Personal Scorecard

Are you a great professional? And do you feel down in the dumps at times? How about a balance?
This is how.
I have a friend Jagannath. A great guy oozing with wisdom at times. When that oozing stops, he is a normal guy, though. One of the pearls of wisdom that dropped out of him is that method of balance. I am sure he must have read it somewhere, couldn’t have imagined it all by himself.
Once he asked me the same questions as you see at the top and ventured to answer it himself. He told me to start a confidential notebook, preferably a large size. He said that a notebook could be kept more secure from prying eyes than a computer. “Have four sections under the four titles – My great achievements, My lesser achievements, My failures, My great failures”, he explained.
He wanted me to write down in brief with dates and in just one or two sentences, relevant points under each head – whatever I remembered from the past and certainly in future, but promptly without delay. He reminded me that the notings were entirely for my personal consumption and therefore I should be brutally frank there, subject of course to my not indulging in any criminal activity when it might serve as evidence against me!
He answered my quizzical look with, “If you are to keep your mental balance, you should not get carried away when you do a great job; at that time, it helps if you read about your failures and realize that you are not always that great. Similarly, when you are highly depressed due to a failure, read the section of your achievements – that will perk you up and make you realize that success and failure are equally common.”
I followed his advice and found that it really worked! Jagannath seemed to have guided towards what the Gita talks about “Nirmamo nirahankarh samadukha sukhah kshami” (Bereft of possessiveness and egotism, taking sorrow and pleasure with equanimity …).