Our lives are certainly busy, with many competing demands and different aspects of our livelihood that we have to ensure are being taken care of. Work life balance as many refer to it, is emphasised increasingly in the competitive environments we work in, and as this competition increases in the contracting financial markets we are seeing, this area is one that we should perhaps view from a few different perspectives as there are measures we can all take to ensure we have a better balance. If we address the right areas, with the right amount of attention, we will find the challenge of balance will significantly ease.
Muay Thai is referred to as the “Art of 8 Limbs” as it uses the fists, elbows, knees, and feet to strike. The Thais created the art as Thailand was under heavy pressure from foreign armies, and needed a domestic method of defence as well as military forms. Using these 8 limbs were the most effective way according to the Thai’s of replacing the use of weapons. One piece of research concluded that the knee of a expert Muay Thai fighter has the same force as a 30 mph car hitting you. The elbows can move far quicker than the knees, and can strike the face, having the potential to cause great damage. Muay Thai has taken great influence from the Ramayana, and there are at least half a dozen advanced, and highly impactful moves named after Hanuman, the empowered monkey servant of Lord Rama. The moves are based on particular stories of Hanumanji and representations of the story. It’s hardly a surprise that Hanuman in many illustrations has a knee high up. Hanuman was extremely composed and mentally grounded. In Muay Thai, the training involves being extremely loose, preserving all one’s energies, and using them only at the critical points of contact. If in using the elbow for example, one uses all their “force” in the swing, the impact will be much reduced. The more exertion, the less effective. It would seem a contradiction. To exert surely means more impact. But here we’re saying the less exertion the more impact. The logic is very clear. If you imagine you have a finite amount of energy, and use it up in the swing, then you have less left for the impact, whereas if you minimise the energy loss in the swing, and concentrate it just on the point of contact, it will hit with more impact, and more likely with more precision as one can be agile as to where it lands when there is less exertion in the swing also. If one doesn’t know this, they will end up very tired, and ineffective. This is the condition of most people in the corporate world; they are fatigued, and actually ineffective; hence only a small number of people occupy leadership positions and most fail to enter that tier.
Art of 8 Limbs
Muay Thai is referred to as the “Art of 8 Limbs” as it uses the fists, elbows, knees, and feet to strike. The Thais created the art as Thailand was under heavy pressure from foreign armies, and needed a domestic method of defence as well as military forms. Using these 8 limbs were the most effective way according to the Thai’s of replacing the use of weapons. One piece of research concluded that the knee of a expert Muay Thai fighter has the same force as a 30 mph car hitting you. The elbows can move far quicker than the knees, and can strike the face, having the potential to cause great damage. Muay Thai has taken great influence from the Ramayana, and there are at least half a dozen advanced, and highly impactful moves named after Hanuman, the empowered monkey servant of Lord Rama. The moves are based on particular stories of Hanumanji and representations of the story. It’s hardly a surprise that Hanuman in many illustrations has a knee high up. Hanuman was extremely composed and mentally grounded. In Muay Thai, the training involves being extremely loose, preserving all one’s energies, and using them only at the critical points of contact. If in using the elbow for example, one uses all their “force” in the swing, the impact will be much reduced. The more exertion, the less effective. It would seem a contradiction. To exert surely means more impact. But here we’re saying the less exertion the more impact. The logic is very clear. If you imagine you have a finite amount of energy, and use it up in the swing, then you have less left for the impact, whereas if you minimise the energy loss in the swing, and concentrate it just on the point of contact, it will hit with more impact, and more likely with more precision as one can be agile as to where it lands when there is less exertion in the swing also. If one doesn’t know this, they will end up very tired, and ineffective. This is the condition of most people in the corporate world; they are fatigued, and actually ineffective; hence only a small number of people occupy leadership positions and most fail to enter that tier.
We must be able to evaluate our interactions. What does that mean? Evaluate contains the word value. What value are we getting from our interactions? In one day last week, I met the CEO of the bank, CFO, and CRO, and within a few hours left a positive impression on them through a few presentations and updates I’d prepared for. This was a high value interaction. On another day, I spent a very long day trying to make up for some miscommunications in delegation in the neighbouring regions due to cultural and language differences etc. The only outcome this achieved, was simply to not be told off for getting it very wrong! Whilst a critical outcome, it wasn’t as progressive as the first interaction. How “value yielding” are the interactions you are having? How much of your energy are your interactions consuming? These two simple questions will give you the answer to how successful you are and will be, and also how much of a work-life balance you have. Interactions are linked to people. Certain people will be like the swing, and certain people will be like the point of contact; if we use all our energy focussing on people who will not give value, and therefore have less energy left when it comes to the point of contact; this will lead to a gap between what you do achieve, and what you could have achieved. So choosing to focus our energy on sources that may drain us is akin to choosing the wrong pill. Of course, we should be respectful to all people and never forget that they are emotional beings as this in one sense is far more important than all our possible success, it is a core value which should not be compromised, but at a different level we should ensure we are gaining value from our interactions and being focussed in them, in the right way. If we simply do not evaluate where we’re spending our time, focussing our energies, there is little chance that we will be efficient with our time in working towards our end goals. However, if we get this right, we may be very surprised how quickly success comes.
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