Tag: self-belief

The secret of resolutions that work.

~ PA ~ 1 Comment

Finally we move closer to that time of the year, when all of us either by choice or by accident end up making resolutions, which hardly a few of us are ever able to stick through even the first month let alone the year! Join me here as we try to understand what makes some people realize what they set out for and why is that many of us get stuck, or hijacked into pursuing and doing things on the list which were never there even in the top 10 to begin with! So here we go!

If we were to assume, that each person always wants to be good, do good and share good and if that was to be the first line in everyone’s resolution- what a wonderful place the world would be! Isn’t it? But you and I know it very well that, this is something that never happens and whether you like it or hate it, in a way is good that things don’t go that way, else the world would be a hue of shades of one singular color or thought! Well coming back to why people falter and fail with resolutions, well one of the most fundamental things about this is the fact that, all of us are designed to fail, some sooner others later! You see, the whole aspect of success is not about never failing or faltering, it is always about that single instance which stands ahead of all your failing and faltering which goes on to become your definition of success. No one remembers, how many times a scientist failed (except the scientist), but all remember that one time when things went well and something amazing resulted out of it. So how does it go?

Simplicity: Most often people who are able to achieve anything meaningful in the context of the frame through resolutions always aim for simplicity. Simplicity of objective, or what they aspire to achieve. So you, see once you have a straightforward clarity around what is that you want to achieve- that thought itself helps you to de-clutter and stay focussed. The space around simplicity of goal or objective goes on to provide and empower and individual’s clarity of action and focus on the task. Don’t mistake these to be a easy goals, they could be as challenging as you may want them to be, but what remains at the foundation is the fact that they are always simple in the essence of the objective or what needs to be achieved.

Intrinsic Orientation: More often than not people who have achieved anything meaningful are the ones’ who have been self-driven, basically what that means is a mindset, an approach to life in general and all the things that matter, which is uplifting and propelling forward. This intrinsic orientation is vital, simply because you may have the most amazing thought around you, but unless you don’t defeat your inertia and make that first step, even the best of ideas will fade away with time as lost opportunities or missed chances!

Compelling Need: The human mind being what it is, only makes the effort when it is vital and to tell it that what you aspire or seek to achieve is vital , you need to either have a plain talk by tricking it with a gratification model, or incentivize the rewards staggered in proportion to the milestones achieved! Unless the mind doesn’t get the answer to “What am I to gain”? nothing will ever happen! You may argue, that isn’t the mind, the same very person? Well, sure enough, but this is what uplifting self-talk and wise mental conditioning is all about! It’s only when you reinforce your thought and belief systems and make them a natural default for your mind that you will be able to approach the whole space of wanting to complete your resolutions not because only you have to do them, but rather now you want to do them!

Influence: The chances of your resolutions’ success directly depends on what the area of influence will be! The more greater the influence you think, your achievement will have, higher are the chances that you will be able to deliver and succeed! You see, when you set up yourself for easy wins and easy gains and when no one’s watching or going to know about it, unless you are one those rare species of authors, philosophers or scientists, who keep doing what they do without caring a bit for anything or anyone else, I bet you will always want the world to know what you are upto and where have you reached on that journey! The primitive desire and hard wired human mind always seeks to show off what has been achieved, whether you hunted a wild boar five centuries back or achieved the sales target three years ago, you want to narrate stories and brag about what you achieved- same goes with resolutions, the more opportunity that your resolution provides you for bragging, greater are the chances that it will be pursued empathetically till you succeed, simply because that urge to narrate that story is simply too high tom let go off!

Challenge Level: Another factor which goes on to determine whether your resolution will come alive or not, is the challenge level. Each one of us sets up resolutions to the level where our competence trims off or our Incompetence begins to appear! Like everything is life, all of us are good to a point and there is a differential when it comes to do this. You see no two people can do the same thing exactly the same way, even if all things around are the same and this small incremental difference too plays a big role in determining how we will finish what we set out to achieve! As long as your resolutions make you stretch and flex your competence and abilities you will be just fine and you will be in all probability able to hit your goals! The moment you aim too low or aim too high, your resolutions soon begin to become meaningless either for the lack of challenge and the “x” factor that comes along with it or because it is simply too overwhelming and seems like a mountain simply impossible to get around, over or through! The damage is more severe and long lasting especially when resolutions are aimed at something which is completely utopian and even rationally impossible to attain!

The Art of Finishing: The chances that your resolutions will succeed increase as you begin to visualise and plan the finishing of the achievement. Basically as long as you are able to see how you are going to conclude and finish and it that bit seems doable and rational chances are you will complete them, but if the last mile seems fogged out, chances are you will want to abort your journey the moment that happens, either because you have lost the game plane or now that you don’t seem to know how the end will manifest, you want to simply move away! you may call this also as the “cold feet syndrome” but it happens, often people start with something to achieve and as they progress they begin to realize they have chewed off more than what they can swallow and well needless to say they have to decide either to force feed themselves to spit it out- eitehrways a not very helpful situation, especially when it comes to setting up business goals!

Meaningfulness: Well not to sound philosophical, but the chances of a resolution seeing the light of the day increase when they are meaningful in the context of not being rational or sane, but in the context of being able to add meaning and value to what you choose to do, are doing and what is that you will want to do as you achieve what you have set out for! You see, many resolutions simply fail because not the effort was lacking but rather the controlling factors which govern them to be manifested are almost always external and beyond the individual’s control! You see a goal or resolution of having less than 1% defect in deliveries done by you is meaningful, but if you add to that a clause that by doing so you will earn a 10% raise, the whole idea gets defeated simply because whether you get that 10% is something that you simply can’t control!

I leave you here with these thoughts, the list could have been longer or perhaps even could have been a book, but than each one has their won idea of heaven and hell so I leave you here to explore that part for yourself!

Ciao for now, will be back soon with another one soon! Make a resolution that is as meaningful as who you are!

The religion of GOD.

~ PA ~ Leave a comment

Before you jump to any conclusion, no this is not about taking a stand on any religious ideas or faith systems, this is not about creating an opinion or directing the reader to move in a planned manner to any inference. This article is about reflecting what we see around us, possibly make some sense of what we see, or rather should I say, perceive what a religion is and If it is indeed what it is then, what is or what could be the religion of GOD? Join me here as we take this sneak peek into an area that touches our lives, irrespective of what faith system or belief system we choose to follow or not!

Religion-Faith- Belief system- Value system- you could come up with a hundred more similar words and all of them would eventually come to one final reality that religion has been, is and will always remain to be a defined pathway to reach, seek, sense and surrender to the supreme power- the universal energy- the almighty- again known by different names as defined by the religious pathways, but all coming to the final reality and recognition that there is nothing above or beyond that supreme manifestation. This is the essence of all the religions of the world and all the pathways that humanity has ever been aligned to for retaining our sanity and virtuosity! So the question why does GOD need so many multiple pathways and systems of eventually there is singularity of the supreme manifestation? As someone said, GOD never created any religion, it is Humanity that has created the pathways that we know today as religions, faiths and belief systems and this is at the very root of everything! Then why does everything that is divine and serene at times gets lost into the muddy waters and frightening darkness that human societies end up presenting themselves with every now or then! So where did all this possibly begin?

Sure enough, I am not making any tall claims to be an expert on Theology or the world of spirituality, this is a blog and keeping it that way, a thought starter so that you people- get your grey cells working to seek the truth that makes peace with you- any which way as humans we aren’t going to be around forever, so the truths that you and I hold with us so dearly, at the most will live for another 100 years (that too if you are lucky and have done that much of quality work for the society that you move around in! Else – you know the rows and rows of unnamed graves and tombstones which are perhaps never even visited- forget about people imbibing their value systems and belief systems!

As we race back into human history we come across the richness and vastness of establishment of religious systems, belief systems and values where there is a mention of reverence to a singular super power- a supreme manifestation which is formless and omnipresent- which has the power to provide divine grace and unleash unthinkable fury with equal ease, provide or take away what has been given in a moment- so on and so forth- access any holy book that faithfuls follows across any religion that you choose, these singularities of ideas are all the same. People often lead others into arguing to create contradicting narratives; and more then ever before, the times that we live in are ripe with this kind of social behaviour- which is not only unnecessary but out rightly stupid and dumb! To know what is the religion of GOD , we must know what GOD is, isn’t it? So here we go!

As a student of science and being realistically rational, every belief system, value system that I ever came across, had to pass questions like, the test of science, does it serve the greater good, does it makes sense, is that reproducible, can it be tamed, so on and so forth! What I share with you here are my personal reflections and experiences in this area and as I said earlier, each one of us has a different truth, bound by the contextual settings that we are confined to, all may be right, all may be wrong, few may be right, few may be wrong, eventually it all boils down to the belief of the individual for that is what leads that individual to their final resting place!

If you want to understand and want to know GOD, the only accepted way is following what is written down in the holy texts of various belief systems. Surely a right thing to do, because they have been pretty much written at a time when human societies were forming and gaining critical mass and as they expanded rapidly and shared the richness, it became more than necessary that alongside the allegiance to the rulers, there had to be a central binding force and that force was realized through these valuable texts which personified the divine engagement and that till day is a cornerstone of human society! As long as this power was harnessed for the greater good and to serve fellow humans it always rewarded by enriching the society and to this day the same is visible- where societies are anchored to the true belief systems of the faith that they choose- you will see a reflection of that among the members of the society- their approach, attitude and behavior unto others! This is where the real strength of GOD really is! But what about GOD?

Well the thought of GOD across the belief systems almost always speaks about super human abilities and an omnipresent stance. One needs to understand that these texts which recorded, documented and created the rule book for various path ways were- eventually written by some human being and then that is where we have the writer’s error that can creep in (error as in not a mistake- but error as in the inability to comprehend the vastness and the power in the absolute context of it!). Let me explain, say you are a nerd and I ask you to write an essay about the world’s fastest super computer- sure enough you will throw your knowledge into it and have a paper with intricate details about that fabulous machine, now if I were to ask an Arts student or a language student to do the same, sure enough they will research and they too will come up with the same article, but their approach and treatment will be different and this is where GOD becomes more mystical, magical, and universal! So if the recording gets tweaked a bit, needless to say that tweaking can get amplified by the people who listen, reproduce and present and so the classical communicative gaps play their role and then we have amplification at crazy proportions- not every thing is fiction, but neither everything then is a fact too! So finally human societies arrive at this middle ground agreed upon by all the pathways or belief systems- where you agree to things and principles to a particular point of mass consensus and beyond that it becomes voluntary and then there is that tiny little space where you are never allowed to enter- by questioning or challenging – for that will invoke the wrath of the those who would want to keep what is the way it is as that serves humanity in a more meaningful manner!

Irrespective which system you choose, the singularity of power, formlessness and omnipresence with a veto on everything and everyone that your cognitive mind can connects with, is all but the domain of the supreme manifestation defined as GOD- so if you see GOD being universal and being the way as described by the different pathways- by itself is above and beyond any religious bondage! The religious pathways or approaches have largely been a result of the ups and downs that societies have seen as they evolved through the last 10,000 years! Now, if you ask, if GOD doesn’t have a religion as a supreme universal formless force- why do humans follow and why do they lead to friction at times?

Here again, you need to understand that the social settings are critical and as long as societies are steady, you will always find examples of multiple faiths co-existing and thriving with none intruding into the others space! The need to compete or intrude arises when the interpretation of the pathways get altered & a few select individuals (for whatever their motive would be) go ahead and distort the established facts with modern day fiction, giving a complete twist to the whole definition of that particular religion or pathway and thereby as one does it so does the other and in no time, there is literally no GOD left in what humans begin to follow- because what they really end up following are not those holy ancient texts of divine grace and bliss, but rather altered, twisted and moderated modern day interpretations by so called “gurus” who rant off what they feel like to achieve what they personally have set out to achieve at the cost of the gullible masses who actually look upto them with complete faith in their hearts!

It is when societies deviate from the true essence of what the universality of GOD is and what the real manifestations of the supreme and omnipresent can be, is when problems begin- then the whole show of spiritual and religious upmanship begins!– One pathway suddenly becomes the star (or rather is made the star) for some time, then the other, then the next and that cycle goes on, seemingly forever! But the fact remains that unless you really connect as an individual to the GOD that is – the Universal Energy, Supreme manifestation the way you ought to- by walking on the original pathways or religious teachings of compassion, love, sharing , collaboration, discipline, equality and brotherhood, everything else is but a conveniently altered version of the original hence, we may have thousands and thousands of places of worship across the religious pathways that we choose to follow; but then the worshiped may never be really residing in there! This happens because humanity as come to the point where it has forgotten the most fundamental truth that GOD resides not at a place or point- rather being omnipresent resides in every speck that you can think of and have ever thought of! This is not what I say, this is what all the great religions and pathways of the world say and this is the singularity of the essence of GOD!

GOD, doesn’t need, neither ever had nor will ever have a religion or a pathway, for the simple reason GOD is the destination and not the pathway! The universal omnipresent force is beyond and above all human possibilities and that’s why the authentic texts, and religious books, irrespective of the faith system you choose all begin with a salute and bowing down to the magnificence of GOD! So why did humans create multiple pathways and why do they cut across?

As I said earlier, societies, their sociological construct, belief system largely reflected how the ancient rulers shaped the unit and that’s how it is to this day, with a few changes here and there! It serves a few who rule the many and that is almost with every other vocation that humans do and this is how it has been since the dawn of the civilization and the rise and fall of every civilization has been a factor of this dissonance and allied reasons! The pathways even as different as they could be, the fact is they never competed nor did they ever cut each others path, they evolved to different societies at different times and served different purposes and aligned those societies to serve the greater good and made them human unlike ever before! It has largely been the curse of modern history when so-called politicians and rulers, and people who could use their influence to alter the narrative did so and that has been the unwarranted price that societies have ended up paying almost across the globe!

So you, see neither GOD was ever a point of debate, neither were the pathways, the religions or the belief systems, it has been the directed, sabotaging and unwarranted human creation which created a smokescreen- a fog of illusion- which has left modern societies divisive and more chaotic then ever, it doesn’t help GOD neither does it help the few who are aligned to HIM, but it serves the ones’ who want to be intoxicated in the arrogant belief that they are powerful enough to create chaos and rule and direct societies to the direction that they want- the truth is that nothing could be more fictitious then this hallucination which ultimately leads to societies rising up against these megalomaniac few and a new order is re-established when the time for the same arrives!

My final few words before I wrap this blog, If you ask me, I think GOD has no religion and I also think no religion or faith is a problem, all of them did co-exist and do and will always do! The challenges for modern day societies is to stall the societal sabotage that happens around us lead by the few who want to do anything that they want to just to ensure that they do not loose control on the many and these few are the real danger to humanity!

But rest assured, I will ask GOD his religion when that meeting happens, not sure though if I will be able to relay that message back, not sure if laptops work there!

I will leave you here for now, urging you to think and reflect! No matter what your belief system, no matter what your religion is, as long as you are anchored to the truth (that is the real truth) of singularity of a supreme energy and the thought of severing everyone around so that the greater good is always realized- you are fine and you will find GOD around in everything and everyone and most importantly within you! Remember GOD is more important than religion, just as the destination is always more important than the route taken!

Ciao for now, will be back soon with another article!

The Work From Home pandemic!

~ PA ~ 5 Comments

I know you may think, I am out of my mind, but trust me, when I say the next challenges pertaining to human creativity , collaboration and trust are all going to arise from this so -called magic bullet of work-from-home! Join me here as we try to gauge what is perhaps greatly amiss and why what’s missing here will eventually end up causing the next pandemic with connotations spanning the mental health, financial health and work health of individuals and corporations world over! So here we go!

As the virus came calling, governments did what humans are great at doing- imitation- yes imitate what’s happening with the other nation; so as one nation locked down, so did others- well not to blame anyone for so much little was even known as things started to go from bad to worse and by the time people knew what had to be done and there was too much of cheese all over the place to avoid people from tripping, falling and breaking their bones- so the holy answer to all problems became the lock down and with that piece of unwarranted medical harakiri came the second unintended consequence of “work from home”!

People forgot in no time,even their ability to think and see how suddenly, just because the law of the land said so,working from home became fine! It is the same company perhaps, which would have made you move houses so that you could cut the traffic and reach on time, perhaps it is the very same firm which said, the offer letter could be given only if you stayed within a 10 mile radius and can make it ot the office on time, these are the very same offices which cut your leaves, salaries because you clocked in ten minutes late , three times over in a month just as recently as a few months back, now they all seemed to be just fine- for them- even as your privacy and peace at home has been plundered, looted and laid threadbare- whether it is that pet calling for you attention, that maid coming in at the critical moment through you presentation or the small kid who simply doesn’t understand what the parent is doing toying around with an electronic gadget- all and many such more minute scenarios are laying the foundation for your next disaster in the making and if you are not careful, the next one will even shame the virus- because the next challenge coming your way will be more personal- created by you and can only be solved by you!

To begin with, let’s try to understand what has actually happened! One fine day, your organisation was informed it’s not business as usual- like many others you too rejoiced with the thought of being able to work in your pyjamas and seem cool- to post snaps from your kitchen and show your superhuman skills of being able to work at home and for office at the same time- well this was the first checkmate- you just proved to your firm that the work given by your firm- and the price at which it was given to you doesn’t seem to make any sense- so as a consequence- your work-from-home hours suddenly started to stretch beyond your levels of comfort and sanity- so that now forget the kitchen you also find it a challenge to relieve yourself! Add to this the next layer of complication that gets added when you have more number of family members “working from home”- conversations overlap, conversations are overheard, jokes become a pain point and tonality becomes a point of debate- next any remaining confidentiality- whether its that email to your colleague., vendor or boss- doesn’t miss the attention of the other members and often your emails will be spell checked and langage refined- finally at some point your people from office will know- you have got a communication expert sitting by you helping you counter your one more incompetence which now lies more exposed than ever!

Likewise there will be countless odditties that will come to the forefront and few of them will many a times not what you had been saying all the while to the people with whom you worked at the workplace and now that they have intruded your private space- well the sad fact is there is no place to go further and create ambiguity- so what does this to the trust between people? Well as colleagues you have mental images and comfort evolved dealing with specific individuals- not everyone you know makes you equally comfortable hence- you tell what you think is the level of comfort for both of you- but with this private space intrusion there is a new level of problem- a lot of people come to know what you have perhaps not told- because it may not have been necessary- or required or because you didn’t want to- in any case what that ends up doing (which again is unwarranted) is erodes a small amount of trust and once this process starts, trust me there is no going back and it’s just a matter of time that you will see so-called team re-alignments and working dynamics change and in extreme cases people shuffled across the board and in a few other case ejected from the system! All simply because your privacy got intruded and you really had not planned for this shit coming your way!

To all this drama when you add multiple stakeholders and also add the other work-from-home members from your residence (now which resembles kind of a public arena-because of the kind of activities that seem to start at 8am and end only around midnight!) the chaos and confusion only adds up and in some cases is bad enough to drive you crazy enough to either share some unpleasant exchanges with the people in the zone or simply hang up your boots and say a hasty goodbye to what would have otherwise been a smooth career pathway- the one that you had aspired for and set out to achieve right from your college days! So what’s really happening here? Is there a way out of this and way to manage this? How long will this go on and what’s really the matter- the work or you?

Let’s start from the beginning! Do you remember few of the conversations that you had when you took up this job (which has now intruded into your privacy)? Yes, topics like- work-life-balance, respect for private time, no calls or emails on holidays and weekends, why you must move closer so that you can commute and be in the office! Why the office discourages working from home- because they respect your privacy! and now this very office is advocating the very opposite of all that was said and agreed upon- why? The Virus- not at all- you see, global businesses, whether you are selling donuts or some high end jwellery have been under stress even before the pandemic broke out and globally the capitalists led- world of corporate blue collared elites have been waiting for an opportunity to correct the systemic wrongs and the pandemic just happened to be the blessing in disguise that they were ecer waiting for! This once in a lifetime opportunity gave them the reason to dishonour their corporate lease agreements, defer payments to vendors and staff indefinitely (unless in few nations where in the governments intervened and set the rules of engagement – to salvage some sanity), get even with the governments of the day to extract deep discounting for the next few years so on and so forth, not to forget the reset of their banking terms and conditions (the corporate ones- even as at an individual levels you still get hounded by debt collection calls!) So you see, the real thing about asking you to work from home is the least interest of your safety- but in the larger interest of corporate finance and the compulsions that go around with the nexus of business and politics the world over- nothing to say good about and nothing to whine- because neither I am the business nor the government! and you ended up thinking the work-from-home- intrusion to your privacy was a sacrifice that you are doing for upholding your company! Well keep thinking that way- and wait for the next nightmare!

The other serious level problem that has happened is that as individuals begin working connected through distributed spaces- human brain the way it is- trust erodes rapidly and you add a personality angle to it, this differentiating rate of trust erosion for all the right and wrong reasons helps accelerate the fall of teams and bring in the “new order”- read creating lean teams as the new need of the day- thereby kicking in pay cuts and job losses- each and every aspect of this is linked to the innocent looking solution of “work-from-home”! The things that help this, are the ability to track meticulously- time everything to the nth second and no more- lobby meetings, board room chats and walk around the office so the sudden addition of a 60-80 minutes of additional time through the day- ironically enough ends up making you look more non-productive than ever before and you too begin to loose a grip as the normal way of planning does not help as work seems to get over sooner than you think and as the battle to prove efficiency amongst colleagues takes centre stage- each one send sup undoing the other one and eventually create enough fluidity so that when the time comes- all are swept away in one masterstroke of team realignment! The only way that individuals hope that the organization still holds interest in them is by understanding if their home-office furniture ordered is coming in or not! I mean really! So is there anything that we can do, if this is all a game cast at the upper crest of societies and nations, do we stand a chance?

Well, as history says, when the war is with the system, you need to be in the system to beat the system or develop and evolve it, never has anyone been able to alter the course of history by staying aloof, unaffected or away from it! The fact remains that even as we engage and present ourselves to work with corporates or business houses- irrespective how experienced or inexperienced you are- you need to have your own intrinsic non-negotiable terms and conditions! Like all offices have a office rule book or a manual or better still a code of work , you too need to come up with a code book for your life- I mean, after all isn’t that the most important thing that you should ever be bothered about? Something that core and intrinsic, because when all else and everyone leaves you at some point in time- which they will certainly do- what stands with you apart from your shadow will be the core values systems and the intrinsic systems that construct and make you who you are! This, my friend is the essence of being able to stand firmly and face all the storms and high waves that may ever come your way- by harnessing the strength of who you are and for that to happen you need to be connected within and know yourself as well as you know the vocation that you pursue nor the people who matter you! Once you have cracked this essential adb vital code, rest assured, there could be a hundred more vurusses coming your way, the next time an organization asks you to work-from- home,you will know what is coming your way and chances are you’ll either insist to work form office or politely ask them to get in touch with you once the offices reopen! Exposing your private life for the capitalist greed of businesses and politicians is the last thing that you should ever do- this is similar to a soldier allowing spies into the nation! Think about it! Is anything really worth it -at the cost of peace, harmony and the wellbeing of the core unit that you represent in the society- the family that you have!

The work-from-home pandemic is the greatest illusion and perhaps even more dangerous than the virus, the virus will eventually will be tamed- there be vaccines and solutions through medical interventions, but the pandemic of work-from-home if allowed to get a foothold- will end up eroding the basic functional units of the societies the world over- these units could be families- small or large, could be partners living together, could be friends, or good people working on something bigger and better together! All of it will be lost to be enslaved to the greed of the growing capitalist clut with or without collusion of the political class of the day! The only way through this and to stem this, is by knowing who you are, what your value systems are and very importantly having the courage to say No- when enough is enough and guarding your private zone with every ounce of courage that you have!

I leave you here with these thoughts, for you to reflect, what your experiences have been and possibly urging you to create a blueprint for yourself and the unit that you hold close to you- so that you guard yourself from the next attack that may come your way disguised as yet another some new way of living or working!

Ciao for now, grab that coffee and I will be back soon with another article!

Decoding “ism’s”: Why they work & why they don’t!

~ PA ~ Leave a comment

Now, before you start making any judgment about what this article perhaps may suggest or not and what my take on the issue of “ism’s” is- well none of this really matters- what is important and what this article deals with are the observed facts – The things as we see and what is the best we can do with what we experience either by accepting, rejecting or remaining indifferent to all those “ism’s” around us! So let’s roll by starting to understand what and who these “ism’s” are!

No matter where you work or who works for you (if you have your own business), which nation you come from, what society you live in- “ism” is a phenomenon which is perhaps as old as human civilization itself! “Ism’s” stands for – groupism, nepotism, favoritism so on and so forth and also makes it presence felt through despise, neglect, indifference and behavioral non-acknowledgement! Like everything else with humanity- by itself – none of the attributes are harmful to cause any serious damage- When these are applied and work in a directed manner, setting off a cascade of imbalances -which more often than not end up harming more people than it is meant to help the few that adhere to the set of the operating “ism” that all hell breaks loose!

Consider this case, say you are a powerful politician with an immense sway and acceptance among the citizenry that worships you like a demi-God. After serving long, your time has come to hang up your boots and offer that position to someone else who can further your legacy- you have a set of loyal workers who have been with you through the years and you have your own kid- that has been showing promise- not necessarily the best of the best among your party (group) what choice do you make? Go by merit strictly- shunning away your own blood- to have a face off at the family dinner table every evening? or stand solidly behind- project your heir to the chair and ask your group members to swear allegiance to the new upcoming order and awarding them with what they want and what you can for this kind act! Well, depending on which part of the globe you are- irrespective of the decision you take- whether you go ahead with your party nominated leaders or place your heir to the chair- you will always be accused of practicing nepotism! This is is the fact of being nepotistic and furthering nepotism- but the counter-point is equally important! Park your thoughts on this politician’s case and we will revisit this towards the end!

I am sure you would have paid a visit to the doctor- at least for some reason- if not for yourself- for someone that you know- possibly for someone you care- What did you do-when you had to make that life changing decision of entrusting your life or the life of someone you value in the hands of a doctor for a major surgery? Did you go by the medical school grades of the doctor? His legacy? His family name and history?What was it? Chances are- if you come from a place like India- where the concept of “Family Doctor’s” is still alive you have generations of families aligned to generations of healers/doctors all for a good reason- that ability to heal and cure runs in their lineage! Well- you may call this unscientific bullshit- perhaps it is- but it works! The chances are that when you want to trust a doctor with your open heart on the operating table- you will find it more comforting to know that the doctor comes from a family of surgeons rather than having a dude who walked out of a medical school last summer with a gold medal! So at times- nepotism is the only pivot of hope, likewise you have lawyers/advocates. Surely- the Jr. Doctor- may not be as sharp as the Sr. Doc in the family line- well that applies to you as well! isn’t it! Intellectual degeneration is the hallmark of humanity and the ability to even retain the same level of intellect as the previous generation is a “wow” moment in today’s era!

Now let’s examine what plays out in the professional settings! Consider this, you have through sheer hard work set up a multi billion dollar empire or perhaps even a million dollar business- it’s time for you to retire- what are the chances that you want to promote that Executive over your own kids and place them on the Directorship of the firm thereby giving them almost the ownership of the firm- Simply because they excelled at their work? not to forget the fact that for all that they have contributed to the firm, they have been rewarded all along with perks and salary for the same all the way? or Do you place your kid on the board and ensure that the “A” team sticks together and follows the rule book by listening to the chair- no matter who is on it! In yet another setting it could be all about that odd film or that web series you want to make with millions at stake and investors gunning for your blood- should it fail, you are toast- what do you do? Go with the safe cast and crew to ensure the project is completed in time and there is a greater awareness and chances of recovering the investments or go ahead by experimenting with new faces and unknown technical teams- just to follow your passion of doing something unique and fresh? Well if that scores a goal- you will remain to tell the story- else you will be in all probability evaluating your options of survival! So does this mean that “ism’s” are here to stay and there is no way around that? Well the answer is Yes and No- Yes- “ism’s will stay as long as humanity walks on this planet and No you don’t have to suffer on account of “ism’s if you don’t want the profits that come with it!- How is that done- well read on!

The safest way and perhaps the only way to tackle and deal with the “ism’s” is to be fiercely self-aware and know more about yourself than you know about the world around you! You see the power to destroy/create or get broken or build comes from within- within each of us- unless you don’t individually allow or empower another person to impact/ effect your thinking and who you are- You are safe and can deal with “ism’s” either by embracing them- be a part of the gang-play your role for a while as long as you are comfortable and gracefully exit when the time comes- like most of them do- without bring bridges and maintaining social relevance! The other way is to Accept “ism’s” is – See them as they are and don’t get entrapped or allured by their power and temptation and continue with your track and approach – Knowing well that your trim levels will arrive much faster and quicker and that you will be eventually ejected from the system earlier than other’s irrespective of what your potential is and whether you are valuable or useless to the people and the set up that you are aligned with! This second approach provides the bedrock to create a formidable seed to downplay “ism’s” and that approach is of “Authoring your own story”. As an option perhaps, not many will be able to exercise this, unless they are ably supported by family and people who matter and care for who “You” are and this scarcity makes this tribe even more ingenious! This is the place that breeds innovators, world-class artists, experts in various fields- from culinary to medicine, from engineering to design! Once you arrive in this space of being able to create and craft your present for a future of your choice- You become indifferent to all the prevailing “ism’s” around you and ironically enough as you taste success- these very “ism’s” will come searching for you to again allure you to their clan so that they can keep harvesting on the exploits of the genius thinking that you offer to the world- by claiming that you belong to their “ism”! So you see finally even success crafted and created by your own merit will draw you back to something that you were escaping- The only difference being that this time- You control the pack and You get to decide when Enough is Enough and no matter what you say or do- Your Indifference – becomes your greatest asset- since you have already learnt the act and craft to create and survive without any “ism” around you!

Being a coach, we learn dealing through our experience with people- The only singular truth that remains is – the fact that- Each individual’s truth is a their own reality to which they will always remain glued- the depth and spread of that truth either makes them all encompassing or self-limiting! There is nothing right or wrong about “ism’s” how we deal with it and what approach we take to deal with it- either makes “ism” work for us and help us or makes it works against us to harm us! The human mind, being what it is- through your life time- at one point the “ism” will your vital need – pivoting on your existence and yet at another time as your purpose is served, you will despise and reject that very “ism” as it never existed! Nothing right and nothing wrong about it! The only important thing being- don’t plan your life aligned to “ism’s- that is a fatal fallacy and can wreak havoc with even the most intelligent minds! As long as you stay focused within and know who “You” are and learn to manage that bit- all else can be dealt with later!

I will leave you with these thoughts for now, to perhaps re-evaluate your priorities and see whether you are entrapped/ fostering or staying indifferent to the “ism’s” around your fragile life!

Ciao for now, will be back soon with another article! keep those mails coming in and do let me know what next you would like to read about!