Most organizations in the modern world stress upon being passionate towards goals, customers needs, values and ethics that the organization stands for. The organization I was working for a few years ago, was no different. The whole atmosphere was so charged up and it was difficult to escape. After a few years, it was incomprehensible to have a day at work without passion to excel and exceed all expectations.

I was pursuing some of the hardest tasks, many of them unheard of, before. I was taking on challenges that stretched my thought and mind. I was discovering new things about myself everyday. Every time a task was accomplished, I experienced a rare feeling of pride and pleasure. With time, I was deeply in love with those accomplishments and was flying high. So much so, that they became a need for me and I developed an addiction to everything around me and now before I could realize I was obsessed with perfection and the feeling of being the winner always.

But not everyday is yours. With one stroke of failure, things began to change. The usual things started to fail. It was like a chain reaction. One after another, all my good work turned inept and I was just wondering why? It took a while for me to understand what was going on and really needed to fight back. I gathered courage and opened this topic with a senior HR colleague. He heard me for a good 45 minutes, looked into my eyes and said in a deep voice, “You are too involved” Detach!” There was a silence in his room for about thirty seconds, before a phone call breached it and got us moving in different directions.

We could never discuss this topic again, but I was left with a thousand questions in my mind. I introspected and learnt that my mind was working tirelessly on finding ways to manage perception. It was not willing to accept that I had actually failed and overlooked the pertinent need to do small things differently. I was actually in a spiral. My colleague's words resonated in my mind. He was mentioning about detaching from my favorite pass-time of that time, ‘thinking about myself’. I chose to go with him.

I pushed myself to stay objective on the task on hand and do what it demands. I tried to stay focused and not worry about how any action could help or harm me. I just started doing what I felt was right. I felt lighter and less stressed. Gradually, things were back to where they were a few months ago. I felt the change.

My colleague’s advice probably made the most profound impact on my thinking. I started to understand how important it was to nurture a deep passion for our goals, for our customers and values to make us successful, but at the same time, we must also allow our mind to keep us steady, away from prejudice and fear.