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ShareRethink. That one word is causing enough alarm. Rethink applies to various things. If you admit your child to an unconventional school, you are rethinking. If you buy a hybrid car, you are rethinking. And, if you start overhauling your career, you are
rethinking.
Rethinking is as fashionable as moving around with an iPhone. Soon, docs will tell you that there is something wrong with you if you do not rethink. The process of rethinking is never planned. It happens just like that: you focus your mind and it lights up your future.
It is a state of mind you enter when you are nudging 40, at 40, over 40, or well over 40. You simply answer the question: how do you reinvent? Your workplace is filled with people half your age who have just one goal: just do better than them. Them, of course, refers to you.
So, when and how do you rethink? The world around you has enough triggers to set you meditating. You could rethink when you are at the movies, for instance. If you
are watching Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, you may have a fat reason to rethink. In his latest portrayal, Indy is a knowledge-seeker. The flamboyant treasure-hunter of Raiders of the Lost Ark now finds himself in a rethink mode, as Indy 4.0. Sounds familiar?Yes, it does. For, Indy's is a quest for relevance. It is what makes the entire process of rethinking as exciting as an Indiana Jones flick. Even if this struggle for relevance is not part of every Indian workplace, there is no doubt that tension is
surfacing. Anecdotes of people tweaking their work profiles, retooling themselves, or changing careers, are not hard to find. To get some first-hand experience I asked a friend, who took nearly 10 years to reinvent himself, how he did it. "Was it easy for an executive to turn into a restaurateur?" I asked him. Here are some ideas from his strategic reflections.
Four stages of life: Life, as we know it, has reorganised itself into four parts: the student phase (when you are grabbing local and global degrees), the initiation stage (when you are learning the ropes at an organisation), the execution part (when you are working your butt off), and the dream zone (when you dream of a great ending). If you compartmentalise your life into these four parts, you will be able to react to change faster.
Can you really drive on an autobahn? If you are 40, 40 plus, or 40 superplus, you have just landed yourself on an expressway. The rules are simple: vroom, vroom, vroom. Driving should be easy but for the fact that you are riding a cycle. You can reinvent yourself by motorising your vehicle, but you will still be shoved aside. You can carve out a new identity by arming yourself with a mega hooter, but will that get you ahead of the streaming traffic? Just look at the absurdity: a cyclist trying to compete with SUVs by reinventing the bell. Sadly, that is today's reality, where reinvention is as incremental as a cyclist removing mud guards to reduce weight -- and win.
Indy 4.0: The fourth version of Hollywood's most handsome conquistador, Indiana Jones, is a wakeup call to all fortyssimos. It is a story of keeping a character alive,
a competency ticking, and a message fresh. So, rethink aloud. The music you play may not be the music people like. So, stop being a maestro, reinvent yourself as a chef.
But makeover is not all that easy. For, self-change requires a bullwhip to get the message into the skull.
You are not alone: There is some good news for those well into their forties. The Rethink Syndrome also affects the young: people in theirtwenties and thirties.
As their careers telescope into projects, getting shorter and shorter, they will have to constantly recalibrate, readapt, reengineer, rethink. And they will have to do that every year.
Indy 8.0: So, if you are 20, it may be another 20 years before you see Indy 8.0, the eighth flick in the Indiana Jones series. It may well turn out to be less thrilling and exciting than your superfast career. Surely, you don't need a crystal ball, or a skull, to predict that.
Email:vinaykamat@dnaindia.net
