Be healthy, wealthy & wise

Roopinder Singh 

How is this New Year different? Among other things, this is the dawn of a decade. The shift in perspective from a year to 10 makes a difference! As you take a broader time frame, you move away from the imperatives of the immediate — to dream, to plan, to strategise, to look beyond the horizon limited by the here and now. The beginning of a year is a good time to take stock of the time gone by, and to look at the future. As we stand at the dawn of the 2020s, we are at a point where we can look back and remember what our life was like a decade ago and see where we have arrived. Indeed, many of a certain vintage, like this writer, can go further into time to ponder over the longer distance covered. Over the past few years, we have been exploring ways in which we can make our life better. As we take a broader look, let’s expand our horizon and include the world around us. Let’s plan for a decade.

Healthy, wealthy and wise. These are the primary human goals. Simple to state, but challenging to achieve. Let’s see what happens when we look at them from a long-term perspective. We can think about using time as a building block, and the first thing that we realise is that they can only be achieved if we invest in them over a long period.

HEALTHY

The most under-valued asset we have is health, often taken for granted until an emergency arises. Be healthy, stay tuned to the needs of your body. We need a long-term perspective to think of taking responsible steps for our good. No matter what age we are, remember the body begins its slide once it is past the teens. The good news is that the process can be slowed down considerably by taking adequate care. Regular medical examinations will ensure that you have the required information about your health parameters. Sometimes it takes a doctor to nudge us in the right direction.

Fitness

One sure way of pushing back ageing is to gain and maintain fitness. We all read about the studies that show how a routine of even mild exercise will make a significant, measurable difference. The key is to get going and to keep it up. The more you invest, the better the results, but the process must be gentle. Incremental progress will be the foundation of long-lasting benefits. Start with a walk and add cardio, weight training, etc., as you progress.

Food

North India is a region known for an unusually large number of obese people. What we put in our tummy shapes our bellies. We may indulge in what we like; after all, no one wants to be a spoilsport! Just be moderate, and keep the long-term perspective in mind — even a few grams a week will add up to kilos over time! The decade-long horizon is of particular significance here. A part of what we eat stays in our body, and thus it only makes sense to eat good nutritious food. Avoid ‘diets’. These have all proven to be fads or of marginal use at best. Moderation is the key here. Do follow the doctor’s advice, particularly on restrictions. 

WEALTHY

Most of us are not born into wealth. We work towards it. The process is all-consuming, but the biggest hurdle is lack of financial literacy. Save — it is as simple and as complicated as that. No matter what your salary or earning, you have to save some money out of it for the rainy day. There are so many temptations. It is easy to succumb to them. Don’t! It takes guts to take the path less travelled. Still, Indians are a thrifty lot, or at least were till the last decade when increasing material wealth and easy availability of credit resulted in financial profligacy, which can have painful results. 

Invest in future

With the sole exception of big-ticket items, earlier everything was bought in cash. Loans, when they were taken for a house, or sometimes a car, were treated as an embarrassment, something to be repaid as soon as possible. 

Now millennials are racking up debt, often through credit cards, which fuels unnecessary purchases. What we want is often more than what we need. Our attitude makes all the difference. The systematic investment plan (SIP) route has proved to be popular with most Indians. For the risk-averse, a recurring deposit takes out a fixed amount every month into a special account, where you get better rates.

Once you have a certain corpus, your investment options increase manifold. Commit yourself to a deposit plan and see how much it will grow over the next decade. That will set you on the path to financial stability.

WISE

It is impossible to progress in the world without education. The journey begins in school, and continues through life. Don’t think of education as a means of getting a job. A decade or two ago, if you had a degree, you had a job. Not anymore. In fact, there is an academic escalation, where you needed a BA, now you need an MA. One of the worst mistakes we can make is to believe that our education ends with our getting a degree. It is how we enrich our mind and tap into our creativity. Those who continue to educate themselves throughout their life are often the most successful individuals.

Filter information

One of the ironies of living in the information age is how it has led to a ‘post-truth’ scenario of a highly polarised world fuelled by half-truths and fake news. Please learn to identify sources of credible information and sieve out the debris of factoids that masquerade as facts. Be self-aware and be conscious not to spread the toxic viruses by forwarding unverified junk.

Work-life balance

Attitude matters tremendously in our quest for wisdom. What we earn from work is far more than money. Our work gives us a chance to interact with equally qualified individuals, learn to collaborate, form friendships, tackle challenges, and be rewarded for them. Looking at it from the perspective of a decade, you can evaluate where you will be 10 years from now, and whether you are satisfied with that. If not, then you may need to find the courage to make the changes that are more in tune with your goals.

Work is worship, but your god is your life. You must remind yourself that the goals that seem so important right now may not be so later. Success is in finding the right work-life balance. Work sincerely. You are, however, not what your designation or your work-profile is. There is much more to life, become aware of this truth, and be there for your family and friends.

Sustainability

We are virtually raping the planet. The only way of saving it is to take steps towards recycling and sustainable living individually.

That will give us the strength to enable collective action and force legislative and administrative changes necessary for the wellbeing of the only planet we have to live on.

Take inspiration from countries such as the Netherlands, which are leading a scientific farming thrust.

The next ‘green revolution’ that we need is one of environmental consciousness, not the one which gave us the abundance of agriculture produce that came at the cost of overexploitation of land and increased toxicity from fertilisers.

We need to adopt better agricultural practices, and individually we ought to contribute by composting and growing what we can in our micro-gardens.

The start of a New Year and the dawn of a decade.

A good time to take stock of where we stand in our journey through life and how to help shape a world we would want to live in.

A Happy New Year to you!