Tag: #mindfulness

Transformation through Change.

~ PA ~ Leave a comment

Change becomes empowering when you agree to transform as it ushers in and each time you try to hold on to a status quo- whatever that may be- you will almost always struggle with change and subsequently with the compelled transformation! Join me as we take a look through this space and understand what really is unfolding here!

Even as we know for sure that change is the only certainty and it is an ongoing basis, the mind tricks us enough to view it from a point of disbelief, insecurity or fear- which at times is nothing more than the hallucinatory powerplay played upon you by your overthinking mind! Sure enough, there are times and episodes when these fears and anxieties may turn out to be true, but going about your life fearing what is perceived and exhibiting disregard to what really persists, is a grave miscalculation! Most of us end up living a life that we behold simply because we see the process of transformation induced by change as two separate things and that is where the real essence of our pivot to success resides!

Leaders, Humanists and masters of the science of human behaviour have written, spoken, discussed and debated about the aspect of change and its ramifications on humans- both as Individuals and collectively as societies many a times. They have done so by applying different contexts and viewing lenses- if you may say so- but a singular fact across all studies and all scientific and value based deciphering of the concept of change is the fact that change is inevitable! It will happen- sooner or later- whether you like it or not- it will and the path too is pre-determines- the only thing that you and I can control or determine is the intensity with which it embraces us or we embrace it- whatever way you want to take that and this only is possible when you are ready to be transformed and ride the crest of the wave that change ushers in!

You would have heard the phrase very often, “Being in the right time, at the right place and with the right people”, now think around this sentence as the crest of the wave of the oncoming change! Makes sense? Well, this is why leaders who lead and set course for societies- either as politicians or the business tycoons- are almost always ready and prepared for what’s heading their way- at times it seems too real to believe- but we have seen and observed that all around us all the time! Remember- how property rates alongside a forgotten country side suddenly began to rise and by the time you woke up to make a decision all was sold out and some “known firms” have already captured all the golden assets!, do you recall people investing in a particular way, simply to be benefitted by a federal policy a few months down the line! Likewise there could be hundreds of examples around you, which seem stranger then fiction, but are present in front of you in the form of great successful business or public icons! This is how transformation manifests when it aligns it to change in the real world in real time- whether that is about businesses, political dexterity or about Individual smartness- all of these fall in this same confined space of being alert, agile and prepared for what’s heading their way!

You see, unless you aren’t ready to transform as a response to the change coming your way- you will be a furniture! Whether you transform to benefit and propel yourself ahead pivoting on the changing contexts and truths around you or whether you decide to take up an endless battle with what’s coming your way, only to defeat yourself and tire yourself fighting nothing, is a choice that every Individual and every society has to make. there is nothing right and wrong about change, simply because it depends on what the contexts mean to whom- a boom in financial markets may be a great asset to the white collared community, but what happens on the Wall street, may mean nothing to someone managing a ranch in Texas! Contextual reality is equally important and hence even for the transformation to begin- whatever way you plan to deal with change- you first need to have a fundamental and basic understanding and awareness of what is that you stand for, what your story is and will be al about and what is that you are going to do about it!

It all begins from the space of Intrinsic and Unique attributes, values and dreams that an Individual has and when empowered Individuals come together, you have a society which is fluid and empowered to embrace whatever change comes it’s way and take it in its stride- Observe around and you will notice, societies which have had a stronger and higher record of resilience to hardships, strife and struggle have faced the pandemic of the bygone year with more relative success then those who have almost always believed to be organized, clinical and measured! Well sure enough, there could be more reasons too, but, humanity through evolution has had one trick up its sleeve all the time, that trick is about- being able to stay in a state of alert especially when life has not been an easy one and this is why societies which have been edgy, have shown more promptness and did what they weer told, simply following the need for human survival! In this space of stressed and fragile societies, there is no space for television debates and intellectual arguments for or against any development of oncoming change- there is only one response to do what it takes to survive!

Change becomes unforgiving and punishing once you decide not to transform! It doesn’t matter whether you want to align along it or against it or take some other position, but you will need to take a call, you simply can’t not do anything and stay inert or passive! You simply don’t have the choice to freeze in time and rescue yourself- you will have to do something and that something whatever you choose is almost always a process of transformation- simply because you are doing it as a response to the stimulus and triggers being sent to you by the oncoming change!

However an important aspect about transforming through change remains to be the intrinsic foundations on which you stand as an Individual or collectively as a society. More often than not, how you will respond to change is encoded in your genetic fingerprint! You will either have a natural affinity for it or a natural dislike and based on this attribute, each time you will either be eagerly waiting for it or praying for it not to occur- the real magic happens somewhere between those extremes, because only when change takes you by surprise is that it will put your intellectual competence to test and thereby based on your approach to change, either you will scale high and fast or retreat and defend with a proportional intensity and the reason for the first case will be to transform and make good of an opportunity and the second case will be about surviving for now and living another day to make the right amends! Our lives are actually a mix of these two in different proportions, the more enabling and empowering change we get to live through, our lives are enriched that better, the more stalling change that we come across, our lives end up becoming that much more challenging and inspiring should I say!

The only real and meaningful way to embrace change is to have a fundamental willingness to transform and transform through change in a way aligned to your Intrinsic ethos of who you are, what you stand for, what your journey is and where you want to reach! Whether you are a society or an Individual, as long as you embrace change as an instrument to transform, you will be rewarded with or without strife and struggle- depending on what the other elements of your story are!

Always remember, change is the only real currency for your future, and it all depends on how well you spend it by starting your transformation journey today!

Ciao for now, stay safe, stay wise, will be back soon with another one!

Vaccinated Minds and a Vaccinated Future.

~ PA ~ Leave a comment

If there was one defining statement that 2020 made about humanity, then it had to be the pandemic- not the pandemic itself but very importantly how humanity responded to it and eventually ended up making the solutions to deal with it even more complicated and hard! Sure enough, no one is arguing whether the pandemic was real or not and there is no reason to take away or doubt the selfless service provided by a few to save the many, but one fact can never be overlooked and that is – collectively, as human societies the world over we had our windows to course correct and stall the nightmare- which we missed – at times owing to irrational thoughts and at times owing to brazen oversight- whatever that was- all of these incidents have now pushed humanity is a tight corner- where we are now making the next blunder of trying to live a vaccinated future through the dis-empowered thoughts originating from vaccinated minds! Join me here as we take a look around this space and try to decipher why, perhaps the pandemic was the least of all the problems and how dealing with it, has ended up complicating our today and the future, and is there anything that we can really do about it- today for a better and meaningful tomorrow. So here we go!

Even as the pandemic began to make it’s presence felt, even those initial weeks (what now in hindsight seem to be the most critical) were squandered by a misplaced bravado- coming from the decision makers for nations and societies across the world- the best part- the world was waiting for decisions from people who were never ever qualified to make a sane, scientific and a rational assessment of what was unfolding- so no surprise when the decisions came- they were late, all over the place and completely irrational! You see, the virus does not really make any sense between a night curfew or a day curfew or a lockdown or whatever you call- the only thing that it is bothered about is infecting a host and moving on to the next one- if it gets lucky enough to find one! So if even the most basic thought around propagating physical distance at all places (this is important- all the places) would have been implemented in a scientific way- things would have been much better, then what they eventually unfolded to be!

The problem, was the whole concept of requiring to promote physical distance went on to become a BIG TECH agenda and a corporate agendas to make good of what could perhaps never been corrected the world over- the new ushering in of the Work From Home (pandemic) – saving corporate dollars at the expense of health and domestic peace of employees! As all of this unwanted drama began to fast take over the real issue, the virus got to do what it was always good to do, so whether you wore a mask or not, if you were stupid enough to get into a close encounter with strangers for no reasons- you were all set to pay the price! Needless to say the conversion of requirement of “physical distancing” to “social distancing” has ushered in a new extent of human to human communication break down (which anyways was fast deteriorating and average) and rest assured the costs of this new illness is yet to be factored in- no matter which part of the world you live in!

You see, science and many of the wise things and people around, really don’t care- what your individual tastes, political preferences or ideological hallucinations are, all organisms and the earth in general follow the laws of science and wherever they are flouted, some shit is bound to hit the roof – somewhere or everywhere! Sure enough, I am not suggesting, humanity did not do anything, but the whole point is all of that would have not been required in the first place, had people given science a chance over unwanted bravado and hasty decisions which simply went on to complicate a problem, leaving humanity wondering- which of the prevailing ones’ are better over the other! If you ask me, the pandemic , was a screaming example highlighting why the world needs meaningful leaders and meaningful leadership! Leadership Pandemic by virtue of Leadership Incompetence is more fatal and dangerous then the virus we found in the year bygone! So now, the million dollar question, fair enough, we screwed up, so next is what? Well, read on!

Well, the clear and present danger going forward is not about the last pandemic or even about, what if that happens again, more importantly it is about, how fundamentally humanity has been altered and how that will unfold! You see, viruses are still predictable once you study them, humans, no matter how much you study them , almost always have the ability and potency to spring up a surprise! This is the real unfolding turbulence and what makes it so fluid, is the fact that humanity (with regards to the people who call the shots) will do so by applying their vaccinate minds- a vaccinated approach to thinking!

The challenge around this development, is that, as a case of once bitten twice shy, even the most routine decision making and calibrated risk (which is so vital and has been a hallmark of humanities progress) is severely compromised and embracing inaction over action tends to become the new normal! You will begin to see decisions unfold which aim to fix what the apparent problem seems to be rather than fixing the real root of the issues cropping up! This is similar to building a bridge with no roads at either ends! The reason why this will develop is that, when you begin to limit human thinking to confines of comfortable and predictable templated outcomes- you end up creating a status quo for humanity and the playground for creative and scientific experimentation begins to shrink! Vaccinated thinking may be very good, perhaps excellent to provide a sterile, isolated social construct to alter a narrative and drive the society in a pre meditated direction, the real issue will start once people reach the destination and realize there is nothing worthwhile to cherish about and the whole journey was a wild trek with no real essence of discovery – internal or external!

The real issue of living a vaccinate future empowered through vaccinated minds is not only about limiting or constricting human expression and discovery, it is also about creating new rules, regulations and norms- written and unwritten that suit a few, drive the agenda of a few and the majority are left with no choice but to comply simply because every small breath of expressive freedom that humans will want to portray will come at a cost- either directly or indirectly and that will go on unless some next big humanist approach sets in to correct the balance! You may ask, but why should this happen, why would people and societies allow this? Well, simply because the nightmare that was created and allowed to manifest was too much too handle for many constituents of the societies world over- so like the small school kid in you, when you mess up with your home assignment and your teacher begins to set a new way of working for you to put you ion a course correction- you listen to all this is said- this is very much like that- and even as that is done- the teacher is completely indemnified and discounted from any element of doubt or incompetence- from the context of “how well was the teacher able to teach to begin with ti reprimand the student!”

Having said this, let me tell you there is still hope, no we will not end up being biometric zombies anytime sooner, but unless societies don’t begin to stand up to stupidity, dumbness and everything that defies science and common-sense, things will keep getting worse and worse! The only way to deal around with the space of vaccinated minds and ensuring our future doesn’t end up being sterile and clinically disconnected or disengaged- is by overpowering meaningless narrative by sensible and meaningful- human centric approaches and anchor on a singular pivot- that all human social progress and development has only been a story of people coming together and collaborating or working together with inspired, meaningful and sane leaders and leadership! You see, you may have a great leader, but if the leader has gone nuts and is aiming to jump down a high cliff, it’s upto you to either stop that leader or at least stop your jump!

The human story, always has and will ever remain to be of creative expression- through individuals, collectively through societies by choosing different mediums of arts and sciences- this is the fundamental bed rock on which human civilizations have thrived, survived and made meaningful progress. As long as you and I know this, assimilate this and act empowered by this thought, we will be able to deal with the dumb vaccinated minds, their un-serving thoughts and disempowering actions and will be able to change and alter the human narrative once again to stories of human empowerment- individual and collective! All that is needed is human centric leader and their humanistic leadership with a generous serving of rationality and common-sense!

I leave you with these thoughts for now, urging you to keep believing in the wisdom of science, rationality and common sense and no matter who says what, no human greatness was ever achieved by limiting human thoughts or expression and the proponents and followers of the vaccinated thinking- will stall sooner than later!

Ciao for now, will be back soon with another one, until then stay safe, stay wise and yes give common-sense a chance, always!

Are you lost in your wonderland?

~ PA ~ Leave a comment

As you go about your busy lives, what is that you are actually engaged in? Are you by any chance a victim of being lost in your own wonderland? Join me here as we take a short walk in this interesting space and try to understand why a major part of humanity almost always ends up living a life entrapped in their own perceptions and hallucinations and what is that we can do about this to break free of these limiting shackles and propel ahead! So here we go!

No matter where you have grown up, all of us have some or the other time read about, “Alice in Wonderland”- that sublime story of adventures of a young girl – something that even to this day brings a smile to any face- just by thinking about it- perhaps one of the most potent examples of great writing and story telling! Coming back to the real world, each one of us too, are entrapped into this “wonderland concept”. You see, you and I included all of us end up living our lives in our small or big wonderland- ever checking into something new, getting excited with something that goes as we plan and getting sad when things don’t measure up as we expect them to- well nothing to complaint about this, because this how human life is supposed to be- the regular journey between achievements and near misses! But the important aspect that we tend to miss is that, we almost always end up limiting our lives within our own found wonderlands!

Now if you have started to wonder about, what kind of wonderlands I am speaking about here, well yes, these are made up of all the perceptions, hallucinations and unfound realities that you tend to stay engaged with on an ongoing basis! What’s more funny is that, often people end up living their full lives running after their limited pursuits confined within their wonderland. So what is really happening here? Well, people are more often then not tricked by their minds and sold into believing what they think with regards to their view and approach is just fine and this is where the “wonderland effect” commences! You see, unless the mind has a ceaseless ability to question, enquire and re-validate whats around and what is being observed on an ongoing basis, people end up calibrating themselves to some metric or standard, which may or may not be relevant and thereby begin to set all their pursuits against this flawed calibration of their own abilities and competencies!

The wonderland effect is operational all around us, all the time, it goes by how we define our life, our approach and what we set out to achieve, the only problem here is that as we succumb to this effect and we tend to forego what we can be really capable of and end up short serving ourselves and others around! You see when you begin to get comfortable with all that is around you- whether it be that job or business you are engaged in, that apartment that you stay in or any other facet for the matter- you are actually ending up short serving yourself- if you tend to say quite often , “I would do this, if only…” for all that is around you! You see the wonderland effect, is all about getting lost into the maze that you have created around you by accumulating unwarranted clutter of people and things- which don’t serve you in any manner and on the contrary tend to drain you to the last drop of sanity that you are left with!

Your wonderland, rather each of our’s wonderland is a reflection of the horizon of our minds where it limits ourselves! This is the zone wherein we become comfortable about who we are, what we can achieve and how we are set on the path of our journey, the reality, sure enough is something altogether different, the reality is all about, going beyond and further then what is apparent and this is exactly why the wonderful effect is so dangerous and damaging- it holds your mind captive to its own imagination! Human minds, are almost always limited by their ability to think and that thinking is limited by the wonderland that we end up gifting ourselves, which, of course again is a product of our thinking, with a touch of our life’s learnings and experiences! If you have observed, I have not said, what is the right way, or the wrong way around this space, simply because there is none and that is what is so wonderful about humanity! It is only when people begin to accept the realities of their wonderland over the truth of their existence and ability, is that problems begin to manifest!

These wonderlands can be a thousand different things to a thousand people and more often then not the hallmark of the wonderlands stems from the foundation of insecurity, missed opportunities and mediocre acceptance before giving a worthy enough fight and attempt! You see, if you take a step back and try to rethink just around who you are, what you could have or can be and what you are currently doing, you will know the essence of what I am saying here! Sure enough there is nothing to sulk, complain or stay pessimistic about whatever life you have chosen or what has come your way- in the case where life ends up choosing you; the million dollar question is, whether you have the realization of the fact that, the life that you have given unto yourself is a sliver of what it actually could be and can be, simply because you are entrapped within your wonderland! So what’s the real story?

Well, as you stay locked into your own self-propagated wonderland, you will run a risk of not achieving what your true potential is, because that always will reside beyond the confines of your wonderland! This is the reason why you find so many people lost and confused each time whether they don’t get that promotion that they desired or when their business does not proceed the way they thought it would! People often end up living a confused life confined by their wonderland, never ever realizing what their real potential is or could have been and only if, they would have taken that one step to move beyond that comfort and predictable zones of their lives- which gives them an enduring sense of surety and safety- both of which are an enduring illusion which melt away as soon as the first major crisis emerges!

How big or small that entrapping wonderland is well largely depends on who and what you are, but more often than not it is proportional to the fears, anxiety and self-doubt and inversely proportional to the intrinsic wisdom and courage that a person may hold! So what’s the ahead?

Well, the only and perhaps the only meaningful way ahead is all about being able to know your wonderland, live through it and while doing so, stay ever aware about the greater world that resides beyond it’s entrapment! It is about developing enough intrinsic courage and leading yourself when the time is apt to move beyond and away form your wonderland to create a new reality for yourself and those around you! Enduring success becomes a lifestyle when you begin to make your wonderland a place of recreation and ensure that you come to visit it once in a while and don’t get trapped within it’s convenient and appealing comforts! The real essence of creating a meaningful life almost always resides beyond your wonderland , unless you are Alice!

I leave you with these thoughts for now, will be back soon with another one, until then stay safe, stay wise and get going for your real life beyond your wonderland!

Ciao, take care!

Thinking-Default, Design or Unique.

~ PA ~ Leave a comment

Human societies the world over are a reflection of the potency and efficacy of their collective thinking which again is a factor of how empowered Individual thinking is! Join me here as we take a walk down the path of the very essence of thinking and try to understand what makes us think the way we do and what is that we can do to sustain and walk the path of empowered thinking! So here we go!

Needless to say the human mind has been at the centre of all medical research and even till this day, we learn new things about it on an ongoing basis. Not going into the space of the clinical aspects of the brain, but staying aligned to the other aspect of it- that is the Thinking Mind- is what seduces Psychologists and Psychiatrists the world over! It is the sheer number of approaches that a Thinking Mind can take to events and triggers that baffles the professionals and even for someone like me who has been engaged in observation and study through behaviour, it is really an engaging discovery!

Through evolution, humanity has been able to harness the power that the brain has been equipped to first secure the “need to have” and then move further to secure and pursue “the good to have”. The essence of human development is the ability to Think! It is when this thinking begins to serve or stall that we experience progress or regress even for Individual, which ultimately ends up becoming the story of the society, simply because thinking too is infectious and contagious! No matter who you are, what you do and how well off you are or not, Thinking typically, if you ask me is either by Default, Design or Unique and based on the extent of mix that an Individual embraces around these three attributes, the space around original Individualistic Thinking is born!

Thinking by Default is pretty simple as it sounds, within this realm, Individual thinking approaches are reined in by set “acceptable” and “conformation” norms (which may or may not be relevant) and furthermore as time progresses, reinforcement of this approach creates compelling patterns- which are picked up by others (as they require) and what we are left with is a society that Thinks in a methodical and directed way (even as the reasons may or may not be valid!). This is the space where emphasis is given more to the process rather then experimentation. When genius stumbles across this space, they have only two options, be a rebel- create a great disruption and alter the narrative of the social construct or simply move away and out and pursue what their Thinking Mind calls for at another place, another society where their thinking is adequately rewarded and not bound to the chains of templated and default thinking!

Default thinking is a great equalizer, that is- it gives everyone a chance to trim at a level and as long as Individuals are ok to accept their trim they will seem to be ultra comfortable at the place where they are. The only risk with Default Thinking is that, it is predictable and can be read with great ease to a greater detail! So when you have Individuals and societies practising this method and approach, all it takes for the other person or a society to create an imbalance is to seed in a conflicting narrative or disruption (big or small- doesn’t matter!). When there are continuing small disruptions, that makes the journey of Default Thinking, tiring and testing. When disruptions are larger, it only makes the approach of Default Thinking that much more difficult pushing it back to a limited Defensive Thinking- simply because the Mind has never been conditioned to deal with what it has come face to face!

When you walk into the space of Thinking by Design or Design Lead Thinking, the whole narrative and approach towards Thinking changes and this is the birth place of Empowered Thinking- Thinking that is empowered by the elements of Design and ushers in a new dimension and potency to Human Thinking- both at Individual and Collective levels! When you begin to think by virtue of the design around you and the one that you behold within, you are directing your thinking in a powerful way to manifest what the design aims for! This is not to be mistaken for “Design Thinking” this is the space where Human mind begins to think and accelerate owing to a trigger from an omnipresent design space- which nudges the brain that can decipher it to work upon it and create new solutions for perplexing problems at macro as well as micro levels! Great innovations and discoveries are indeed a result of the human mind nudged by some compelling contextual design in the space around it! It is confluence of a fertile mind and a contextually empowering design around it, that great marvels of humanity come to see the light of the day! However there is one more higher stage wherein the human mind stays empowered and vibrant like nowhere else and that power emerges from the depths of original or unique thinking- that power is harnessed by diving deep within and coming up with solutions and answers to perplexing questions that plague humanity and when the answers are found, they have the power to alter the course of human history on a massive scale!

You see, original or unique thinking and the ability to do so is deep rooted into the very fabric and essence of the Individual and carries a vibrant stamp of Individual brilliance! This brilliance then waits for no one and has the power to create complimenting contexts and at times even change or alter conflicting settings to become helping or neutral so that the manifestation of the idea (which is held within the empowered original thought) lives to see the light of day! This is the space where iconic business tycoons are born, award wining researchers, scientists, technologists, bureaucrats and politicians all of them are to be found!

In fact if you were to turn back to any page of human history and see narrative altering spaces along that history, you will almost always stumble upon the empowering and original thought or an idea of one individual which had the potency to align everything around itself and set a new path for the society at large! This is where seeds of great revolution are set and this is the path where humanity begins to rally each time it seems to hit a wall or ends up loosing traction for some or the other reason! Hence you see, when nations seem to fail, the population almost always rallies behind a powerful leader who think different and are original and not one among the many templated solutions available and when societies elect templated leaders who are predictable- be assured that society will have a predictable future for both growth and regress- simply because everyone knows when what is coming and how to encash that time and space!

Another way of looking at this space, is that as a fact, each one of us are a combination of all these three approaches and whenever we apply our unique and original approach to what we are dealing with, you will almost always notice that you surge ahead- whether that is a positive or a negative aspect largely depends on what you end up doing with your originality- when you deploy your strengths to serve only you alone- the world is likely to take that as a negative trait, when you display an intent to serve many (that’s what normal societal norms are all about!) automatically what you choose to do, sounds humanistic and is taken as a great deed or idea! Have doubts? Well, just observe the business landscape around you right now and the political leaders of your choice, you will know what I meant here!

There is a good reason why Thinking is so vital (all of which is visible around us as it begins to get manifested!) and the path that you choose to take- rather the segment that you allow to dominate as your natural approach to think and manifest, is what will bring to life- what you manifest for yourselves and those around you!

I leave you with these thoughts for now, keep thinking and think as you must and as you can and as often you may! Ciao for now, will be back soon with another one soon!

Stay safe, stay wise and yes Think!

Empowered by Alignment.

~ PA ~ 1 Comment

Whether you want to be the President of the USA or head that major business global conglomerate or perhaps let alone everything around aside, just plain survive and live another day, each of these scenarios have one thing in common, which is that, all of them are empowered by alignment- alignment to the contexts, people and places which play a vital role after you have encashed your intrinsic attributes! Join me here as we explore this space and understand how alignment empowers and what is that You and I can do to ensure we have an endless supply of this potent empowerment! So here we go!

Books written around success and failures are more often about specific instances and stories that are meant to share some insights about the times and places that went on to contribute to either make the people who they became or not! Importantly what they often miss out or perhaps intentionally leave out is this vital piece (may be a small sliver of information) which primarily provides clarity on the space around the alignment which went on to create what has eventually manifested! You see, the food used in the kitchens of our homes is almost the same, but the magic happens only when a chef touches it! Not that we end up cooking bad, but it is simply about the ability of the chef to excel and surge ahead, making even our best efforts ending up looking average! So what is alignment all about and how does it empower?

To understand alignment, you need to imagine left in a room with everything that you probably need in life, strewn across the floor, sounds overwhelming and challenging? Well, yes it is and that’s what perhaps life is all about! Sieving through challenges and being able to get answers in the nick of time as and when they are most needed! All of us know, a sorry doesn’t make a dead person come back to life! But at the same time, merely having all that we require through our life around us, doesn’t assure progress or success! This is the space where alignment steps in- by default for some and by design for yet few others and by accident for yet others; it is only when alignment takes charge that things around- people , places and contexts included- each one of these begin to make sense and as these are deployed with intent and purpose magic begins to get created and people find their lives turning in the direction that they wish it to and that’s when you begin to hear the phrases, “Success has been magical, I just had this thought and then everything seemed to conspire for it’s success!” This is why and how alignment empowers and accelerates an individual’s life journey!

Alignment can mean different things for different people! People may have challenges with the very fundamental aspect of aligning their life to a meaningful purpose to begin with, if that is sorted then there can be a challenge to find alignment to the right path to take them ahead on the chosen path, and if that was not enough, there are the ever going alignment issues that are dynamic- which deal with the people and the contextual surroundings around! It is only when people are able to decipher these fine areas and apply their pursuit consistently in a way that it traverse these questions that, alignment is felt and experiences, that is when you begin to meet all the right people, at the right time and at the right places and when this is empowered by your intrinsic intelligence, drive, purpose and intent- success is more or less assured- how big or small that will be, whether it will be momentary or a long term one- that depends on the dynamic elements of people and contextual settings all through the cherished journey that has been undertaken!

So does it mean that without alignment, you and I are destined to fail and falter? Not at all, in fact depending on what your intrinsic construct is, if you are the type that enjoys more challenges and have mastered the art and science of enduing sustained pain and challenge- a misaligned contextual setting of life around you may actually make you work with a more fierce focus and intent thereby not only assuring your success, but making you someone- about whom mentions are etched in the books of history and human excellence! Alignment only ensures that you can reach and achieve what you set out for, in the most optimal way as it should be! Deviation from alignment is an indicator that one of your elements that contribute for alignment is not firing well enough and in fact, creating divergence rather then congruence within the finer spaces of an integrated pursuit of your goals!

For alignment to work for you, it all begins by tidying up your room! It all starts by putting in that first step of having your resources well marked and well identified at the right places- seems selfish, but that is how it is supposed to be, something as elementary as identifying the scholarship that you wish to have during high school to the city where you would like to pursue your research or those mentors under whose guidance you would like to appreciate the subject of your choice- choices like these and many more- are what go on to make alignment become real, meaningful and something that serves your pursuits so that you not only achieve what you have set out for , but do so with optimal ease and maximum efficiency! This is the very essence of having an aligned approach to your life! Once you have taken that extra effort of the first step, rest assured as time flows, a lot that doesn’t serve you will be washed away and what needs to stay gets cemented and reinforced and at times acquires the flavour of your personality and thereby help you to stamp that iconic style that you eventually become- simply because you led an aligned life which has empowered you!

Sure enough, based on who you are, what you do and where you want to be, alignment, it’s nature, effort and variables will change, some will be easy, some difficult, but irrespective of all that, one singular fact always remains and that is; alignment has the power to empower and for that to happen the first step begins with You, tidying up your life and then pursuing meaningfulness, designed along the journey and the destination that you choose to undertake!

I leave you with these thoughts for today, urging you to take some time off and run a “C” check on your alignment space, who knows, it may just accelerate your empowerment in the year ahead!

Ciao for now, will be back soon with another one, until then stay wise, stay active and align to empower!

The Influence collective.

~ PA ~ Leave a comment

Every second of our lives, either we are being influenced by someone or something or we are the ones’ who are influencing someone! Join me here as we travel down this route and understand how Influence plays such a acritical role and what are the aspects that make it work for us or against us! So here we go!

Humanity is but a story of Human Influence! Whether the influence is a positive reinforcement or a regressive one, that is not really the question- simply because a singular event can mean a thousand different things to the different people who are witnessing it or are part of it! Influence perhaps is what has empowered human thinking more then anything else ever! It has enabled humans settle across continents, innovate and experiment, fail and succeed within reasonable margins.Influence can operate at different levels- Individually we are influencing every member of our family and friend circle that we have around us and those who seek us, when we expand that radius of influence a further outward- we are then in company of the chosen professional or creative pursuits which pull us, push us and eventually play a great role in shaping us- to become who we become and come to be known as with regards to – not the person who we are- but rather by virtue of what we are good or great at doing and undoing! Move a step further out and now you have expanded your radius far and wide enough to Influence and get Influenced by the major headwinds that shape aspects of the society that you are a part of- whether as a constituent- as an enabler or as the one who wields the power to alter the narrative and usher in a new chapter! So you see, from your own individual self to the big broad world all around you- everything is but a sum total of Influence- how much and who is pulling and pushing around and about what- is what the connected stories of the world really are all about!

Influence is by nature contagious- infectious if that’s the word you like more! Something really sublime and people will fall for it- how much and for how long- that depends on what is at stake, who is influencing, and whom and for what – what is there in it for everyone who is a part of it! the human mind is always seeking the elixir to an easy life and one way that the mind has come to think of as an answer around this – is lapping up Influence and for some reason- more vocal the Influence is- the easier it gets sold! Think around it- se the examples around the world- even as we know and would pretty much agree upon- religious heads, pastors, evangelists have far more less followers and practitioners- then politicians, bureaucrats and corporate founders! What does this tell you about Influence itself? Whether you are a believer or an atheist- you are bound to be Influenced by something that urges you to take a stand between those two extremes- but even that Influence pales in front of the Influence that Leaders (Political and Corporate) have- this is simply because what they do and undo- straightway impacts on how well you live or survive or exist! You see, when it comes to crunch time where your mind is making fast and rapid decisions to ensure you live to stay another day- it is also calibrating the Influence that you must receive and what is that you should do with it, This space around dealing with the diverse Influence that our lives are subject to is the essence of the Influence Collective and our Lives more often then not resemble, reflect and eventually end up becoming what they do based on which of the prevailing Influences get an upper hand over our mind!

There is nothing like a grading system or a ranking system when it comes to Influence- you see, you don’t get sold to be influenced by a Pastor or a Writer- simply because their marketing collateral says that they have touched a million lives and a million best sellers have been sold! You buy into their influence, only and only If , that Influence stays meaningful, relevant and of value to you in the contextual settings that you are in, as long as an Influence promises to provide answers for the questions of your today and fast approaching tomorrow, you will tag along- the moment you sense that the potency of the Influence is waning and it is unable to provide you clarity on the bends ahead, you will begin to seek alternative sources to stay Influenced, Inspired and to ensure that you stay aligned to your chosen path to achieve what you have set out for!

The journey of Influence begins with our childhood and ends up with us in our graves! Our lives are modelled and shaped by forces of competing and perhaps at times of conflicting Influences- when people are able to soak them up and improvise them to serve them- these people often end up as magical beings, seemingly rock solid and with amazing clarity of mind and soul, and yet at other times when people tend to succumb to Influences- they end up just living a life at their lowest potential- completely broken or faltered for no fault of theirs!

Influence is what has moulded, shaped and nourished human minds through time in memorial, whether it is about the potent minds of the scientists, engineers, creative wizards or whether it is the case of minds gone wrong-who have shown others- the not so accepted path to achieve fame, all of them have been stories of Influence- stories where conflicting and competing Influences have come to shape human minds- their thinking and what’s more interesting is that, what Influences the mind today, may not necessarily Influence the mind the next time around- hence the mad scramble to sustain and uphold one ideology- one thought- no matter what it takes- just to ensure that the fleeting mind does not get even a tiny window to explore or taste some other Influence- which may end up creating new and more racemic outcomes- which may or may not be helpful!

Another interesting facet of Influence is that it shows up the way we You and I behave and engage with the world- all those serving and un-serving Influences whether played out openly (like Politicians do) or shared like a select deck of cards (like what the corporate world does) all go to reflect and make a statement about who and what we have ended up becoming as a net result of the Influences that we have been exposed to or in some cases what others and people around us end up becoming because of what we end up serving to them as part of the Influence legacy that we wish to further!

You have all seen the flowing waters of a river- the name of the river never changes, but the waters are never the same! Likewise the concept of Influence is paramount and fundamental to the story of humanity- all the highs and lows included- what is worthwhile to remember is the fact that every Influence, no matter how similar it may seem, is always new, fresh and original simply because the minds that are engaged with are dynamic, ever evolving and the contextual stories around too are always on the move! This is what makes Influence even more trickier in that context! Just think- religions and belief systems have persisted for close to 10-20,000 years for now- across different cultures, civilizations by one name or the other , yet even till this day- there are divergent views, converging ideas, conflicting assertions and competing narratives for almost every space around these subjects! Add to this the cladding of Influence- the greater the Influence, better it gets for a specific narrative to be furthers over the others and the journey goes on!

Sure enough, this does not have to be the realm of philosophers and seers, even when it comes to the routines of our mundane lives, you will almost feel the pressures of conflicting and competing Influence and how that goes on to play havoc with your mind and as your mind gets more and more compelled to make those choices day in and day out on an ongoing basis- it eventually starts to act bizarre and begins to choose what suits it and what is convenient – completely overriding and overlooking the contents part of the Influences coming its way- the result- you have nations wondering, “how the hell they ended up electing the people they did and how did they end up being the society they have become!”

So what’s the wise way? Well it all starts and ends with You! As long as you are able to use and deploy your self-awareness as a pivot to discern the world around you and know what your pursuit is and then go on to align the Influences in a way that they provide required value to your pursuits; you will be safe, wise and well on your way empowered by the meaningful and serving Influences, even if they are competing or conflicting! The moment you fail to know yourself and what is the purpose of your life’s journey- even the most potent of Influences will become completely meaningless and un-serving!

I leave you with these thoughts for now, urging you to take some time off, grab that coffee and try to appreciate the two fundamental aspects of your life- what is Influencing you and what is that you Influence and in all of this what is that you are ending up becoming for better or worse!

Ciao for now, will be back soon with another one, until then stay safe and stay wise!

What you search is what you find!

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The real essence of human excellence resides not only in being able to have the right answers or solutions on hand, but importantly it is about being able to ask the right questions! Join me here as we take a quick short tour around this space to understand why being able to ask the right questions, matters more than having the right answers!

The greatness of humanity is seldom an act of accidents, rather it is a culmination of events one after the other, either synchronous or asynchronous all based on the potency of the questions raised by the ever curious and nourished mind! Societal progress has been a factor of having more such potent questions which go on to engage the brightest minds and thereby alter the course of societal growth and pathways!

The mind limits its pursuits in accordance to the questions that it is engaged with. As long as the questions are not routine and are original, the mind will be compelled to seek answers and depending on the rewards that go alongside will be steadfast and consistent until the answers are found! This is the very essence of great inventions and discoveries! A state of human mind where it simply is programmed to achieve what it has set out for and all that being made possible by the essential first step- that of asking a potent question!

Sure enough, this seems to a philosopher’s territory, but isn’t that who we are at the very foundation? Modern lives have set us up for some fast paced lifestyle where our thinking, questioning and solution seeking has all ended up being another menu on the fast- food table! We tend to seek short ended questions and sure enough get served with short serving answers! There is nothing right or wrong around this space- As a coach I can tell you that, you see everyone has the right to calibrate what their life’s mainstay should be or can be, but what then becomes singularly important is the fact of acceptance of life that comes your way- it has to be firm and unambiguous! You see, you can’t expect a great and iconic life or life style if you are hinged to mediocre questioning mindset! Neither will you be able to lead a normal and ordinary life if you stir up the hornet’s nest by taking a deep dive into fundamental questions that perhaps plague humanity or your society and when the answers come you way- there is no escaping, but taking them in your stride and working selflessly to execute and deploy them as it is meant to be!

We all are pretty aware of the elementary facet of the human minds’s never ending curiosity and wanting to seek more and more- but within this space of wanting to seek more- bringing in the qualitative part of the question becomes critical! As long as the questions have a great amount of depth, consistency and potency in terms of their influence and impact, rest assured you will always reach meaningful solutions and answers and once they come your way- your ability to deploy has the power to establish a new order! But how can this be made possible? Is the mind able to deal with this level of engagement on an ongoing basis without being entrapped into fatigue?

The secret to this answer lies in the intrinsic alignment that an Individual has when it comes to the space of enquiry! Some of us are naturally more inclined to ask questions that are compelling, far reaching and more challenging and there are few of us who are quite contend with the answers provided to the routine questions that life presents us with. based on what is your natural alignment, you will find it comfortable asking questions which are mapped to who you are and hence even the potency of your questions will be sharper or diffused accordingly! Ever wondered why not all researchers end up getting the coveted Nobel Prize, or why not all Actors end up getting The Oscar, part of that answer lies in this space! People who end up creating and weaving magic or some breakthrough almost always are engrossed and hooked up to some compelling fundamental questions and unless they find a meaningful closure which befits the question, they don’t stop and it is this pursuit which ends up defining what their life is all about and hence- in a way- you can say- they end up living a life which is nothing more but a pursuit of one fundamental question – which their curios mind has set them up against as their seeking of a lifetime!

As it happens with Individuals, the same can be sensed at a societal levels! As long as societies are able to ask pertinent questions and seek meaningful answers, societies progress, the day societies tend to get myopic and begin to hang up on short term questions for quick short term answers, in the long run they almost always are left short changed with no real purpose of direction and no meaningful leader to lead the way! So whats the way ahead, you may ask!

Well, to really keep it simple, the meaningful way ahead is to behold a dynamic balance of questions- few pertinent – long term and fundamental and yet a few others which are meant for the short term and that yield short term answers- because all of us can’t be philosopher’s and neither can all of us as part of humanity get dressed up everyday for a party that doesn’t exist! Unless Individuals and societies understand this bit and are able to deploy a balance in meaningful pursuits through a healthy mix of different types of questions, progress will tend to get sporadic and sublime, rather then being consistent and predictable!

Whether it is the pursuit of a belief system that you follow, or that of your favourite philosophical approach or perhaps a directed and focussed contemplation about the world around you, whatever your compelling need may be- all your pursuits will almost always end in proportion to the quality of your questions and what is that you set out to seek- as long as you are consistent with that bit! This is the reason why life is almost always all about serving you, with what you set out to seek, seek greatness you shall receive it, seek the routine pursuits and that’s exactly what you will end up having served to you!

I leave you with these thoughts for now and urging you to make an attempt to understand what is that you have embarked upon as a journey, based on the questions that you behold- for the answers and the manifestations, all of them will only be aligned to what you begin with and what you seek!

Ciao for now, will be back soon with another piece soon! Until then stay wise and seek great solutions through some awesome questions!

Calm within the Storm.

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All of us have heard about the saying, “The Calm before the Storm”, but humanity and it’s modern advancement also brings us face to face with something called as “The Calm within the Storm”. Join me here as we travel down this space and understand how this can help us and why each one us- irrespective of who we are, is a story of holding greater calms within the storms that brew! So here we go!

The old known way of the calm before the storm arrives, is pretty well known, that is how nations makes their presence felt, that is how societies react and that also is how Individuals act and react. But when it comes to the matters of holding the Calm within the storm- things change completely and this change is what goes on define the event as a normal one or an iconic one depending on how well you embrace the calm within the storm that you are engaged with!

Human lives, today, are as complex as one can think about! At one end the ever present challenges of managing and dealing with the human elements of the stories that surround you and at the other end is the completely enslaved lifestyle- enslaved to your work or the technological dependence (which has been sold to each one us as Independence). What this ends up doing is that, irrespective what we pursue as individuals or collectively as a society, we end up fighting battles at different times for different reasons- with or without provocation and even as we do that in a particular area- we tend to be at absolute calm or bliss in yet some other facets of our life! This is what is the real essence of the clam within the storm- why is this so important- simply because, if we are able to shift the calm within to the sectors where the storm is brewing as transiently as we end up being in a storm, we would be able to manage a major part of our “real and apparent problems” more effectively and in a timely manner!

You see, as we end up living the many lives and the roles that we have to play, given the life that we have and who we are to whom and how many around- it is simply impossible to be all fine, all the time with everyone around- the reality of life is that we will end up being fine with a few, not so great with a few and in between with yet other things and people- it is within these spaces that many a times we end up stirring up the storms in the tea-cup for trivial issues and often neglect the real issues and when they come biting back- we are almost always lost with the “why me” phase and more often than not we end up misdirecting the calm quotient that we have to areas where we don’t need to stay clam and end up burning up ore intensely situations where a momentary calm would have eased up the situation and provided the much required breathing space.

The whole idea of appreciating and reaching “the calm within the storm” is also about being able to practise restraint and continue with a calm composed working mind even as you are fighting a battle or waging a meaningful war! Many a conflicts that people face or end up raking up is all about not being able to harness this internal oasis of clam even as they venture to deal with emerging challenges. irrespective whether these challenges are intrinsic, contextually propagated or manifested by virtue of who you are and what you are supposed to do and enact- as long as you are able to tap into the space of your internal calm, you will be able to prevail whatever comes your way! This also is another hallmark of iconic leadership- something that great international leaders display- even as they are maligned, misquoted, misrepresented or sold out by other of being something different from who they really are- it is their intrinsic ability to tap into the depths of their calmness that empowers them to overlook all and any provocation coming their way. Problems become irreparable only when they fail at this ability to overlooks and run short of their intrinsic calm and that’s when rapid actions are manifested and at times they tend to be detrimental to all that has ever got built or achieved earlier on! So how do we cultivate this space of inner calm- it it is so vital and of core value to our ability to stay engaged with worldly affairs? Read on!

It all starts by developing a high level of self-awareness and a deliberate approach by practising the pause, as that initiates you to embrace the calm withing even as you are in the thick of things! Even as you are trying to figure out solutions for compelling problems, once you have reached the calm within- rest assured you will be able to take a better and holistic path to solve what you are dealing with and more often than not your quality of decisions will greatly improve thereby resulting in fewer problems on hand as times progresses! This provides you greater clarity as well and this ensues that you can pick and choose your battles well and once you are in midst of one of them, you are able to decisively take them and end them at a place and time of your choice! Great political leaders have mastered this art and as you sieve through pages of history, you will find many such examples where- despite great odds, a calm and resolute approach has helped to turn the tide of time and created new history and at times even drawn new geographical lines on the face of the earth!

Apart from the intrinsic greatness, what also is needed is the appropriate contextual setting and the apt audience without which even the deepest oasis of calm will be misread as being passive, inert or incompetent- for when it comes to the virtue of perseverance or resilience often people are mistaken to be weak or inapt to act decisively fast!

As long as you are able to hold your calm and tap into that reserve when it matters the most and are able to time it well and to the extent that it must be- you will almost always end up surprising your detractors and be able to grow your team, no matter what the overbearing circumstance around you! “John C Maxwell has always said- Leadership is Influence- Nothing more, nothing less” and if you want to know about one powerhouse that provides that vital source of dynamism and momentum- it is the depth and spread of the calm that you hold within- all the while as you are engaged with and dealing with the routine worldly battles to foster what serves the greater good. Making routine choices between choosing battles which either represent the “need to have ” or “good to have” becomes easier when they are done by tapping through the intrinsic calm and more often then not the decisions taken then are more meaningful and long lasting!

I leave you with these thoughts for now, urging you to tap and maintain that inner reservoir of your calm, for that alone will empower and assist you when the crunch time arrives as you keep shifting your focus from one battle to the next as you keep moving towards your life aspirations!

Ciao for now, will be back soon with another one! Until then stay safe and stay wise! Remember, all greatness is held within and for the same to manifest externally it has to draw the power from your oasis of calm!

More than meets the Eye!

~ PA ~ Leave a comment

If you have been simply overwhelmed by what’s unfolding in the US or getting tormented by the worsening pandemic in Europe or being simply anxious due to the lack of focus on your nation by the big world of news, relax and breathe easy! There is always more then meets the eye when it comes to scenarios like these and many more, what’s more important is the fact, that these aspects not only impact the social fabric or nations, but also impact the way we engage with people around us, family, friends, clients, vendors and co-workers! Join me as we explore this space and perhaps understand what really is happening, why is it that way and what is that we can do about it! So here we go!

Irrespective of how we want it to be, our world tends to remain as complex as it is and moves a notch higher with each passing day complicating even what was uncomplex earlier, whether this is good or bad, right or wrong is not the question, the real question, is why is the world allowed to function with this approach even as so called experts and eminent people are at the helm of affairs- no one would argue right? we have the best brains at the best places- fair enough you may say, you don’t with a few or many- but the point here is- we have the finest human minds around- all societies across segments- yet we allow this ever increasing complexity around and within our lives- why does it happen? Well read on!

The essence of our modern world is all about distraction and deviation! If you have any friends in the community that wears an uniform or even in the ones’ that don’t, do ask them! The arena of global geo-politics has always been about deviation and distraction for the simple reason that it gives nations some time on hand to tweak what they must within their nations to be ready for the externally altered realities as they unfold! The real mess begins when nations start to deploy this age old technique to manage and govern their own citizens. As this sacred instrument is used rampantly for no real rhyme or reason just to score some political brownies points for stupid reasons, what it ends up doing largely all over the world is that we end up having more confused societies that are replete with overconfidence of what they believe reality is! Furthermore once you add to these different influential and sensitive attributes of a society like access to education, health and poverty- you have a complete disaster unfolding at any given time across some society, some nation! If you thought these problems end here, well think again! What manifests in the broader spectrum of the social space, ends up walking into the corporate world and at times even goes further to impact Individual behaviour and their dependence!

You see, as long as the game is played to safeguard national interests with limited collateral damage of assets, things are generally acceptable the world over, however when usage becomes rampant, uncontrolled , unchecked and importantly when private firms – read Big Tech’s assume and seize control to manipulate and complicate things further, the world ends up being a playground of the select few, who at any given time are playing out their moves to fulfil their short term and long term agendas and you will be surprised to learn that at times even the most seemingly powerful political establishments of the world, end up being mere rubber stamps and allow them to flow unchecked (simply because it is a case of tiger which was raised mistaking it to be cute kitten! Think about it! Just choose a political development of your choice, do you really think that the highest office in your nation would not have been aware of what is likely to unfold? Think! As I said in my earlier article, when big stakes come in the picture, the games are bigger and the moves are equally unforgiving and outright dangerous!

When it comes to the corporate world, remember the last big institutional sale you made, or someone you know made, or that government order, someone from your firm got, what was the story like? You got it right? There were those missing links which you would have never known- even if you would have sold some service or product- this is how this aspect of “More than meets the eye” plays along in the corporate corridors! Whether it is that surprising rejig, new appointments, dismissals, resignations, joint ventures, sell offs’ the whole spectrum of business moves is almost always shrouded by calibrated distractions and higher the stakes, higher, wider and deeper is the distraction! So what is that we can do about these aspects, is there anything that we can really do, if all of this is so deep rooted and widespread?

Well, to begin with, if you ask me, perhaps the only way to emerge wiser to the other side, while dodging all this, is by verifying, checking and fact checking multiple times across different contexts, people and settings, simply because, everyone’s truth is owned by each one of them and one person’s truth can be another person’s lie or nightmare! Sounds daunting right? Well, but if the stakes are as high as running a nation or taking a call on a billion dollar deal, what else would you do and how else would you go ahead? Sure enough no one is asking you to deploy this approach as you rush to buy that soft drink or pick up your burger, but you need to calibrate and seek your own level at which you would want to and should deploy a greater understanding about what’s unfolding around you with regards to a chosen area that impacts you in a greater way the perhaps the way it does you friends siting next to you or anyone else for that matter! That is the real essence of dealing with the deployment of deviation and distraction- by enhancing your understanding and mentioning on things and spaces that really impact you greatly to a point that neglecting them could land you up in what I call as existential crisis!

You see, deviation and distraction is an art and science much needed when it comes to securing nations or societal safety, but when this is used too often and for wrong reasons,it can have disastrous consequences and further complicate the matters to a level that segments within the society begin to mistrust each other and when that goes further unchecked you can feel the same vibes as you begin to interact with and work with people in a given society- that is when you start to see social segmentation and preferences gaining more speed and priority over Individual competence and that’s how social degradation commences!

Final words before I conclude here, whether you like it or not there is always more than meets the eye, in almost everything around us and when it comes to big stakes, greater is the deviation and distraction- be wise enough not to get sold into what is seen or shown to you- reality could be something else and the truth can be something altogether different!

Ciao for now, will be back soon with another one, until then stay safe, stay wise and see what is hidden in plain sight!

The “C” check approach.

~ PA ~ 1 Comment

The “C” check is perhaps one of the greatest learning points that we can borrow from the aviation industry! Typically in a “C” check the aeroplane is take out piece by piece, section by section, to have a through inspection, fault rectification and retrofitting of latest technology updates, hardware and software and so on and so forth- all with a singular purpose of making them as safe as ever, create that feel of newness and importantly to do away with accumulated clutter- through wear and tear and perhaps juts by being there! By the time you complete the comprehensive “C” check on the aeroplane it is as good as it gets- perhaps a shade short of being a totally new piece! Join me here to understand how this “C” check coming from the aviation industry is so relevant to who we are as Individuals and what is that we can learn from this space and apply to make our lives a shade better and brighter so that we feel empowered enough to keep soaring higher and flying further as we pursue the goals of our life!

Given the kind of complexity, that we have given to ourselves through the modern lives that we live and lead, we too are a complex piece of bio-engineering with a fleeting, thinking mind all empowered through our available sensory and extra-sensory perceptions! Like any other machine, we too fail, at times that element of failure is manageable and yet some other times that can end up being a disaster- as you have with aeroplanes- sometimes they have minor incidents and at times big disasters unfold! So what does the “C” check really do?

Well, sure enough I am no aeronautical engineer, but in plain speak- the “C”check is when the aeroplane is completely dismantled piece by piece and section by section and experts for relevant areas are put to work to check what’s working, fix what’s not and make better what can in the areas that they have expertise! What this ends up doing is, that by the end of the “C” check, the aeroplane is almost as new as it can get! The “C” check is where, the obsolete hardware and wear and tear is taken out- what doesn’t seem to be the right thing to stay on the aeroplane is done away with, what needs to get updated- does get updated and while doing so, all the relevant flight deck logs are checked for the aeroplane in concern- comments by pilots, observations by flight engineers, dispatch notes, cabin crew remarks- anything and everything that can be accessed is accessed with a sole purpose for getting as much as details as one can get so that the teams can fix all that is essential and all that is possible, so that the need to have is done right- first always and all the time and the good to have is too cared for as much as they can! When there are issues and things aren’t seemingly going anywhere, adequate safety guidelines and measures are updated and communicated to those for whom it matters and that’s how after a “C” check you have a completely rejuvenated and re-calibrated aeroplane- ready once again to touch the skies and travel the world!

Given the kind of complex machines that we humans are, it is just a matter of time before we begin to experience our kind of wear and tear- for some it is part emotional, intellectual and part physical, for few it is one of these three and for yet others, they experience varying degrees between the three at different points in time of their life and the fact remains that no matter how well you manage to pilot your life- you will hit turbulence some or the other time and you will have odd days while landing and taking off- so you too will end up having considerable wear and tear in areas where the exposure is the most!

Like with the aeroplanes, with humans too a complete resurrection is possible, but for that too happen, we must be ready to get ourselves grounded for some time! the societies we live in today are fast paced that even the compelling visit to the doctor often ends up getting optional – result- what was a simple problem, more often then not ends up getting more complicated and complex! Unknown to most of us, many of the problems that we end up facing are largely apparent and a result of the inadequate time that we are able to provide to decipher and appreciate what is unfolding around us as we tend to rush through the daily routine of our assumed lives! The first and most important compelling condition for getting a “C” check done is not when problems begin to become frequent or when a disaster unfolds, rather it is much before any of this can manifest- the time for the “C” check is every few months, years or perhaps a decade depending on who you are and what is your contextual reality of life! Your “C” check is directly hinged upon what you do and what you don’t, what you think and what you don’t, it is deeply intrinsic to who you are and the “C” check will only work for you as long as it is designed and deployed the way it addresses the challenges faced by you! So what is that really can be achieved and done through a “C” check for the human machine- that is what we have become!

Well, to begin with , always have all the checks , “scheduled”. There is no place in aviation for breakdown maintenance, the whole industry is all about preventive maintenance, we need to apply this space and ensure that, based on our intrinsic and unique requirements we are able to schedule our routine pit stops and checks and even the all important “C” check. Depending on who you are and what you do, this “C” check could be once a year, once every few years or perhaps once in a decade and it is also vital (for most of us) that we have a separate ‘C” check for our intellectual, emotional and physical health simply because, in the times we live in- we are very unlikely to have a sync or unity of gaol and purpose across all the three segments that go on to govern and define our health and well-being! But what will the human “C’ check be all about- rather what can it be about and how can it help?

Well, on each of the segments that go on to define our well being (the physical, emotional and intellectual) we need to choose our scheduled “C” check and as we do that, the more wear and tear we have in any one area, will begin to stand out and you will know with absolute clarity what is that hold you back in a given area and what is that you can do to resolve it! Whether it is the challenge of a career you have at hand, or the challenge of embracing a healthy life style- whatever that could be, once you schedule your “C” check and decide to take an adequately long pause- you will be able to come to terms with what is that really holds you back in a given area and disempowers you from realizing your fullest potential! Once you are able to do this and decipher the challenge , you will find that with each new “C” check up your problems and challenges will begin to get more unique new and something that progressively uplifts you to the next level of who you can be!

Your “C” check is a deliberate time that you are ready to invest in yourself so that once the creases are ironed out- you are a tad better then what you were earlier and are able to focus on what you intend to with a renewed approach and zeal! Just as in the case of the aeroplane, during the “C” check as every component is checked, double checked, calibrated and finetuned for the aeroplane’s performance, your “C” check too is meant to transform your life for the days ahead in a similar way- something that empowers you and aligns you to your chosen path of progress and pursuits that you may have!

I leave you here with these thoughts, urging you to take some time off and have your first “C” check scheduled in the area that troubles you the most, rest assured as you come on the other side of your scheduled down time, you will be more aligned, focussed and rejuvenated then ever before!

Ciao for now, will be back soon with another one, until then stay wise and stay safe!

Shaping the future of our Future!

~ PA ~ Leave a comment

We all know this too well, that the future of humanity is not in the workplaces or the offices as I type this, but rather it is across the different grades of lower school, middle school and high school across societies at this very moment! Join me here as we try to take a look into what is unfolding around that space and why we must be so concerned and what is that we can do to influence our future, just enough to nudge it in the right direction so that they have a wonderful future! So here we go!

If you are able to take that necessary pause and just observe around you, what you will see is that, unlike the earlier times (perhaps when you were a kid) there was a enough space and content for you to imagine, research and innovate. The current lifestyles that societies have embraced have simply ended up the free space and time for introspection, reflection and enquiry. No one is suggesting you to pursue philosophy, but the fact remains that unless the human mind is able to perform directed and focussed enquiry, nothing worthwhile or meaningful can ever be achieved or realized, individually or collectively as a society!

Societies around the world, even right upto the early 90’s were spaced out in the sense that, there was a choice that people could exercise, with regards to what they wanted to pursue and how they wanted to pursue it! Societies then had the space to accommodate and facilitate much of the diversity that society had to offer. If you have some doubt around this bit- just study the great organizations and icons who have made their names in the last 10-15 years, chances are they were a product of the societies of the bygone era and what they were able to create was a direct consequence of the society that they moved around in and that’s how magic and an enduring foundation for human progress has always been built!

Human imagination and creative pursuits require space and time, both of which have become a rarity- given the way societies have gone ahead and embraced the lifestyles in the last two decades. If global connectivity has been a great asset for accelerating progress and development of human societies, the same has robbed away societies of valuable space and stretched time which are so vital for ensuring that innovation and pace of progress is managed and furthered on an ongoing basis! This is why it becomes so important to understand what is unfolding around today, because all of that influences the young minds and since they are the future- the ability to create their future becomes easy or difficult depending upon what is happening in the now!

Our todays’ are invariably unforgivingly compressed and intense which leave little or not time for that much needed spaced out enquiry and that is the real danger that the current young minds face across societies all throughout the world! What this is invariably resulting into is a world where everyone is just thinking and solving apparent problems which they may have to face as long as they are and hence nothing enduring or worthwhile is ever made or come to life! Whether it is the arena of science, creative arts or even perhaps commerce- all equations and strategies are aimed to solve the problem of this year and perhaps the next few years or may be at the most of a decade but no one is really focussing enough for what resides beyond that horizon and this is what needs to be changed and that too pretty urgently- unless we want to end up handing over the world complete with myopic solutions to the future generations who in turn end up creating further such myopic visions and that eternal short changed world keeps moving on! So what needs to be done?

The first step to get humanity and the youngsters out of the rut of boxed and good-to-have thinking is all about ensuring that they have access to adequate time to think and observe what there is- rather than being asked to observe “few things around”. This small yet fundamental change can go a long way in empowering young minds to see beyond and observe aspects that surround their lives in a more holistic manner so that when the time comes to apply their thoughts, innovation or action, they are able to discern well enough and now how pulling the chord at one end of a social fabric can unleash cascading impacts not only within their society but also perhaps across societies around the globe! The only way that young minds today can insure and safeguard their future is by being able to direct their thinking and observation more towards what will be and what is that they want there to be, rather then focussing on what is and what can be- that is what happens as young minds take the first few steps of the corporate world!

Sure enough there are great organizations which allow their work force to innovate and possibly develop solutions that seem to be the promise of the future ahead, these manifestations only happen in organizations whose founders have appreciated the value of the human mind, its potency to seek solutions through stretched space and slowed time! What we can do today is that we can create that much needed stretch of time and space for the young minds around us. This can be the first and foundational step wherein we begin to encourage enquiry of all that is around us an prompt these young minds to seek advancements that outlast their lifetimes and go beyond! This change of approach to thinking wherein Individuals and collectively societies are urged to seek solutions and answers to what is around for a long hauls, is what will go on to make the big change and difference in the young minds and empower them enough to pursue a future that they will be proud to behold and pass on!

Humanity’s progress has been a testimony to the fact that great advancements have been made possible only when the most gifted human minds were free from oppressions, directed thinking and boxed-in settings! All great discovery and meaningful greatness which has lingered on for centuries and beyond was only possibly when the human mind was given that critical space and time to ponder, observe and infer in a way that serves the larger good for a longer time for everyone around!

I leave you with these thoughts for now, urging you to get that free space and slowed time for yourself to begin with to hold that meaningful enquiry which can set you on to the path of enquiry and once that happens you can go on to influence the young minds around you, so that they are able to emulate what is more potent, dynamic and answers the challenges of their tomorrow and not of our today!

Ciao for now, will be back soon with another one! Until then stay safe and keep pondering about what could be the great idea of your life!

The Legacy Collective.

~ PA ~ Leave a comment

Humanity has always had an intriguing relation when it comes to the whole concept of legacy! Legacy means so many different things to so many different people based on who they are and where they are, but one singular aspect of the legacy collective is the fact that, each and every act and thought deployed with the thought of legacy anchored within has always been associated with a fleeting want of immortality! Jon me here as we try to understand, what the legacy collective is all about and why the pursuit of creating a legacy and wanting to uphold one is so fundamental to humanity even in these dynamic times and how our world makes that pursuit so fragile and dynamic! So here we go!

Human kind has always been fascinated with the whole aspect of heroism, heroics and the legacy that have been handed over through the generations! Take a walk down the countryside anywhere around the world, you will be sure to find the local folklore and the intricate details around the legacy developing through all that unfolded there or is unfolding there! The real challenge to understand and define legacy is not in these pockets of humanity where time has stood still or moves slowly but it is the fast paced corridors of the mega cities and nerve centres of the world where people anyways are struggling to get a firm hold around their environments, let alone wanting to create a legacy, but ironically though, the majority of people who always talk about- wanting to create a legacy will always be found around here! Legacy can mean a thousand different things and there can be as many reasons to believe and debate that! So what is that people are normally pursuing and doing- thinking that it’s a legacy that they are creating? Well, not all may be right, but neither all of them are wrong and the real essence of being able to carve out and create a meaningful legacy resides somewhere between the two extremes!

I said this earlier, in one of my articles; In the times we live today, you would be lucky enough even if the third generation in your family fondly remembers you (writing about is a long shot anyways!). Say you are lucky and that happens, then you would really start counting your blessings if the next tow generation after that remember you (for all that you have done that goes on to impact them, influence them or effect them!) and if this realm moves beyond the confines of your family and moves on to your immediate society, your nation or the world that you traverse; it is then that you have a real claim and case for Legacy in the real essence of the word and in context of the influence and impact that “legacies” are meant to have! As long as you know this truth and time your action and work for the sphere where you want to linger along, long after you have kissed the ground, you can have a meaningful case for leaving a legacy! This is the real essence of legacy and all that goes along with it!

The daily casual use of words like “I want to work this way ane create my legacy at workplace” well sorry to disappoint you, but the day you are ejected of the chair that you are in, rest assured the next person stepping in will not only change the colors and the furniture of your beloved office, but also wipe away all that threatens to be your lingering soul- your people and your ways of working included- this is how long and short legacies are really in the corporate world! There is nothing right and wrong about how this happens or why this happens- simply because the whole corporate eco-system is basically a summation of people working and rising to their levels of incompetence!

The first and meaningful way step towards wanting to create a legacy is all about knowing the audience that you want to behold what you leave behind! You see, if you know what is that you want to create and what you want to be done with that bit, once you are no longer there to propagate or further it,that is when you get absolute clarity in what you do and not even while you are still walking around the planet! Often people end up sweating a lot of their lives for no real apparent meaningful reason simply because they align their thoughts around the legacy bit- completely disassociated with what the reality around them is! Result of this? Well, you have many legacies that lie wasted in the unsung graveyards of humanity- where no one really bothers to pay a visit or even when they do stumble upon them, they are merely a passing reference in the vast ocean of history and time! Only if the people knew that they really don’t have real heirs to the legacy they propose to leave behind, they would have either stooped dead in their tracks and charted a different course for their own lives or alternatively they would have aligned their legacy to a new and more fitting audience or a meaningful heir- in -the- waiting! So what’s the plan?

Well, the only and simple meaningful plan is about really starting by understanding whether as an Individual you are equipped to leave a legacy- whatever that may be- doesn’t matter and second important step- knowing if the heirs that you have identified are really bothered about what you want to offload to them and if that’s too much of a bother then trying to align the ones’ who would be keen to take that offload when the time comes and even as you decide to go ahead- you knowing that your legacy is safe and is being left the way you intend to!

There is no rule about leaving a legacy- how much- who can , when and where so on and so forth, but the fact remains, even that tiny speck of Legacy that you are able to leave, when done right can go on to influence the audience you want to for times to come and that is the essence of the art of immortality! The ability to linger on through the thoughts/ ideas for a long time simply because of the vibrancy, potency and the contextual relevance of the idea/thought which seems to be defying the conventional boundaries of time by being in step with the times whenever it is sought for and for the purpose that it is sought for!

I leave you with these thoughts for today, urging you to take that first step this year to carve out and create a legacy that you want to, for the audience that you have in mind- or perhaps let the world know what your journey is all about and allow people aligned to that cause rally around you- that is how you will be able to surge ahead and keep walking on your chosen path, even as you begin to form a formidable legacy of your own- at times known to you and at times being completely oblivious- but as you journey along and make the meaningful connects- sooner or later magic will happen and you will be able to get a sense of how you will be remembered when the final curtain comes down!

The story of your Legacy can be as simple as the smile you put on the face of people around you or could be as complex as leading a nation or being a global business tycoon- whatever that is, as long as you align your action to your definition of legacy with the right audience in mind- you will stay on- for quite some time, long after you are gone!

Ciao for now, will be back soon with another one! Until then stay safe, stay wise and yes, take those first steps today to create that enduring magic- what people normally refer to as legacy!

Being Mindful is also about being Creative.

~ PA ~ Leave a comment

Hello there! Now that you have changed the calendar, settled down on to the new countdown for a new year, what better then to begin the year by taking a shot at what matters and what can create value to you and me alike! Join me here for a quick journey to understand the whole space around being mindful (which you will hear quite often through 2021) and why it matters and how it propagates creativity and why individual creativity is of paramount importance for all of us in the times ahead! So here we go!

Unlike what is presumed, being mindful is not about being passive or trying to escape or avoid challenges coming ones’ way, rather on the contrary it is being able to offer the best that one can moment to moment in whatever is been dealt with so that the very possibility of emergence of problems or challenges is halted right in the bud! The daily chaos of the corporate world has offered this vague presumption around mindfulness that it is for creative people or for those who work on their own pace and aren’t governed by the laws of pressure and corporate dynamics! The easiest way to understand this is that, many a times book stores will have books on Mindfulness not in the Business Management or Wellness or Health section but rather in something called as “Self Help” a section, which by the convention of it’s name itself discourages people from walking close by, let alone going through the titles and trying to make the sense of the contents presented! The creative human mind is always seeking and trying to create new realities and rationalize observed facts around it, this continuing subconscious act of the human mind only is empowered when the mind is trained to be mindful and anchored where it should be! So what is being Mindful really about? Well, read on!

Mindfulness, if you ask me is the ability to rationalize, accept and work through, around and over compelling and favorable contextual settings alike! You see, mindfulness can’t and never works in vacuum! It needs the relevant audience, the task or simply put something to be worked upon by someone and when we understand this bit, we then now why it is so elusive; well the moment you have “the others” in the sterile contexts of your life, you will feel the push and pull of all that gets around you and it is within these spaces and confines of our everyday world that mindfulness gets reduced to fleeting moments of temporary attention and is almost always lost and disconnected at the drop of a hat! You may be tempted to ask, don’t meditation and allied techniques foster and promote mindfulness? Well they do but that space of mindfulness, it is all related to introspective enquiry aimed to empower the vibrance of intellect and sharpness of awareness.

The nature of day to day mindfulness that is required for us to “stay in the moment” is all about being able to give our best in the fleeting moment on hand for the task undertaken- nothing more nothing less! Whether it is the talk that you give, that meeting you conduct or the orders that you pay attention to, when each f these and many such tasks are dine with utmost deployment of directed mindfulness you will find, your day change dramatically in the sense that- you will always seem to get more clarity than earlier and this will empower you to take wise decisions and this cycle of empowered thinking and empowered action will go on as long as you are able to apply your mind holistically in the fleeting moment that you are in! This,if you ask me is the real essence of begin mindful in the context of the type of daily lives we lead and are part of! So what about the Creative part of it?

Well, as the mind becomes aligned and focussed to being “In the Now”, needless to say, it always is seeking to decipher recognizable patterns (that is what it always does to reduce the burden of re-wiring and re-recording observations!) and as long it manages to come up with some intrinsic and unique ways for doing that bit, rest assured even routine tasks and days will begin to become awesome and you will be able to find something new and meaningful even in a seemingly “same day, all day long” situation! The creative mind is perhaps the most potent tool on the planet, from tooth picks to nuclear weapons all have been but a manifestation of the creative abilities of the human mind and when this is coupled with the power of being mindful, all that you can expects is magic and the magic felt is all about bringing in newness, opulence and a continuing differentiating value to life on an ongoing basis!

The creative mind has this innate advantage to decipher a challenge in multiple ways and more importantly wrap the solution as aptly as it can to the contextual settings of the problem, thereby making it look better then what it is (if it’s not really good enough!) and when it’s a real doo one, it simply empowers it to shimmer and provide a newly laid pathway to address the compelling problems! you add mindfulness to this space and you have a state of intellectual bliss! You can harness the best of what your mind has to offer- being focussed like a laser and at the same time being able to work out meaningful alternatives (solutions) at a rapid pace- with each one trying to be the better then the last- thereby ensuring that the task at hand is dealt with a high level of applied intelligence so that outcomes are almost always best in class!

If mindfulness is the space that allows your mind to stretch, creative approach adds that, much needed flex to it and together they are able to manifest innovation, breakthrough’s and answer problems of humanity like nothing else can!

I leave you with these thoughts here, urging you to harness your trim level by deploying your creativity in the mindfulness that you are able to touch! Ciao for now, will be back soon with another article soon! Stay safe, Stay wise and Yes, have a great 2021 – the mindful way!

Welcome 2021 the 2020 way!

~ PA ~ Leave a comment

As ironical it may seem, the fact remains that what did not kill you probably nourishes you! Join me here as we take a quick look through this last blog on 31st December 2020 about what 2020 really signified, what were it’s whispers (which were heard and which went unheard) and what is that 2021 is already signalling even as you eagerly await for it’s embrace- which either could be a warm hug or a deathly embrace! So here we go!

Sure enough, each one of us would have had many small stories of personal victories and success and all of that went down the drain- literally in 2020 and pretty much rapidly everything and all that seemed to be humanistic and normal began to seem absurd and all things strange and stupid began to become the new bright thought of new age thinking! Remember those endless meetings in the office meeting rooms before the lock downs and then the ensuing disaster that followed for you to having to deal with the same ordeal with an added layer of technological complexity compounded by your technological incompetence and ignorance! Well this perhaps would have been one of the many such moments that 2020 brought to all of us where the singular message was , “If you think you know it All, Life always has a plan B and that plan B has the potency to uncomplicate what you complicate and complicate what you strive to simplify!”

Each one of us began 2020, the way we usually did all our lives and when the spanner was thrown it showed us the fragility and the momentous existence that all of us hang by! Needless to say, few of us have been humbled, few destroyed, yet few counting their lucky stars and yet others who did feel nothing much- but all in all humanity has been impacted and what we have seen unfold and what we will see unfold will all be but a testimony about what happened to us in 2020! People and their disposition in 2021 will all be but stories about what happened to them in 2020 and how they dealt with them! Furthermore it will be a test of human resilience and fortitude to keep battling what 2021 keeps throwing at you, day in and day out- sometimes as extensions of the prevailing pandemic and yet at other times nudging people into a tight corner- require them to re-calibrate and re-assess – promoting the new onslaught of innovation!

If there is something else too that helped people survive if not thrive, it was their ability to fall back on their intrinsic abilities- basically living their lives and finding a way through their lives- for one time- by being who they really were! You see, until the pandemic arrived, everyone always had the liberty to cloak their reality and move around the world pulling over suitable attire that could match an occasion and thereby successfully hiding away the real and creating more and more compelling illusions and camouflage around them, just like everyone else did! No sooner the virus came calling, these mansions built on created and apparent illusions and hallucinations owing to societal compulsions cam crashing down like a pack of cards and soon enough societies across the globe soon began to find their new definitions across the strata and these newly established definitions will linger on for a good time to come- because the new founded world order within the social strata has just begin to form and it will take some time to formalize the agreed ways of engagement once again and 2021 will be a story which will capture this essence of humanity in great detail! People will see societies simplifying, expanding, contracting and getting more wrapped in or vocal based on what is being played out on the home turf within those pockets across the world! People within societies who successfully align to these dynamics will be safe- those who choose to take a different route either will emerge as lighthouses or perish as unsung sand bars- depending on how well they choose, what they do and how they time what they choose to to!

Given the fact that 2021 will have lingering shadows of 2020 and haunting visits of the year bygone, intrinsic abilities will be tested like never before and individuals will have to bank upon them to begin re-connecting and re-engaging with fellow members of the society in a more meaningful and purpose driven manner. It is just a matter of time, in 2021 that so called “experts” will come to the foray and start writing articles and papers on the “horrors of work from home” and begin stressing for people to engage and communicate, well, I had actually talked about this much earlier! The ability of individuals to see and sieve through conflicting narratives (as they did in 2020) too will be of paramount importance to ensure that they don’t end up entrapping themselves in some illusionary challenge and end up fighting a war that no one cares about and nobody is watching!

Similarities for all the years begin and end with the societal set that will be influenced and that will influence it and this is why it becomes easy as well as difficult in the same breath to navigate changing calendars! You see, the rational part of the mind says, that same problems have similar approaches and solutions that would have previously worked, while in the same instant, the mind desperately seeking some “kick” want to experiment and try out and at times this unwanted and unnecessary indulgence ends up screwing up even the most noble of intentions and efforts!

Finally what will remain at the foundation of what you and I do, will be the humanistic construct that we behold within ourselves and how we plan to deploy that to serve others and take a persuasive stand to ensure it goes that way! 2020 was all about being in gratitude and being grateful for what we had, have and what we aspire to have and this practise is what must and will continue in 2021 as well. As long as this approach to life enshrined with gratitude and humility prevails even the challenges thrown by 2021 will seem to fade away rapidly then before and importantly will accelerate the pathways to create new approaches and solutions for a more meaningful interconnected cohesive human existence with shared experiences and values which go a long way to nourish the essence of being human!

I leave you here with these fleeting thoughts for this last day of 2020 and hold each one of you in my prayers and thoughts- for the journey together will certainly continue with a fresh promise, new hope and unfailing human resilience- that is the way which saw humanity through 2020 and that is what will also empower humanity to see through 2021 and enables you and I to come up with compelling stories and narratives of hope, success and humility in all that we achieve and also in things where we fall short to achieve! Always remember, there is a reason, what you and I have come this far and the onus is now upon us- each one of us to ensure that with the Life that we have, we make sure that the reason why we came this far- creates something meaningful and purposeful- something that serves not only us but to the many around us who reach out to us and perhaps even those – to whom we need to reach out to!

What worked to overpower 2020, sure enough will help you and me to prevail over 2021 as well, should the need arise, but that is where the similarities end and it is beyond this space, when we apply who we are to what we choose to do is that we will begin creating differentiating value and empower ourselves and others around us to surge ahead and stay ahead in the race to carve out meaningful existence in an ever changing dynamic and chaotic world that we own!

Before I sign off, Here’s Wishing Each One of You, A Very Happy New Year and hope you are able to weave your magic the way you aspire to do so in the year that promises to be both same and different in the same construct of time and space! Stay Wise and Stay Blessed! Ciao for now, will be back soon with another article- in the new year and our journey, goes on unveiling a new sunrise for a new pursuit!

Surviving the “New Year syndrome”

~ PA ~ Leave a comment

Each year, come 31st December or 1st January, humanity seems to just want to drown into all kind of utopian commitments to the world, society and unto themselves, the result, well we have more stories of resolution failures and a more screwed up year than the previous one! Join me here, to understand what this “New Year Syndrome” is all about and what is that you and I can do to survive it and ensure that we cling on to sanity and rational pathways irrespective ho strong the temptation is to believe and try to follow meaningless promises of the utopian kind! So here we go!

The New Year is among the many reasons to celebrate for actually no real reason and perhaps one of the most compelling ones’! This is the time when uploading that picture, being on that trip, being at that venue and all those kind of crazy things tend to over ride any remaining sense of rationality and people go to no end to ensure that they have their annual post cards ready- even as they know well withing- all of this is just unwanted spectacle played out to the social audience sheer out of social conformation bias, compulsion and just to ensure that they are not seen and isolated as “the odd” ones’ and to feel that false sense of comfort being part of a larger social construct who all “believe in celebrating” something that has no real essence or relevance!

Well, no is denying or suggesting a sadist way of saying that there should be no celebrations- but the point here is what is that is being celebrated? I mean every nation on the planet, sure enough has their own “new years” aligned to religious and belief systems that they follow, a nation like India has over a dozen new years’ that are celebrated through the sections of the diverse society. Not to forget your own personal new year- yes- your “birth day”, actually if you ask me- that should be the most important one- simply because that is something against which you can benchmark you won personal growth- your rise and fall and there can be no dispute around that absolute space- because you know when you were born and even if the nation doesn’t join to celebrate and even if your family hates you, at least you have yourself to celebrate what you achieve or promise to and trust me doing even this much can add great and continuing value to your life then the countless birthdays and new years you would have ended up celebrating by now, for no real rhyme or reason! So what is it really about the “New Year Syndrome”?

Well “The New Year Syndrome” as the name suggests develops and emerges mid of December every year and lingers on until mid-Jan or in some rare case until end of Jan every year (that is the time till reality presents itself back and all utopian pledges and wishes bite the dust and people are brought back to their senses!). Why does this happen and recur every year with such accuracy and predictability if this such a wasteful and pointless experience? Well, the fact is that it is within these crashing utopian dreams and hallucinations that thread of the next big thing are woven and often then not these threads are picked up by watchers, bystanders and observers of humanity as they go about dabbling in the “New Year Circus” of humanity and once the party is over- these bystanders get a first seat insight into the emerging though process, behavioral patterns and can then move for the kill knowing which way and what direction humanity is probably going to move ahead!

You see, the social conformation bias , that eternal human urge for the sense of belonging, go a long way into getting the sea of humanity celebrate meaninglessly on the date every year- with nothing really ever changing in a meaningful or potent way either for them or the society that they move about in! Knowing well that there is nothing more that we can do about this space and accepting that this dumb way of celebrating nothing will go on as long as humanity exists and as long as people agree to this calendar date as being the one to adhere to , this mega-scale celebration of stupidity will go on with people celebrating and gong back to doing exactly the same dumb, un-serving ways and means to cling on to their lives what they have given to themselves without any direction or purpose to even wanting to make to that bit incrementally better! Well at least that is what the story will be, whether you agree to not and that is a fact- whether you like it that way or not! So what is the way to deal with this space and can this be avoided?

Well, if you really think you want to avoid the “New Year Syndrome” it will take a one-two punch approach, the first punch ironically enough will be about participating in the social dumbness- yes hitting the party floor- so that you get a first hand ticket to observe and record the levels of progress and regress that society around you has made and the second punch is about knowing what you need to do next to ensure that your next year part arena and list or people around you is a shade better than what you would have experienced! Sure no one is asking you to help everyone around you, in fact the whole idea is that you help yourself enough all through the next year so that you know exactly what you want to avoid the year next and that alone can help you create that essential operational manual for 2021 so that you hit the floor running doing everything that matters so that you end up with the party that you aspire for and not that you get stuck with!

Sure enough, there is no golden pill or “the way” to surviving the “New Year Syndrome” which gives you a high for the day and leaves you battered for the whole year that follows. But what you can do about it to survive is, simple and quick, as long as you are able to tag a purpose, meaning and direction to the celebration that you want to dive into, trust me you will be just fine as you emerge out of it and importantly probably you will be more focussed, rejuvenated and re-dedicated to the purpose and direction that you have set for yourself- perhaps it is a task, goal or a business objective- whatever that may be- rest assured you will excel and hit that goal only because you knew well about that bit even as you went into celebrating the new year and unlike the majority around you- you stay unique by this singular definition and this is what puts you in a small set of people who know why they are enjoying, what they will do post this break and when they will come back to enjoy further and what is that they will have on their mind then!

The essence of surviving the “New Year Syndrome” wherein you risk to end up creating similar experiences, face similar problems and encounter similar pathways in a never ending loop is all about being able to shift the control of the narratives that come towards you; to you rather than allowing that power to reside with those who serve you those narratives! Like someone has said it before, Life is more about how you choose to react to what Life throws at you rather than what and how you think and feel it should be! You see, Life has it’s won weird ways and whether we like it or not that is how it is going to always be! As long as you are able to understand this space and ensure that you will stay aligned and rooted to your purpose, goal with a directed intent, rest assured you will survive the “New Year Syndrome” well enough and will be able to connect with and create new meaningful pathways for the times ahead and escape the trap of ending up doing the same thing again and again (expecting a different outcome) and then calling that a life well lived! I mean seriously, sure enough a chef who cooks the same dish will end up doing the same thing again and again- but even while the chef does that, a different experience is created in the context- simply because the customer is almost always different! This is what is yet another important aspect to always remember and take note of! It is not about whether your approach to life has repetition or not, it is not about whether you are always doing new tasks and there is more vibrancy in what you do or not, it is more about how do you create and further value in what you choose to do, whether that is the only thing you choose to do in 2021 or whether it is the only thing that you want to do each day through 2021!

Each one of us is unique and it is the unfailing ability to harness that intrinsic uniqueness within which will empower each one of us to pursue and achieve what we seek and this is the way to ensure that we are away and over the “New Year Syndrome” because once we take this route; we are able to keep walking on a path that is aligned to our core belief systems and aspirations which are as meaningful as our aspirations are and as long as these are not utopian or some hallucinations, you will never find yourself in a loop and will never be bothered or preyed upon by the fatalistic and fabled, “New Year Syndrome”!

I leave you with these thoughts for now, even as you are gearing up to embrace 2021, the best possible way you can, just remember, make that bear hug memorable, inspiring and meaningful for yourself and others around you so that you don’t end up becoming another casualty of the “New Year Syndrome”!

Ciao for now, will be back soon with another one, until then stay wise and take a path that propels you ahead!

Every “New Year” is the same! Unless…

~ PA ~ Leave a comment

We are now racing towards the very end of the whatever is remining of 2020 and needless to say, like all the other bygone years, 2020 too would have been no different- the exception being that people would have had and borne the brunt of amplified experiences and learnings, irrespective whether they were happy stories or grim reminders! This article is not about this space, rather it starts from here, this is all about, what is that you and I can possibly do and not to ensure that 2021, doesn’t seem like the year bygone and what is that we can do to ensure that we don’t end up walking into the trap where “Every New Year” begins to seem the same! So join me here as we decipher this space and try to figure out what is that can be done and how much of it- to ensure that 2021 is more meaningful in an absolute sense, not banking or calibrating on 2020 which I believe would have been an intellectually exploitative year for all us irrespective what we did , or not!

To begin with, we need to accept and understand, “why do all new years’ almost always end up the same way!” You see, you need to be really honest with this space, think and reflect around yourself, see what has been unfolding around you and within you, are you getting a sense of moving around in circles (so big that, you actually think and feel that you are walking straight only to realize around every December, that you ended up walking a whole year, to come back to from where you started? Whether it is your job, the business that you, or the art that you pursue or whether it is about the people that you engage with, what has been your story, year after year? Are you actually living the same year, multiple times through your lifetime? or are you at least putting up that vital effort to create and make a difference for yourself to begin with and then for others, so that the year that you live and goes by, actually begins to stand out as something radically different and meaningful over the previous one? What do you think is really unfolding within and around you? take your time and read further as you get a perspective on this question, for that is really important for anything else to make sense and help you with! As long as humans end up living the same year, again and again and keep celebrating the change of calendar; with nothing meaningful or worthwhile done or accomplished, humanity will suffer- simply because as more and more individuals tend to accept mediocre approaches- sooner or later societies and nations begin to pay the price for that mass level idiocracy and journey to nowhere!

You see, all of us, each one of us, take a pledge whenever we hit the new calendar year- whichever calendar that you may want to choose, the problems begin as we start to fail and falter very much on own own set intentions and aspirations, why does that happen, well there could be many reasons- intrinsic and externa- I have written about this in detail, recently- you can find that over here. As people falter, they do only one thing that everyone should and can- revert back to what was safe and what has been time tested! This is the “on mode” of your mind to keep you safe from damage beyond repair and for ensuring that you re-group and rejuvenate well enough to fight your chosen battle yet another day! Once this is done, you are automatically going back to what you are familiar with, what you feel safe and comfortable with and with all that- any bit of risk taking, enterprise is all but taken away! Well at times in life this is fair enough, but when this is the only things that keeps happening over and over again, you basically end up living the same experiences and same problems with variations in intensity, thereby living that same year all your life! So what does it really take to create something meaningful and really have a “new year”, well read on!

Unless, you make an effort and rather a very serious one at that, to create value and meaningfulness aligned to the purpose that you seek to achieve, everything else that you propose to do will eventually fade away bringing you endlessly back to the beginning each and every time! A careful observation of the few who end up really creating meaningful “new years'” every year will let you know that, the only way that is possible is by doing and trying what was never done before and trying to accomplish something that has never been! Sure enough, not all of us need to fight with the polar bear or climb the Mount Everest, it is simply about creating a sense of purpose and direction within us, just enough so that we are able to focus with clarity and drive on what “new” we want to create or reach out for! It could be as simple as trying the new ice cream flavor or as complicated as building the next rocket engine which will make space travel simple and uncomplicated for humanity!

There is no rule book on who one can achieve or find their concept and space of trying or doing the “new” simply because each one of us is as unique as we get to be and when it is about the stories of our life- who else can be better than ourselves to write, re-write and manifest something that is inspiring and lingering! This is the strength and the weakness at the same time, simply because, it takes a lot of grit and determination to prevail and overcome the intellectual inertia (which always makes us so comfortable- simply because it is safe-tried and tested). When people succumb to this inertia, they end up allowing their uniqueness to become their greatest weakness, but when they are able to thwart the ongoing onslaught of their inertia and move ahead- irrespective of the pace- they go on to make incremental progress which when done consistently and repeatedly over time- compounds into creating a completely new person, a new journey and needles to say the manifestation of a new destination altogether! It is this intrinsic ability to overcome the internal inertia which alone can help people create a real “new year” and pursue meaningful objectives to add some purpose and meaning to their limited lives!

I leave you here with thoughts on a busy Monday, even as we race ahead to Christmas and want to catch the once in 800 years celestial spectacle of Jupiter and Saturn coming together; urging you to do what it takes and devise the way that suits you fine, to ensure that 2021 is meaningfully enough a real “new year” in every essence of what it should be for you!

Ciao for now, will be back soon with another one, until then keep moving and stay unique for that’s when magic happens!

The”Flight Mode” principle.

~ PA ~ Leave a comment

The very mention of the word, “flight mode” takes us immediately up into the air and sure enough to the memorable flight that you would have had! But this piece is about something different, it is about applying the flight mode to our daily lives and understand how and why “flight mode” is so potent! So fasten your seat belts and join me here as we get to understand the humble “flight mode” slightly better! So here we go!

While on a flight, what flight mode does is that it creates a pause- proportional to the duration of your flight and more importantly there is no way that anyone or anything can reach you from the earth below, unless you are tagging along some earthlings alongside you who have the authority to barge into your solitude by virtue of who they are! For the sake of simplifying, let’s assume you are all by yourself and disconnected completely; It is this moment created by “flight mode” of space and time which can give you authentic time worth it’s weight in gold simply because this is unadulterated “me” time and unless you are profoundly miserable with yourself, there is no reason why you should feel anxious or restless!

If you reflect back to your observations of the last flight that you took, you would have known the typical patterns of behavior- anxiety, controlled, overly jovial, unnecessarily snobbish, grateful, thankless and the whole range that humanity can offer- well each of these patterns is a statement of who these people are (don’t rush we aren’t judging them) in that moment of time. What is more disturbing is that they choose to be what they seem to be in the time and space of being in “flight mode” when they can be what and who they really are and actually get their 3 -4 year old self back! Think about it! No one is asking you not to work on your office presentation or watch that movie or listen to your favorite music- in fact when you do any of these- you simply are carrying the earthly pile of garbage camouflaged as work or leisure into the air and robbing yourself of valuable and precious time that you can have for yourself sans all and any distractions! Whether it is a 30 minute short flight or one of those wonderful 18 hour super-long haul flights- the time that you are on “flight mode” can be amazingly rewarding if you use it to realign yourself to the greater purpose of your life- and if you don’t have one- maybe start to seek one- I am not suggesting you will attain a “nirvana” or an enlightenment moment, all that I am saying is as long as you know how to make the best of your flight mode on a flight- rest assured when you switch your flight mode on while being on the ground can be even more rewarding! Surprised- well read on!

As we go through our daily routine at home and at work, we rarely get that spacious and meaningful pause! Just as our physical bodies need sleep to be rejuvenated and made ready for the next day, the human mind too, needs it’s space especially in the times that we live today, when changes are swift, severe and certain! This is not about trying to take a sly break and run away into mindless day dreaming or coercive thinking for a future that you don’t believe into or subscribe to, rather the flight mode on the ground is relevant and vital to re-wire and re-assess what your plans have been (if you don’t have, then get one) and tweak them along so that the upcoming U-turns and Hair pins bends can be navigated effectively and efficiently- not done away with- because that is not how life unfolds!

The “Flight Mode” principle when applied to our daily lives- whether you want to spare five minutes a day or a few hours- that’s your call- can usher in clarity and purpose like nothing else! What is important is that the minutes that you choose to be on “flight mode” you need to make sure that it is indeed a flight mode! The kind of sterile solitude that a flight mode can offer is very potent when it comes to reflect, introspect and accept what is unfolding and what will, you see it’s not about taking time off to plan your next strategic move , neither is it a time to sulk at things that have gone wrong or what may go wrong- the flight mode time is all about being with yourself to sustain your self-empowerment and ensuring that your life’s gyroscope is aligned correct and working as it should! Flying blind never helped any pilot and given the turbulence that life brings along, a blind flight is the last thing that you will even want and that too flown and commanded by you!

Now that we are nearing the fabled “New year Resolution Time”, perhaps it’s a great opportunity to just add a singular component of deciding on the minutes for your daily “flight mode” even if you do just this one thing, trust me you will find that you will end up hitting each and all of your meaningful and purposeful pursuits with greater efficiency, clarity and intensity! When you really are able to get to those minutes of solitude with no clutter from around, you are able to see what went by, how you acted, what you could have done better, you get the judge’s seat to see what you are doing “now” and how that is creating something for your “tomorrow” and then at the same moment know if your “now” is connected with your “tomorrow” , if it is how well and if it is not, what is that you are going to do about fixing your “now” by being “in the now”!

Irrespective of what people say and don’t the fact always will be that each one of us always strives to better our lives, no matter how incrementally small that may seem, at times you may feel a sense of stagnation, well that is an illusion, because even if you are sitting still, you are hurtling through space on a planet called Earth! So you, see this brings us to the “Framing your context” space! When you couple this practise to your ability to have dedicated minutes of your “flight mode” you will see magic unfold and will be able to help yourself with more meaningful minutes of engagement and connect when you off your flight mode!

No one is urging you to get mindlessly philosophical, no one is asking you to be hopelessly optimistic, no is suggesting you anything, if there is really anything that is being conveyed is the real and meaningful nudge to get to your valuable minutes of solitude and reflection by having your flight mode switched on for sometime each day, every day even as you go about your life on the surface of the planet! If you happen to be one of those lucky ones’ who have a second home in the skies above, well then what more do I say, than the fact that perhaps you have earned yourself a few bonus minutes of “flight mode”!

Well, before I conclude this piece, we all pretty much know the times that we live in and the push-pull that we all experience, unknown to us many of the unwelcome instances and unplanned interventions actually emerge simple because we haven’t been able to spend enough time on our “flight mode” and as you enrich your time value- you will begin to value what matters and as you begin to value what matters, you will begin to manifest value for yourself and other around you and that then will put you onto a growth and success trajectory like nothing else! To create value externally, one needs to be connected within and first and foremost create a value centric existence for themselves to begin with! No one likes to follow a leader, who has nothing to offer, people will follow you, even if you have failed in the past only as along as they see that you have a promise for the times ahead!

I leave you here, urging you to deploy your “flight mode” as often as you can and hope that it helps you to connect within and help you see all that would have otherwise been fogged out or missed out in the fast paced lives that we have! Remember, no greatness was ever achieved in the vacuum of time or space!

Ciao for now, will be back soon with another one! Until then, turn on your “flight mode” for a few fleeting moments and feel the magic!