Keep Working…

EPA photo

By

Siddhartha Rastogi

…or else you will Die!

• How many times, have you witnessed, that a person who was living healthy, was the centre of attraction for society, for the family, or for friends, die within 6 -8 months of retirement?

• How many times have you seen when children leave their aged parents, within one year, one of the parents passes away and subsequently the other one is also gone?

• How many times have you seen an aged person who has been pursuing a sport for years, gets diagnosed with cancer or with any other deadly disease, as soon as he stops playing that sport due to injury or any other reason?

• How many times, have we seen a man going into oblivion from social life, who leaves this planet within months of him moving out of social life?

Human beings have mentally been programmed to live in small groups since the Paleolithic period. As man grew old, he depended on his younger fellow members of the genus to fend for the elders and for younger children. The elders of the family were supposed to take care and rear the children or the next generation, when the younger lot is out for hunting and mating. Each one in the group had a defined role to play and to discharge unsaid duty and responsibility.

With the dynamic shift in the world, people are changing rapidly and their zeal to achieve more materialistic things, which they believe can lead to happiness, is actually becoming the root cause of misery & sadness.

As soon as the person stops working, retires, moves out of his / her public life or stops playing sport, his or her subconscious mind, which has been used to routine activity and a set program, starts believing that now his part, in this world is over and he or she is no longer wanted for anything by anybody.

This slow feeling of anxiety, lack of importance, poor self esteem gives rise to powerlessness and in turn leads to slow death.

Studies have shown that early retirement is one of the major factors of early death. On the contrary, men and women who engage themselves in social work or who pursue creative or professional fields like law, practice medicine, accountancy, music, singing, etc, where there is no retirement age and work comes due to high experience, sees the survival age higher than 75 years.

Working hard during young age and relaxing post retirement is another misconception which sits in peoples’ minds. As human beings, we have almost similar levels of energy and stamina for almost 50 years of our lives. The question is how one has used it during the early period versus the later part of one’s life.

Ideally everyone should allocate proportionate time to all 8 activities every day:

1. Sleep time (Rest and Sleep)

2. Free time (Time spent on leisure activity like watching TV, etc)

3. Deep time (Engaged in deep mental activity or thinking)

4. Emotional time (Time spent with near and dear ones strengthening the bonds and ties)

5. Own time (Being with self)

6. Health Time (Spent on keeping body & mind fit)

7. Work time (Finishing the tasks of the day)

8. Fun time (Time spent in enjoying with friends and family)

Most of us spend time only on work initially, hoping to compensate rest later. By then the mind eliminates the need and requirement of rest. Finally when work is also gone, the life becomes meaningless and thus the call of Death comes nearer.

Siddhartha Rastogi

Siddhartha was born to a learned middle class educated family in Semi Urban India. His father was an extremely honest man who because of his honesty had to pay the price in corporate world. Mother is a determined woman who ensured that children are being well taken care off. After a few years of birth, doctors called Siddhartha, a slow child having flat foot. He would fall more than he could walk. Determined mother ensured all therapies for her son to come out strong to fight the world. Siddhartha joined swimming when he was in 6th standard. Seeing other children of his class, he jumped in 10 feet deep pool and learnt swimming on his own, the very same day.

From that day there was no looking back. He topped his city in 12th and went to score highest in his B school exams. During his profession as banker, he became youngest branch manager of a MNC bank managing their biggest wealth branch in the country. There he found love of his life and got married. His love of his life emerged in the form of his daughter who completely changed him for good.

Siddhartha Rastogi is Director for a boutique Investment bank in India.

Siddhartha is a forward looking thinker & writer who has written a book on decision making. 8 Simple steps to effective decision making.

He writes on various social and current issues via his blog and can also be found on twitter.