The magical rule of “Also And” and why it can change your way of thinking

All my life I have been making choices. Always coming to forks where I have been taught to choose between options. Either this or that, you can’t do both, which way will it be, flip a coin, how will you choose, what will you do now and a million other conversations which lead to choosing. Mostly choice means you have to let go of another option, sacrifice a possibility or eliminate one or the other.

A hundred internal conversations have ended with a clear choice where I had to take one road at a fork and wonder where the other may have taken me had I gone down that path. I have heard similar conversations like mine amongst peers, friends and relatives “I need to spend time with kids but I have to work hard”, “I want to go to the gym, but I need to relax more”, “Since I am a creative person, I cant understand business”, “I want to grow my business, but the quality of work will dip”, “If I read my email on a holiday, its not really a holiday”, “I have to choose whether I do fun projects or large projects”, “Should I stay employed and ruin my life or take a risk and do business”. I have engaged in these conversations and have heard this from everyone. Conversations where we need to go one way or the other, decide one versus the other and follow one path.

Then something miraculous happened and I understood the Also And Rule. This is where you don’t choose, where you choose not to choose and become greedy and say I want both choices and they will coexist together. Its amazing how life changed after that. Suddenly I decided that I can work really hard, be a business man and choose also a great work life balance. I figured I could choose to be an enterprising business man and also be playful. I figured that I could choose to be healthy, have time for exercise and be a workaholic. I found out that I can look at creativity from a business aspect and yet be creative, that I could feel for the client and be his best friend and still do really creative work. It dawned on me that I could choose being boutique and creative and also attempt to become a multinational.

Suddenly, I could read, paint, draw, play, doodle, do gaming, day dream and also be a strategic entrepreneur. I could be an extrovert and an introvert, I could have a desire for wealth and yet be pure to my craft and my higher calling, I could embrace joy and pursue excellence together.  The possibilities were endless. I realised that choice and boundaries and stereotypes were self imposed by ourselves and as easily we could break down these walls.

As I shared this idea in discussions with friends and brainstormed on their choices and broke down the walls, the idea was infectious. It worked any where:  reactions streamed in one after the other “I can be trustful and when needed I can be wary”, “who said if I am an artist that I can’t be understanding finance”  “Thank you, I don’t need to choose between large scale projects and say no to smaller projects any more” and so on and so forth. It kept breaking and shattering shackles of rules we have built up over decades ever so easily!

If we choose not to choose and realise that many boundaries and stereotypes are set by ourselves. Instead if we say “I am also this, and I also am that” then a new world open up, a world of opportunities we have hitherto closed down. Engage in the Also And concept, choose not to choose and let opportunities and seeming contrasts coexist in harmony with each other!

I am loving what the Also And philosophy has showered into my world!