I watched this heartwarming feel good movie #Home on Amazon Prime and more than just writing a review of the movie, I wanted to ponder upon few reflections in the movie. So, this post is definitely not a movie review but much more. This movie did make me think about a lot of aspects. The movie is about a family which was once closely stuck together loosens up with time and the generation gap created by the social media and how the father tries his best to bridge that gap between his children by wanting to be part of their digital world.
Simple story, isn't it? But the reflections which comes out of the movie without being preachy at anytime makes you think. What were mine?
- We all do this or have done this at some point in time in our day to day lives. When someone is talking to us, we are buried in our mobile either ignoring them completely or replying back to them looking at our phone(I have done this too). Now this is how the world has become. But how do we feel when we are on the receiving end? Do we like it? Is it really cool to do so? ENERGY. Everything we do has energy. When we are talking to someone, we are giving them time and more importantly we are giving them our energy. Can we do it more intentionally, being more aware and being there completely. Real human connections are made when we talk heartfully and when we listen intentionally. So the next time when someone talks to us, can we answer them looking them in their eye rather than looking at our screens?
- With social media and the so called influencers, we start defining indicators of our success to the number of followers, likes, comments etc and start measuring ours with a yardstick which is a utter bullshit. Its about comparing apples to oranges and it will always be. The real work happens behind the Instagram, behind those cool post workout selfies and the constant 5 AMs to hustle before those good morning posts. This is often not considered but the outputs are. This could lead to creating a entire generation of people who are never present in the moment anytime and that's dangerous.
- How beautiful it is to spend your morning coffee time or evening tea time talking to your own family? Why is it that we present our best selves to our bosses, clients, acquaintances and show our grumpy, angry, always irritated side to people who love us? Is it because we can be ourselves with them and feel home? Is it because they are our constants and we believe they would not leave? Have we not taken them for granted? Have we ever thought how do we look with that grumpy, angry, always irritated face of us from the receiving end? People do stupid things. They show their best side to the people whom they don't really care and show the worst side to people whom they really care.
- From when has expressing your thoughts been considered weak? Was there a change in syllabus and this was inserted? We, human beings do some terrible mistakes. We love people and constantly make them feel like we don't. We fail to express to people on how we feel around them. We think people do live on forever for these talks when we really know that they do not. Our days are numbered and our time is limited and still we fail to express how we feel. Continuing this will lead to creation of an entire generation which lacks emotional quotient. Next time you find a team member working really well- appreciate them in public, next time you feel like thanking your spouse-thank them, next time you feel like telling an 'I love you' to your love out of nowhere-please do. There is never an auspicious time for all these.
- As we grow, I have realized that the pursuit is less about the money, position, luxuries but it is about RELEVANCE. Being 'considered' relevant with time and being relevant among the people in your world becomes the biggest struggle to overcome. This is constant struggle be it any age but this struggle becomes more difficult as time passes. Will my son or daughter consider me relevant for their generation? Will I be able to adapt to the tech savvy next gen or will I be left behind? Will I still be able to understand the ever evolving businesses in my workplace and add value to the table? Will people continue to ask me suggestions or will they assume he is not worthy anymore? The struggle will be real and it will be about relevance. It makes me think about how we need to RE-INVENT ourselves at every stage of our life. At no stage of life will life settle down unless you choose to do so. We need to keep reinventing ourselves to stay current and relevant.
Home is where the heart is and writing could be my home 😀 But if this blog post makes you get back to your own self or gets you closer to your home, that's what makes me the happier version. That's the intent and that's the goal always. Find your #Home in the world outside the virtual world.
Love,
Naveen Nagaraj
