Thus the fun/happiness/closeness/refreshment everything is short term transaction and once over the effect is gone. Transactions are important like nitti-gritties in projects etc. However what we are missing here is not looking at the bigger picture. What is it? We should be equally having fun/happiness when we are not on holiday and we should be able to make our life always feel like a holiday even when we are tremendously busy with multiple transactional items such as office work, household work, responsibilities for others and what not. Ex - 2: We teach our kids how to succeed in life. How to face situations and how to save ourselves etc. Can this be wrong? Again we are not discussing about right or wrong but trying to identify what is transaction and what is the bigger picture. The success should not be considered from materialistic angle only but we tend to forget the longer term success such as how to make friends, how to be kind to people, how to think good. The materialistic success is short term and thus transactional. The bigger picture can be values. Our kids can succeed if they have good values rather than having CGPA 10. Also save ourselves from a situation is short term and thus transactional. The bigger picture can be how to change any adverse situation for not only themselves but for others. Anyone says we teach them must be from Satya yug or dinosaur age. Unfortunately it is true that most of the things that we do in our life is transactional and we never try to look at the bigger picture. What makes everything to be transactional? It is the need - be it materialistic needs (like Money, Pleasure, status etc) or emotional needs (like satisfying ego, winning love/respect, safety etc). The need is short term because at least I cant think of a need that span for longer duration. Lets not confuse that we need money for our entire life span as example of longer duration need. It is combination of short term needs. The physical layer is all about these need based transactional items. There is nothing wrong about physical layer and we dont or cant avoid being transactional and thus I am not at all suggesting to leave physical layer is what we should look for. The idea is while we are carrying out the transactions also see the bigger picture and make the transactions oriented such that the bigger picture becomes bright and prospective. Also to look at the bigger picture it is said to free up bandwidth from hands on work. Similarly in our physical layer, to see the bigger picture we need to master the transactional items and thus can free up our bandwidth. Summary of the discussion: We belong to an environment where we cant avoid need based transactional part of our life - physical layer as per my hypothesis. However there is a bigger picture and to see it we need to master the physical layer and free up our bandwidth.
Posted on: Fri, 15 Aug 2014 21:32:01 +0000