Meet Subhash, a gentleman who lives in the Aurobindo Ashram, Ramgarh, Uttarakhand, India. A very humble, hardworking person & a man of the hills, yes literally. Subhash guides everyone who visits the Ashram at Ramgarh to trek the hills. He was our guide too for a trek during one of our workshops there at the Ashram. An interesting thing I noticed about him was, every day he would wear mismatched socks combination. I thought might be it’s a kind of his style statement.
One day, while trekking the hills, I asked him lightly “Subhash ji, why do you wear different socks combination everyday? Are you following today’s trend?” He smiled & said “madam, Delhi Ashram (at New Delhi, India) sends us clothes, socks, blankets etc. After cleaning, we keep the socks pairs in a packet. I wear whichever pair I can get hold of while going to work. “Hum in sab pe dhyan nahi dete sirf kaam pe dyhan dete hai taki kaam thhik se ho (means, I focus only on work & not on these things)”. I was stumped by his honest response as I did not really expect this coming from him.
Yet again he proved that ‘Science of Simplicity’ was the best. It is and was followed by successful people around the world — President Obama, Mark Zuckerberg, Albert Einstein, Steve Jobs to name just a few so that they can be more productive, don’t suffer from ‘Decision Fatigue’ on irrelevant things & look at broader business aspects.
I thought, a valuable practice can also be learnt from a person who neither reads a book nor is exposed to business lessons.
From the perspective of real-life situations, we may not be able to wear the same shade dress or mismatched socks everyday to office/ college/ parties/ social meets. This is not a feasibility unless one really wants to. And most importantly, the question here is about TIME SPENT on deciding what to wear or what to eat and not on wearing or eating per say. It’s all about our priorities and requirements and how we train our brains to function and respond to situations. It’s on us to take right decision at the moment with optimum time spent. More the time we spend in making a decision for unproductive things, more irrational or bad quality the decision becomes; and forces ‘Decision Fatigue’ in us. So let’s Prioritize consciously and Respond wisely.
