By Suresh Sadagopan
The world and our existence are Maya as per Hindu philosophy. To us, it certainly does not look like that! We relate to the world we live in, and we strive to make a mark in the world, nevertheless.
Maya or otherwise, the life here is real for us in a visceral sense - we are present here in this world and experience every moment as it unfolds. This is true for all of us unless one is a Yogi who can remain detached from the world while still being here, much like a water droplet that glides on the lotus leaf.
Now that we are here, how can we make it count?
Living The Templated Life - Life in the world is almost like monkey see, monkey do! We may bristle at this disparaging description of how we go through life, but this is unfortunately true.
Most of us lay a lot of emphasis on the material aspects of life, where money plays a major role. In the world we live in, money is vital, of course. However, that does not mean that our life is all about money, the baubles it can buy, and the comforts that money confers in our worldly existence. For many, there is no coherent plan apart from the single-minded pursuit of money.
In our quest for conformity and belonging, we tend to go along well-worn pathways. The only problem here is that some of these are not what one may enjoy doing. For instance, there is pressure to catch up with the Joshis and Sharmas. In the quest to live like them and prove one’s worth, we may feel a sense of worthlessess and burnout - as that may not be the authentic life we cherish!
Many even say that they would do all those things that are truly meaningful to them, after they retire. That presupposes that they will live to the age when they superannuate, be in good health, and have the enthusiasm to do the things that they always wanted to! Secondly, people will need to ask themselves if, until retirement, they are fine to live a mundane life, where stress & a meaningless existence are sapping the vitality out of the person.
We all want to do different things to make our lives well-lived and meaningful. For that, we need to be willing to examine what it is we want to do and have in this life. And we need to do that now.
Finding The Purpose - When you don’t know where you want to go, any road will lead you there! That is true for many of us!
To understand what we want in life, we need to look inwards and figure out our purpose in life. This discovery will act as a compass that will lead the vessel across the ocean of life to the intended destination.
We need to engage in this quest to find out what truly motivates us, what is that we want in our life and craft a life that we long for. This is easier said than done.
As a life planner, I have found that people are not able to look beyond their current existence. Many have accepted the centrality of money in their life and measure success and even happiness in terms of the money they have. Some are able step back, visualise the life they want and acknowledge that there is work to be done.
Life Planning - In this area called life planning, we focus on what is important for one and their family. The focus would be to find out what constitutes an energising and elevating life and whether we want to walk down that path. For that, it would be instructive to focus on the regrets we have. That would give us an indication of what we truly value.
Consequently, we need to figure out what we want to have in the life ahead and create a new architecture and a plan to transition to it. There could be many obstacles along the way. Some of what a person may want and the consequent changes in the lifestyle should be acceptable to the family as well. Without their buy-in it is not possible to transition to the new, exciting life.
As an example, if a person wants to pursue his passion as an adventure travel enthusiast, it may make sense to pursue that as a business. But for that, the family should consent, for this can be a risky venture with uncertain payoffs and could affect the quality of life and their goals. If there is enough money already, it will be less of a problem; else it can be challenging.
We have found that families support a different life architecture, even if it means the earnings could be less and some goals may have to be altered. They will need to clearly understand what they are getting into after which they support the new plan.
A Registered Life Planner would be able to give structure to these discussions and can guide the person and the family in envisioning the life they want and, in their transition, too. A Financial Plan created after understanding the life they want to craft will lend a concrete scaffolding to the amorphous life plan!
Life may be Maya. But having come into this world, we can make it count. It is not whether one can live a meaningful life or not… it is whether you want to or not!
The author is the MD & Principal Officer at Ladder7 Wealth Planners and the author of the book “If God Was Your Financial Planner”.
(Disclaimer: Views expressed are the author's own, and Outlook Money does not necessarily subscribe to them. Outlook Money shall not be responsible for any damage caused to any person/organisation directly or indirectly.)
