This is the thing with numbers - they are natural. They are as fundamental as the fabric of life. Hence there is no doubt that they are used to measure many a things and help to serve in a variety of ways. Numbers bring relativity by quantifying an object which helps in comparison and builds understanding on the nature of the object.
Numbers as money or possessions (bank balance, properties, and cars) are associated with the worth of a person, and as physical attributes of the body (height, weight and temperature) they denote the health of a person.
Being a finance professional, my work involved dealing with a large set of numbers often conveying a means to measure performance and targets for companies. Numbers also serve to align different goals as they allow easy divisibility and aggregation.
As a father of a 2 year old, I have started to understand the magic of these numbers again. Most children learn the number system starting with ‘One’, a number they can understand by associating it with an object, or simply using their fingers. ‘Zero’, however, also gets its due importance later in life being central to the decimal system and also as a major contribution of India to the world.
My discussion today is, however, on the negative impact of numbers on our lives. Sometimes we allow numbers to dictate our lives and define our happiness. Are we unhappy because we don’t have the desired amount of money in the bank account? Or in the process of getting to the ideal weight we impose stress on our own self and undermine our own self-worth? Do we allow comparison with others as a definition of our success or failure?
I observe and learn from my daughter as she continues to teach me to be in the present moment and be free of the limiting numbers game.
What is that you do that allows you to balance the advantage which numbers give without limiting yourself?
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