To thrive, avoid strive

In her book, Thrive: The Third Metric to Redefining Success and Creating a Life of Well Being, Wisdom and Wonder , Arianna Huffington seeks to redefine success beyond the usual metrics of power and money. Arianna had her defining moment when she woke up in a pool of blood at the office.

If you have had a moment that shook you to your core – a near accident while you were driving and on the phone, almost dropping your months old child because you were too distracted multitasking – or even something as simple as realising that you have to ask the person sitting right across you to repeat everything they said in the last two minutes because you had zoned out, then you are familiar with the concept of not being present.  The average individual is over connected to their smart phone. We are constantly switched on, checking our emails, responding to messages, getting distracted by news alerts, the list goes on. And when we are this connected to technology, then we are less in touch and present with the here and now.

Striving

Being in the rat race, continuously struggling to get this and that project out of the way, the desire to get to the next place of our lives – all these have become the norm in how we live our lives. There is nothing wrong with ambition, but there is something wrong with the constant urge to be a step ahead of the place we are now. When we are not present in the now, we enjoy progress less, we are chronically dissatisfied and we are more likely to burn out. Thriving becomes, not foregoing money and power but tuning into our health and happiness to be in sync with attracting more wealth and power.

Looking inward

Wellness, the third metric advocated for in Thrive, asks us to look inward for more holistic solutions. Multitasking, which has been getting a lot of flak lately for being less, as opposed to more efficient, is touted as an exhausting way of life. Because when we concentrate on three different tasks at the same time requires an increased shift in brain power, we get more chronically exhausted, faster. Cultivating relationships, friendships and networks, offline, away from social media and more in person contribute to the endeavor to be, and stay present.

Tips

• Multitasking is touted as an exhausting way of life.

• Unitasking allows us to be 100 per cent effective while opening us up less to exhaustion.

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