A back-up plan for happiness

Such freedom I think is quite hard to have and if we try very hard it comes at a very high price. Think again… do we have adequate freedom in our place of work with reference to mind,expression and thought? What about our home and society?

When was the last time you did exactly what you wanted to do or exercised your right of existence and gave yourself your freedom? Of all the things that you do during the day,week and month. Think how many of those things are the ones you must do out of duty and responsibility and how many do you do out of pure passion and based on freedom? Not to mention that even work,duty and responsibility can also be out of passion and give you a lot of happiness if you really like what you do… else life continues like drudgery and years pass by. When will you live?

From abstract to factual,in my view there are only three things that can give you such freedom and it is in the sequence that I specify below: Bravery and back-up.

Brave,if you are

You will then define your own course,and then you care naught for promotions,pleasing people unnecessarily,playing office politics,subscribing to archaic,irrelevant,dogmatic and downtrodden societal rules of living.

You know you need to have complete knowledge of the product or service you offer and that you are superior in your work and quality.

You know that you need to create a back-up such that no matter what,in the face of any crises or calamity or in any danger you can stand unshaken and tall. You are financially secure. You can take any possible risk that you wish. You can express your say in any matter because if you know you are right and you have the knowledge to support your say then you are under no pressure to comply.

You could even consider becoming independent so that you pursue the work that you wish to or you work as long as you wish to. There is a price,however,to pay to muster this courage. If you did muster this courage as immediate fallout you may not belong to the popular circuit,you may face a lot of criticism,you may have few friends around you but then the grand prize is that you have your life and freedom and it is controlled by no one.

Always remember bravery and courage is shallow and foolhardy to demonstrate if you lack the knowledge of what you say and do. Hence your target in life is not merely to achieve that sales target for the month but to achieve your personal back-up wealth target.

Its easy to talk about being brave and watch it in movies,it take nerves of steel to exercise this in real life. But its very much possible; if the mind takes a firm decision then there is no looking back.

Back-up,if you have

Well this back-up wealth target need not be Rs 10-20 crore. This basically depends on your lifestyle. As an example say if you are 35 years old and need about Rs 30,000 a month to live comfortably,the figure that you need to have today is Rs 48 lakh. I have assumed 5 per cent inflation in lifestyle expenses and assumed that you will live till 85 years of age. I have also assumed that you have your own house to live in. Thereafter achieving this back-up is not like chasing a shadow if you think.

If a lot of people around the age of 45 start thinking in this manner many would learn that they already have a back-up in place and that they can actually afford to take things a bit easier. If this back-up comes into place it tends to catalyse your courage and brave you become step by step.

Call it what you like an escape parachute or wealth target or back-up corpus or freedom threshold or just plain and simple liquid assets… the figure is Rs 48 lakh. By the way continuing the same example this is also the figure you would need if you wished to retire today.

Summing it up

Bravery and back-up the elements that make up your freedom,call for a lot of hard work and sacrifice but ultimately lead you to happiness,peace and control if that is what you truly wish.

Author is Director Transcend Consulting

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