Know your Strengths

As the financial year is nearing its close, accountants and treasurers are busy trying to wind up their transactions, sales and purchases. They cannot let things to spill over to the next year, which can only put them in trouble. At the end of the financial year, the most important document for the financial administrators is the balance sheet, otherwise called trial balance, wherein they would be able to find out their assets, liabilities, income and expenditure. The whole year in one page, and that is the proof of their financial management, how well or badly they had managed finance. There is hardly anything that they can hide here; it is the fact-sheet of their situation as far as finance is concerned. The income and expenditure, as a matter of fact, very much depend on two other factors, assets and liabilities.

I wish we take a trial balance at different junctures of our life, to become aware of the assets and liabilities. Why should we be concerned of the assets and liabilities? Our concern should be to increase the assets and reduce the liabilities, and only this can assure a better financial management. On the other hand, if the liabilities keep increasing and the assets start reducing, then there may come a time, when the institution may be forced to shut its doors. Income and expenditure should moderated on the basis of the assets and liabilities. It is a two way process: increase the assets and reduce liabilities. It is not enough to reduce liabilities, one should also attempt to increase assets, or else the institution may end up with nothing to live with, though they may not lose anything.

Today I would like to pause for a moment and take stock of my personal assets and liabilities; let me become conscious of them. At every important moment of my life, I decide on the basis of my assets and liabilities. It would be wrong to say that assets are good and liabilities are bad; these are two neutral realities. There are dangers that assets can become my death-knell, and liabilities sometimes may become my friend. The most important thing is that I keep before my eyes these two realities, so that I may discern properly before making any important decision. If I decide anything irrespective of my personal assets and liabilities, then I may have to regret later on. If need be, I should write and keep my assets and liabilities in a place where I make most of the decisions.

What do I mean by my personal assets? These are the things that I am really proud of; these are my good qualities, capabilities, talents, potentialities. For example, if I am aware that I have a potentiality to organize things and events, then when I get an opportunity I would not let it slip, but make use of it to reach out to others. On the other hand, if I am not good in singing, and decide to give lead in singing, then there would only be pandemonium. This is what is implied in one of the Indian proverbs, know the depth, before you put your foot forward in the river. It is possible you may not get an opportunity to pull out your legs after you mistakenly put your foot in deep waters.

Let me sit quietly today, in a place where I may not be disturbed by anyone for some ten minutes; let me take a dip into my inner self, feel myself as I fully am, with all my strengths and weaknesses. Let me go back in life to the earliest moment I can remember and move forward up to this very moment, taking note of the instances when I had shown signs of possessing great assets or liabilities. Let me pause there and assimilate it in such a way that it soars to my conscious self. It would be dangerous for me to embrace the assets and throw away the liabilities. I need to embrace both of them and grow in greater awareness that both of these can help me to live a meaning-full life.