Being unrealistic is the new
reality and there is a paradigm shift in the way basic lessons of life were learnt.
If you even think something routine, rational, logical and achievable it means
you are obsolete and can never meet anyone’s expectations because you are not
being unrealistic. It simply means that you are not challenging the status quo
which should be part of your dreams and you should be already dreaming to make
it a reality (how and when is not
relevant here). This emerging concept is applicable for every walk of life
and not confined to few situations/relationships.
If I take example of any
workplace, every individual is expected to be a superman with barrage of super
natural distinctive powers. It’s so unfortunate when a subordinate and a
supervisor meets and the focus is completely on how distinctively the later has
done anything in comparison to the peer group. Ideally the subordinate who has
done an excellent job should be strutting with tons of confidence. However, he
is actually forced to keep his chin down even after long list of achievements just
because people have already done it in the past or doing it in the present. How
justified is this logic that each and everything an individual does has to be unique
and meatier than the entire group or else the eligibility of excellence is
completely exhausted with blink of an eye? An individual who is not even aware
of what majority of the individuals are doing is expected to surpass them, that’s quite sensible. It’s like expecting
an individual to research how anything was done in past 500 years by anyone in
this world and accordingly plan their work to do it magically different.
I fail to understand that why we
all have the pressure of doing every damn thing innovatively as if we are NASA
scientists. Why simplicity is losing its charm and so called innovation (which is mostly repackaging the old stuff
endearingly and making it look different/attractive) has to be infused
forcibly even if it doesn’t make sense. My generation has grown seeing/listening/doing
things which our predecessors, to the nth generation, have done consistently
without even pondering or questioning it and that always was a matter of pride.
But today, it can even affect your survival if you don’t twist the bread and
call it a wrap than roti-sabji. Just
imagine a millennial saying “It’s been 10 years and I am going for a morning
walk”. Logically there is nothing weird about this but being unrealistically
realistic, it sounds odd and bizarre. You expect to hear some fancy form of
exercise which helps in burning calories faster than any other form you have
ever heard of.
Not sure how attached we are to
the realities of life than we ought to portray being attached to the realities
of the tons of unrealistic things hovering around us. This pressure/situation
is like a pinhole in a balloon which might not be seen or even felt but
gradually this pinhole will shrink the balloon to zero. A rooftop can’t be
swanky if the entire structure is in a mudland. Innovation or something extra
can be cherished only when we first learn to embrace and value the things which
are already existing. How owning a Ferrari is relevant if you grapple to have
basic necessities of life?
Being different or thinking
different is surely an art but the science of basics can never be undermined.
Anything done which entails hard work, commitment and giving your 100% might
not sound wow or innovative but it doesn’t mean that it was less than 100%. In
this era of innovation, synergy can be achieved only when routine things are
synced appropriately with non-routine ones. So coming back to the drawing
board, the first ask is to be realistic, work hard on basics and finally strive
for excellence (not necessarily being
different) and things should fall in place as long as the change or being
different is encouraged (not as a
pre-requisite but as a backbone which will eventually strengthen the basics).
Disclaimer: Nothing written in this blog has reflection of
any individual known to me/place of my work/my journey. It’s purely based on
experiences we come across quite often and share with each other.
