“WHAT WOULD YOU DO IF YOU WEREN’T AFRAID” is an oft-repeated question these days and this query is directed towards our youth in the context of career guidance. A global shoemaker even has a tag line- “JUST DO IT ! ” There are indeed a hundred things that anyone can aspire to be doing and all of these hinge on two critical factors – the ability to move out of one’s comfort zone and one’s preparedness to face the consequences of the proposed choices.
IN THE CONTEXT OF THE WORKPLACE, my take on the subject is quite the reverse. I have genuine fears about several things and paradoxically the presence of these fears during my waking hours have enhanced somewhat progressively the quality of my sleep.
ON TOP OF MY LIST OF DAILY FEARS is whether I will be emotionally intelligent today. Since reacting impulsively has been part of my DNA so to speak, my fear is whether I will allow anything or anybody to unsettle me. I wrestle constantly with the challenge of keeping at bay my emotional involvement with an issue which ought to be dealt with clinically. Human, as we all are, it is a big challenge to keep our personal feelings or predilections divorced from an issue that we have to deal with. Sometimes, one happily discovers that there was no basis at all for harboring an emotion towards an issue or a person when one dispassionately weighs the pros and cons on hand or listens attentively to what is generally termed as “both sides of the story”.
THE FEAR OF DOING WHAT MAY BE WRONG paradoxically fuels one’s ability to assert what is essentially right. In work situations when confronted with client-boss-subordinate-peer pressures, doing what is good for the entity that employs you slowly dissolves the dilemmas that confront you although in the process one may have disappointed more persons that one. This is not easy but at the end of the day one will not carry emotional baggage and will be able to sleep well at night.
FEARS ARE SAID TO CRAMP one’s style and the paralysis-by-analysis syndrome is said to be responsible for the inefficiency of organisations. On the other hand, one is of the view that we could act with a greater degree of certainty when we are mindful of the fears that haunt us – I would term them as necessary anxieties for our own well-being.
pradeepgopalan.com 