Tantric Impact

Chapter 3 ... I was on a business trip, tired, jet-lagged, and disoriented. I fell asleep in an unpleasant hotel room in Buenos Aires, and in the middle of the night my phone rang. I was angry at myself for not having turned off the ring tone before going to sleep. A friend at the other end of the line told me the story of a poor young woman in Indonesia, who needed a caesarian to save her life and that of her unborn child, but had no money or hospital insurance. I felt I had no choice but to commit and I donated the funds for her operation. I spent the remaining hours before dawn looking at the ceiling and calculating that woman’s odds: the many misfortunes and pieces of luck that had ultimately linked her to me at that exact moment. I felt proud of having clearly saved at least one person’s life. I also realized, perhaps for the first time, how many lives I was not saving, how many people I was not helping, and how much of my time I was not dedicating to doing something valuable for our wider community. Each of the five defining moments described above changed my life profoundly. Each was like a moment of total darkness, where a sudden flash of light shined on the path in front of me. Each brief moment of insight gave me the confidence to strengthen my stride and commit to a direction. If I think long enough, there are quite a few more of those moments. Some made more of an impression on me than others, but together they clarified my life and gave me points of reference as to where to go and what to do. To make our lives have impact, it is important to focus. We must direct our time and energy to those tasks we have chosen for ourselves. And each and every day, we must think about how we can do them better. I have chosen the early morning for that. Even when I have no time for meditation (or don’t feel like doing it), I spend at least a few moments in front of the mirror, deciding on my key tasks for the day. Of course, there is work to do: big challenges and small ones. However, a few items always jump to the front as especially important: wishing someone a happy birthday, sending a message of reconciliation to someone I may have been harsh with the previous day, or encouraging someone who seemed to have lost his way. These tasks are important, but there are also the big goals: jobs that need to be done that day, week, month, or year. They must not be pushed aside by important small tasks. The time needs to be split between warm, caring human touches and structural goals to be achieved. For some stupid reason, in front of that mirror, I often think about a piece of advice I read in “Achtung—Panzer” by Heinz Guderian: “You hit somebody with your fist and not with your fingers spread.” It is so easy to lose track or focus by spreading out your efforts; for optimum impact, you have to concentrate most of your energy on the structural key goals you want to reach. I guess that is why there is some merit in making a “bucket list,” a to-do list of must-dos. Trying to make one is a fun exercise, good to do alone, but also as a family (we call it a family charter), and even as a company (where we call it a strategic business plan). You will amaze yourself by seeing how many things you add to the list that you’ve never made the smallest effort to bring even one step closer to realization. Man lives consciously for himself, but is an unconscious instrument in the attainment of the historic, universal, aims of humanity. —Leo Tolstoy Start by answering for yourself the following questions: 1) What if you were to die tomorrow? Or next week? What would you wish you could do before you die? 2) What would you do if you had unlimited time, money, and resources, and no restraints? What are the restraints anyway? 3) What have you always wanted to do but have not done yet? And why? 4) Are there countries, places, or locations you’d like to visit? People you want to meet? 5) What are your biggest goals and wildest dreams? Why aren’t you working on realizing them today? 6) What achievements do you want to have and be known for? What is holding you back from working on them now? What experiences haven’t you had yet? What do you want to feel or experience? 7) Are there any special moments you want to witness, and why? 8) What activities or skills do you want to learn or try out? 9) What are the most important things you can ever do with or for others? 10) What would you like to say to or do with other people? People you love? Family? Friends? Why aren’t you saying or doing those things today? 11) What do you want to achieve in the following areas of your life: social activities, love, family, career, business, health, mind, soul, spirit? 12) What would you need to do in order to lead the sort of life that would mean the most to you? The purpose of this exercise is not to make your days even busier by chasing after all the items on your bucket list at once. If possible, you might try to make your days less busy, so that you have more time to be in the moment and enjoy the only moment that really matters: the here and now.