Corporate culture is dominated by competitive spirit; everyone is pushed to perform more and better than the other. There is so much stress both in top management and among employees. Some carry stress home. How does one strike a balance?

Question : Corporate culture is dominated by competitive spirit; everyone is pushed to perform more and better than the other. There is so much stress both in top management and among employees. Some carry stress home. How does one strike a balance?

Guruji : Work-life balance is something different. We are talking about competition. Competition is a fact, but don’t whip yourself for its sake. If you do, you will lose your sense of completion. But when the competitive spirit is inspired by completion, it becomes creative. ‘I was inspired by the way you speak, so you have become prerna, inspiration, to me’. But if I think that you speak and write so well, whereas I can’t do as well as you do, then I become a victim and get stressed out. Curiously, we always choose to become victims. If somebody is better looking then we will become victims, but why can’t we rejoice in the beauty? So completion is not the problem; competition should exist to keep creativity alive. However, don’t be a victim; be creative — then the stress level will definitely come down.

Work-life balance happens the moment you simplify your life. You want to prove something in your office to impress your boss and others. Therefore, you do so much that you don’t look at the other portion of your life — you just take your family for granted. Give your best shot to your office as well as your home, without any ego and without feeling compelled to impress somebody.

Om Namah Shivay