Living the Life that You Love - the 1% Club

99% of the world lives in Default Mode: Wake-up, Eat, Work, Sleep, … and repeat. Invariably

we come to a point in our lives where we face the question: Is this all? Whether we are a senior or junior executive in an organization, an entrepreneur, or a home maker, raising a family or a retired person, we cannot escape this question. We may find different activities that engage our mind, from watching TV, Movies, Sports, Politics, to plunging right back into work, and yet, the niggling feeling that this cannot be all surfaces, sooner or later. And when we are ready to face the question, we are ready to truly Wake-Up … for the first time in our lives! Welcome to the 1% Club.

If you are in the 1% Club, then you would be doing some or all of these:

1. Live Intentionally - the 1% live Intentionally. Not instinctively. How often have you come across individuals who are living a life much larger than themselves. Be that in an organizational context, or a community context, the role they are playing is anchored in a higher sense of purpose. For example, leaders like Dr Devi Shetty of Narayana Hrudayalaya foundation have built institutions that care for the people they employe and serve. Dr Devi Shetty has a saying on his wall that says "Hands that Serve are Holier than Lips that Pray". He made it a mission to provide cardiac care to people at an affordable price, to the extent that with the help of the Narayana Hrudayalaya Foundation that accepts donations from people who can afford to contribute, they are able to ensure that no cardiac care patient is turned away from the hospital for want of funds.

2. Keep the Remote of Your life in Your Hands - the 1% keep the remote control of their life in their hands. Life throws curved balls at us the moment we are ready with a plan. The joke about New-Year resolutions is that come 21 Jan …and 80% of the New Year resolutions are broken and give it a few more weeks and we might be down to the same 1%. So these 1% are the expert surfers on the rough waves of life - it's not that life is extra gentle or partial to them, (on the contrary!) - but they manage to stay the course despite the challenges that life throws at them. Once a devotee informed Ramana Maharshi about a critic who is insulting Ramana in a letter, he started to correct the spelling mistakes in his letter. The devotee was shocked and asked the Maharshi, Sir, he is insulting you, aren't you going to respond? And Ramana said, "oh he is only criticizing some fellow called Ramana"

3. Look for Intrinsic Happiness - The 1% have discovered that true happiness lies within. They have also come to realize that results despite sincere effort are unpredictable, but putting in the sincere effort is absolutely in your hands. So whenever they are faced with a failure, they ask the question, Did I make a sincere and honest effort, and they know the answer … that's the source of their intrinsic happiness, everything else is incidental. Vinayak Lohani was a young graduate from IIM Calcutta. Alongside his MBA, he used to teach a few underprivileged children who were preparing for IIT entrance tests. As the time came to choose his job, he decided to give up the opportunity of a lucrative corporate career, and instead set up a small NGO called Parivaar, where he started taking care of and educating poor and orphaned children. 10 years and 1500 children later, Vinayak was asked what if the NGO had not succeeded, his answer is insightful: There are Extrinsic measures of success for an NGO like the funds generated, and the children being served, etc. But there is an Intrinsic measure of success for me - I knew I was doing the right thing. So, whether I got the funding support to grow Parivaar or not, I always knew I was doing the right thing!

4. The More you Give the More You Get - the 1% live for Others. The 1% have realized the secret of nature, the more you give, the more you get. Swami Vivekananda said, "Give, Give and Give… and never look back. Because the moment you look back even an Ocean of giving changes into a Drop." Look at examples all around us such as Azim Premji, who have contributed billions of dollars of their wealth to giving back to the society, tirelessly working and contributing to others. Not because of just a sense of Charity or Philanthropy - they have uncovered Giving as the true source of Joy.

5. At the end of the Game, the King and the Pawn go back into the Same Box - the 1% are always humble. You do not see them shouting from the top of the stage about who they are

and what they have done. They recognize the ephemerality of this life and they stay grounded to the source of "all of this". They relate to the oneness across all creation and focus on winning over even the staunchest of their critics, by staying humble and just doing what they do best. Once Azim Premji's arrived at the airport returning from a business trip. When no car showed up to pick him up, he simply got into a taxi and went to office, and did not say a word of complaint. The officer in-charge realized his mistake when the driver came back without Azim and went and apologized for his error. He was sure that he would never make the mistake again, but more importantly he was inspired by Azim Premji's humility

In summary, Living the life that you Love, is more about turning the focus inward, than about making changes on the outside. As you will notice the common theme across the 5 behaviors of the 1% Club are all about their internal perspective on how they lead their lives, and not really about changing their circumstances.