Written by: Ketan Kulkarni
A lot of people, especially high achievers, work hard and smart to get ahead, keep up, progress in their lives, and reach their goals. Furthermore, in our often achievement driven capitalistic and materialistic world, a lot of people are inundated with a multitude of seemingly endless tasks at their workplace and beyond. These tasks often present in parallel or in series of one another forcing a person to invest significant cognitive bandwidth. Welcome to the world of multitasking! The day just doesn’t seem enough no matter how hard or smart one works! There is always more to do and more on the backburner. Ultimately everyone wants to reach their destination and be successful! However, this culture of endless multitasking poses some enormous and serious challenges!
Let’s first consider a few real-life examples that we I have encountered.
AJ is a 41-year-old corporate executive working in a moderate size city in Canada. She is working at least 50-60 hours per week and 10-12 weekends a year for last 6+ years. She is making 350K per year in income sometimes with additional bonuses. She has a family with 2 kids. She has 200K in student loans from her ivy league MBA. She is so busy with work that there is little time for family, her hobbies, and her friends. Her guitar collection is collecting dust. She often doesn’t show up for social events. Off note, she purchased a 1.5million $ house last year and a 120K car. She appears very successful to others. At her heart, however, she is tired of the rat race and such hard and long hours. She is feeling stressed and burnt out since she is unsure where this is all going and whether she can sustain it much longer. Her boss however says that her journey has just begun and she needs to put in a few more years of hard work!!
BN is another 58-year-old surgical sub-specialist. He is a well-known surgeon and has worked for his patients with dedication and compassion for decades. He now works 26 hours per week and 8 weekends a year for the last 3 years due to health issues. With his current income and some investments, he still makes 300K per year. He is divorced once. He is now in a new relationship. His kids are grown up and rarely see him. He does have a net worth of $2.5M. He does love his weekend parties at the club. Generally speaking, life is good for him. But he really misses good old times and feels something is missing. He can’t put his finger on what it is but he can’t find his purpose and joy. He isn’t sure what he should do? Work harder? Try something new? Quit?
Thirdly, AB is a 25-year-old account graduate looking at doing an MBA. They are working 40-50 hours per week and are extremely dedicated. They have always been a sstraight A+ and honors student. They had many hobbies including writing and sketching but now are barely trying to stay afloat. Also, the awareness of long work hours and years ahead is becoming a reality and worry if they can live in the city of her choice. Also, they are accruing student loans rapidly and are not well-versed in investing or business. They are already wondering what to do, where to go, where to start and if this is a good set up for success. As a consequence, stress and anxiety are at all time high and they are desperately seeking a solution. Is it gloomy for them? Is there no solution?
Rapid technological and scientific advances have really enhanced our lives in the 21st century and provided many comforts and opportunities previously thought to be impossible. However, there is rampant evidence of job dissatisfaction, burnout, unhappiness and a constant state of background discontent and distress across the globe. There is constant pressure to achieve more. Life is extremely fast-paced, especially in cities, with unclear and changing standards for “success”. Most of us are led to believe that if we achieve xyz……, then we can feel successful. Traditional career paths are becoming rapidly obsolete. I know hundreds of physicians now choosing alternative career paths fairly early in their career. Moreover, I have noticed, several entrepreneurs, authors, musicians, influencers, choosing medicine as a second or even third career. However, many people still have lack of clarity and feel like they are going nowhere despite hard and smart work.
Can we multitask?
Moreover, life isn’t just about work. There are many areas of life such as personal life and lifestyle, family and friends, hobbies, growth, spiritual, health, contribution and meaning. A balance in all these areas is quintessential. In our quest to do it all we often resort of multitasking in series or in parallel for endless hours!! It will get better some day! It will all over some day looming on the horizon! But the day never arrives, and the goalpost keeps moving.
The fundamental question is “can we really multitask?” The truth is that multitasking is a MYTH, many studies have confirmed this. We can truly invest our attention in one task at any given time. In reality, attempts to multitask, lead to less productivity, high level of cognitive load, fatigue. Sustained over long period of time, it can significantly contribute to anxiety, stress, lack of focus, reduced productivity and even burnout and exhaustion.
There is a plethora of literature on time or task management, on optimizing performance, on getting more done, on being more productive on squeezing every second of our day. Yet this leaves a of people scarred and burnt out.
Is there a solution?
In our work and extensive experience, as discussed in our book ‘The Legendary Quest’, we propose an alternative way, of focusing on our real, and only currency, our attention! Our conscious attention. Awareness of where we invest our attention is the key.
The challenge is that a lot of people do not have their authentic priorities and goals identified and in alignment! I have heard and noticed so many times people focusing on personal lives at work and vice a versa. 24/7 connectivity is seriously eroding our personal time. Studies are rampant that reconnecting with ourselves, our community, family, and nature is key. Relationships are the greatest predictor of happiness. But first we need to resolve our deep conflict in priorities. It’s usually not the amount of time spent doing a particular task that matters, it’s the quality of time. So, a 10 min walk in nature could be of paramount importance for someone who loves those.
A comprehensive framework of success is urgently needed for each and every one of us!
In the Legendary Quest, we have described what we often get wrong by pursuing a preconceived inauthentic notion of success and fulfillment. We have explained the “limited self” model that explains why most people experience some form of distress the majority of the time.
In contrast, in “the awareness model”, we discuss the value and importance of self-awareness, as central to our very existence. Aligning oneself with inner excellence around our unique core values, personality, preferences, mission, vision, and goals will inevitably lead to outer excellence in the form of success and fulfillment. Our tasks and effort will need to align with these as well.
The Blueprints
Thus, applying the principles discussed in the Legendary Quest we have developed a method to map one’s success, leadership, and finance blueprints.
Success Blueprint
Life is a buffet with a myriad of choices, and everyone tries to put on their plate what they want. And often, as a professional with high-credentials and training from or living in a more stable and economically developed or developing nation your buffet has more options and choices. Now imagine what it would be like if you were hungry and thirsty at a grand buffet! Now others were telling you what to get and putting things on your plate including those items that you detest! That plate and the items on that plate might be great and awesome for someone else but not for you!
Crafting your authentic success comes down to precisely knowing your why. We all want those why’s satisfied and expressed differently. That is, the way to identify your authentic success is to delineate and know your how’s - how you want your why’s satisfied and how do you order the priority of your needs?
Successful people demonstrate extreme variability in setting goals in each aspect of their lives according to their personal values and desires. But in the end, they have a proportionate mix that is palatable to them. Your success is your choice, movement, fluidity, speed, experience, pattern, and a structure that brings your pieces to the whole!
Finance blueprint
Like authentic success, no 2 people have exactly identical lifestyle choices, earning and spending habits, and thoughts and emotions about money. The finance blueprint comes down to understanding what money means to you and your relationship with money. Most financial decisions are primarily driven by our emotions (and emotional needs) and then rationalized by us. It is essential to understand that money is a means goal rather than an end goal in itself. The purpose of financial blueprint is to truly map your desired life and lifestyle and then understand the need to supply the money for that lifestyle. Your financial blueprint unravels your money mindset and money philosophy! It may very well demonstrate a mindset and philosophy around money that you need to develop!
Leadership blueprint
Akin to success and finance blueprint, we value understanding one’s leadership blueprint, especially in the context of personal growth. In a recent leadership panel in Brainz magazine, we discussed the concepts of leadership. Leadership is the ability, simply speaking, to lead others and oneself.
Let's say you are planning to build your dream cottage! However, you do need the right tools and skill set for the right job. You need the ability to manage, coordinate and supervise the tasks. You need to stick it out. You need to keep your eye on the end goal. You need to revise your plans when there are setbacks. You may need to acquire new skills and learn, sometimes rapidly. You need to be willing to share your vision, direct, give and take feedback. You need to build your team and ensure performance.
This is exactly what we mean by your leadership blueprint! The goal is to develop a personal leadership philosophy that’s applicable to all aspects of life.
Summary
Success and fulfillment is within everyone’s reach. However, it is up to us to put in the required effort. Our mission is to assist all professionals globally to study and develop their success framework. All 3 individuals in the examples above underwent the blueprint exercises to understand their own blueprints that helped them catapult towards their desired life. Most certainly, blueprints need to be revisited periodically, be applied consistently! This often takes a tribe, your own tribe! One needs to keep chipping away at all pillars of success consistently to create and carve your own masterpiece. Importantly, we also need to enjoy the journey, not just the destination. It is important to emphasize that we really need to remember our blueprint framework during difficult times, that’s when we need it the most.
So let's not get “marred in multitasking” and succumb to it. We can do much better! While we all need to do a multitude of tasks in our day-to-day lives, clarity of blueprint allows one to live by design and aspire for one’s best vision and version, optimize performance, increase the joy of living, optimize contribution and meaning and enhance workplace and personal satisfaction. We believe that knowing your blueprints can add infinite value to your life.
For more information you can visit www.thelegendaryquest.pro. You can subscribe to receive a free life satisfaction questionnaire.
About the author Ketan Kulkarni:
The Legendary Quest:
https://www.amazon.com/Legendary-Quest-Professionals-Excellence-Fulfillment/dp/B09TWPHFFR/ref=sr_1_1?crid=25K7XCWQWPD6I&keywords=the+legendary+quest&qid=1669732777&sprefix=legendary+quest%2Caps%2C117&sr=8-1
