On a personal front, I strongly believe that it is important to consciously pursue a work-life balance. I believe that once you recognize that different facets of your life require prioritization, work-life balance naturally emerges.
However, it is not like I had this outlook towards maintaining work-life balance right from the beginning. About 15 years ago, I was chugging along in the typically associated with the IT industry. Obviously, with work pressures the stress started to arise from project deadline pressures, meeting senior management's requirements and expectations, hectic travel schedules and long hours or meetings.
When you go through this kind of phase continually, your health and way of living are impacted the most. Soon, I realized that I had developed high blood pressure. The health problem coupled with long working hours did not help my family either.
This is when I had decided to take back control and enrolled into a gym. I soon discovered that this was a way to de-stress and maintain work-life balance. In just about three months, I not only shed about 15 kilos but also developed into a long distance runner. It still works for me.
Today, my daily 10-kilometer jog is among my most powerful energy re-vitalizers and removes stress. I strongly believe that everyone should have one such 'white-hot' passion to enable stress relief.
-As told to Gunjan Trivedi
Remember, This Too Shall Pass
Nothing in life is permanent, right? That means it isn't only the good stuff that comes with an expiry date - so do the bad times.
Unfortunately, it takes maturity to understand that. An important part of dealing with stress at the workplace is knowing that it will end, says Hilal Khan, Head-IT at Honda SIEL Cars.
"The older you become in your profession, the more your outlook to situations changes. When I look back, I feel that I was too stressed when I was young. Today, despite many more responsibilities, my ability to handle them with a 'different' outlook has changed the stress scenario," he says.
Khan takes this ability to put things in perspective a step further. "Imagine a situation where you don't have to prove ROI, where project schedules are open-ended and you have no team-related issues.
You'd be frustrated because you'd have nothing to do. There's a specific junction in your career when technology takes the back seat. The challenge is all about people management, expectation management, change management and conflict management. We must enjoy every bit of it rather then considering it stressful," he says.
But the mental shield does not always work and when that happens Khan has a reliable fix. At the beginning of his career, Khan says he put all his savings into a good music system. Every evening, he listened to pop or jazz at full volume. Today, he still enjoys listening to music, although to the more uplifting call of ghazals, and at lower volumes.
He also indulges in other activities that effectively take his mind away from the painful decisions that he has to sometimes take. His pastimes include palmistry, and, collecting pens and watches. "It started as a hobby, but now I have a pretty good collection," he says.
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