The Art of being Real!!

My impression of Obama is that he would like to believe that you can sweep the world by the power of ideas . . . So when speaks, he often sounds as if he were in the world of ideas alone. When he acts, he is very conscious of reality. 

- Henry Kissinger talking about Obama to Fareed Zakaria
(The quote starts at around 37:00 of the interview)

I was fascinated by the quote and the train of thought that emerged can perhaps be described as a conflict between "The power of ideas" Vs "Getting it done". I mean being called a man of ideas would be a great compliment. However the way Kissinger made the quote, he sorta implied that such a guy is somewhat disconnected with reality. And then he goes to say that Obama is real.

Now I am the kind of guy who usually does get carried away by concepts and ideas. But my discipline to execute wasn't very strong. And then thanks to the good fortune of having meet some amazing individuals I became more sensitive for the need to be real.

Over the years I met many such people and their abilities fascinated me. I wondered how these guys managed to squeeze so much into their schedules and yet be so full of life. One such person is Shilpa Krishnan. I am fascinated by the sheer weight and diversity of her calendar. She is a prolific blogger and what fascinates me is how real her writings are. I am going to quote two particular entries which made an impression upon me.

The first entry is a self appraisal effort . She simply went through her daily blog entries and then identified the things that made her happy:

1. Food: 
2. Mausams (A movie that she made):
3. Travels:
4. Physical Fitness:
5. People:
6. Being Good:

I can intellectualize about each of the themes she identified and speak about the deeper meanings. But let me urge you to read the entry for yourself. And what you may find is how very ordinary all her points are. And yet there is pure bliss in the way she talks about her Starbucks Chai Latte. In our daily lives there would numerous such small acts of pleasure and yet how many of us would be able to identify those things like this lady, and then derive such pleasure from doing them. 

Then after a few months after having done her Year End Analysis she wrote another piece, perhaps to help me summarize what I talk about today. In this post she attempts to define the purpose of life. And then she identified three different approaches to find that elusive purpose of life.

1. Having a clear cut long term vision
2. Having short term high energy challenges but no long term vision
3. Having a set of principles as the end in itself vs. short/long term goal/vision

In current frame of mind I am perhaps a bit biased towards "Execution" and I have a liking for the second approach. I look at the last twenty years of my life. And if twenty years ago if I had set a long term vision and then spent my life trying to achieve it then I would grossly underachieved. 20 years ago I couldn't have conceptualized some of the thoughts and aspirations that I have today. Then just like what Kissinger suggests, I have the opinion that a staunch allegiance to an ideology can blind you to the truths that may exist in the principles that may be opposed to yours. 


In her blog Shilpa states her preference for one of the approaches but then is quite open to the fact that other people may find the other approaches more relevant. I find that to be quite an admirable thought.

To be able to write every day requires quite a lot of intent and solid calendar management capabilities. Just look at the two entries I quoted in here. Part of the appeal was in the fact that it was synthesized from so many other entries. Had she not written those numbers chai experiences of hers, perhaps I wouldn't have found her year end analysis as interesting. The daily writings perhaps gives her the ability to bring into her consciousness things that you and I may have missed altogether.