How much anxiety should we take up while being ambitious in our professional life?
Answer Podcast
Transcript
This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
The question was that when we are in a particular profession, we have particular ambition, in that process there is anxiety.
So, how much anxiety should we take up or should we accept that anxiety always? So, basically, anxiety is just a fact of our existential condition. We all have to do certain things in our life. And doing those things is not always in our control.
Say, if I have to catch a flight, I am not sure whether I will reach in time for the flight or not. That is anxiety. We know it is anxiety.
But, anxiety can be minimized or anxiety can be maximized. Say, if I know that it takes one hour to reach the airport and I start with 30 minutes of time, then that is just… I could have started one hour earlier, I could have avoided the anxiety. So, there is avoidable anxiety and there is unavoidable anxiety.
So, unavoidable anxiety, if we try to avoid that, we will not be able to do anything. Anxiety is going to come in our life. But, there are many places where anxiety is avoidable.
So, avoidable anxiety is when we take the necessary precautions. Then, we can avoid that. But, when it comes to our initiative, so, if we are in a particular profession, we want to expand, we want to grow, and that causes anxiety.
So, again, here, the issue is that growth itself is a natural human condition. Our body grows naturally from childhood to adulthood. But, the growth, it needs to be proportionate, not disproportionate.
So, if in my job, if I have a business, I have to expand the business. And, expanding that business, it causes me so much anxiety that even when I come home, you know, I am irritable with my family members. I shout at them, I neglect them, and I can’t be even civil with them.
I am just too much stressed. And then, so I have no time for family, I have no time for spiritual growth, I have no time for anything else. Then, that ambition, that ambitiousness, is not healthy growth.
It is unhealthy growth. It is like, say, you know, when a cancer cell grows in the body. The cancer cell’s growth, it actually, it stops all other growth and destroys the body.
So, when our ambition causes ambition to grow in one area of life, causes dysfunctionality in other areas of life, then, whether it is our family life, whether it is our spiritual growth, it just causes a breakdown in other areas. Then, that anxiety is something which we should avoid. Now, there are, in our life, in any field, there are phases.
So, phases means that sometimes, just one aspect of our life may take more time than others. So, if we consider some health crisis in somebody’s family, if there is a pregnancy in the family, then, actually, those activities will take more time. Sometimes, when we have major project deadline at office, then, that will take more time.
Sometimes, we go on a spiritual pilgrimage, then, we are focusing all our time on spiritual. So, in phases, sometimes, one aspect of our life may take more time than others. And that is natural.
But, when one aspect of our life is just consuming so much of our time, our thought, that it disrupts all other aspects of our life, not just for a short phase, but over a sustained period, then, that kind of anxiety is unbearable. So, it is best to… Yes, let me grow… What is it saying in English? It is better to shine longer than to shine brighter. It is better to shine longer.
I mean, I just grew like a meteor right now, but then the meteor falls back out. It just disappears. So, if you grow slowly, you can shine longer.
So, it is better to seek proportionate growth and avoid disproportionality. Is it understood? Yes, it is from… Yes, he said that…