Tag: #simple

The essence of Calm: Before, through & after a storm

~ Parimal Aluri ~ Leave a comment

At a time when I write this, we have a hurricane creating widespread damage along the South East coast of USA, this after having ripped through the nation of Cuba. Somewhere else in the world, there are massive protests and agitations owing to mishaps, political oversights, societal assertion of heir rights, at times with an overwhelming note that says, “enough is enough”! If you thought this was enough for a day on the planet Earth! Well, try to dig a bit deeper and you will find many unfolding events- seemingly isolated at the start- but as you begin to see the emerging pattern all these seemingly isolated incidents soon enough begin to throw up an interconnected and intertwined pattern that weaves the fate and future of the planet and humanity at large! Join me here as we try to decipher a way around the seemingly fluid conditions that arrive to greet us every morning- whether that’s the co-worker who has decided to move out, the business that wants to shut down or grow fast or a nation that wants to re-write it’s perception- the singular answer that humanity seeks is “How do we stay calm- anchored” with all or any of these playing out around us! So here we go!

To begin with, the reality is, storms are ever present and everywhere- at times visible, at times hidden in lain sight, at times expressed and yet at some other times subtly parked away- only to be sensed by those attuned with the contexts around! Whether it’a massive natural calamity that’s heading your way, a society (of which you are a part of) or perhaps a witness to the unfolding’s around, the only real way to grasp and act or decide not to, will all be achieved and remain effective only as long as you have a quick thinking, flexible, fluid and calm mind at work- a mind that knows too well, that no time is ever right for an emotive response- no matter what the situation is- what really makes sense and matters is a rational and collected calm mind which can open up locked challenges with or without a key- but for sure will always ensure that you as an individual will embrace the least damage in whatever you choose to engage with!

The Calm mind before the storm: A calm mind is able to foresee and anticipate the storm as it begins to gather pace- you may want to argue- why can’t it stop it- that’s where a lot of pre-emptive follies take place- when emotive anxiety overtakes rational and wise observations, many a times we need to act in a rush to solve a problem (which we think is arriving), we actually end up creating more grave and more intense problems which are far more real and damaging and pale in comparison to what would have actually come your way! You see, a calm mind is not about inaction or inertial resistance- it’s more about being able to stay collected, observant and pragmatically thinking to estimate two relevant parameters- how much of what is being gauged- is real and what is the probability of that reality coming to life! It’s only when a correct assessment of a perceived problem is done through this lens, that you will be able to hold a steady hand as you ride through choppy waters of a fierce storm! Like every chef knows too well, great food becomes possible only when ingredients are well picked and uncertainties are dealt with through the process of cooking- all of these requiring a focussed and calm mind!

The Calm through the storm: Whether or not you were able to prep your mind, before storm that came your way, you still have a decent amount of hope on your side if you are able to improvise and stay calm as the storm dawns upon you! Whether it is that tough deadline at work, those spreadsheets and presentations taking a toll, or it’s that number crunching that’s driving you insane or that eternal worry about a perspective client- will they or won’t they sign the dotted line! All of these and many other instances can actually arrive with little or no warning, throwing your minds straight into the proverbial boiling water! When this happens, and it will some or the other time- through your long and illustrious life- you will be gladly surprised that at times, doing nothing at all can be a wonderful thing to do! A calm mind has the potency and power to discern with laser sharp focus and no matter how cluttered the subject on hand- or how ambiguous things may seem to be- as longa s you have a calm and focussed mind- you will be able to firstly decide whether you need to act or not and if you need to, you will be able to calibrate the intensity, force and direction of your action- ensuring you are acting in the right way and the right direction to realize the right results! There’s never anything achieved by burning down your house to kill a rat! Right force- to the right space at the right time, is what translates into great results- don’t believe- talk to the paramedic or the fire fighter in your neighbourhood- they are the finest artists who have mastery on this art of staying calm through a crisis- always and each time!

The Calm after the storm: Now that the worst has passed by (for the moment), a clam mind helps assess the damage/benefit more accurately. Getting emotive, hyper reactive will end up damaging all and any benefit or lessons learnt through the journey, a calm mind will help you assess, articulate and formulate with finesse what works and what doesn’t, so that the next time you face a challenge you have a storm- you know what you should certainly not do! Sure enough not all storms are the same, neither in intensity, nor in their form, but the fact is, as long as you have learnt to harness the power of your mind by staying calm, chances are you will ensure that your damages are lessened with every passing storm, making you more prompt, wise and strong with each passing milestone of your life! Ins’t this the simple and foundational story and fact of our lives- no matter who we are, what we do and the different definition of success that we pursue- as long as we have a great ability of refined discernment- you will almost always be able to wriggle out of complex situations with as minimal damage as possible- the essence also lies in the fact, that to begin with try and avoid getting into those odd spaces (the area where the storms take birth!). This works well when it comes to deal with linear storms, that are unidirectional, but when individuals are confronted with multidimensional storms that have the potency to take down and impact one more more aspects of life definitions, that is when the real test of being “calm” is realized and if you ever happen to get into this space and walk out- perhaps even bruised and battered- but not bitter- trust me you will be completely newer version of yourself – as they say version upgrade2.0 or 3.0 whatever you may think fits well!

I leave you here with these thoughts for now, take some time to connect with that calm within and see the difference it makes for you- to choose your battles, check the storms and then ride ahead with more control and more resilience to emerge on the other side better, even though you may be a bit battered!

Ciao for now, will be back soon with another one, until then the key word- “Calm”- realize, practise and cultivate it!

Tricked by your brain.

~ Parimal Aluri ~ Leave a comment

We live in an era, which is just that our brains need! Whether you struggle to take simple decisions or end up taking complex decisions on an impulse, whether it is signing up for the wrong vocation or whether it is taking the wrong bus- you can simply put the blame on your seemingly innocent brain- seemingly, because, no matter what your IQ is when the brain decides to call the shots, even the best of minds can go haywire! Join me here we take a sneak peek into this space and try to unravel what perhaps is happening here! So here we go!

There are many wise books out there, written by eminent neuro-scientists, psychologists, medical professionals, psychiatrists, behavioural experts; more or less all of them agree to one simple truth that the human brain is one fascinating machine that can throw all your theories and scientific analysis out of the mind and present situations that one has never thought of! Sure enough, through the last 100 years, as technological advancements have made it possible to assess and experiment the working of the brain- it has simultaneously thrown up more new questions than answers that it has found! Perhaps that explains why more and more medical professionals have started to agree that they don’t have answers to all questions and there is a point where even the best of scientific enquiry will fail and falter!

We dwell in times where instant gratification has got hard wired into us. One primary reason for that is essentially how we have kept evolving as collective societies- some places this aspect has played out more than elsewhere. The reason why instant gratification is so empowering is that, your brain’s love for inertia begins to blossom! Whether it is that communication about a remedy for looking fit, a chocolate that you can binge without worrying about sugar, or that air purifier which promises air as clean as whatever, fruits, apartments, job offers too? well our brains are always seeking to optimize the energy balance of our physical bodies- that implies effort / benefit analysis! So wherever and whenever your brain is able to decipher a decent trade off over effort and benefit- you are tricked! So what’s it’s about eating away that chocolate in the dead of the night, or finishing off those finger crisps while no one is watching, it’s all the part of the game! yes, sure enough office delegation techniques- both upward and downward too are a factor of this albeit with the compounding effect of the ever diminishing intelligence! So what’s the deal here? (another gratification question, I must agree!)

Simply put, our brain’s ability to decipher accurately the effort/ benefit space is what makes us as a species so unique and successful, no doubt around that. The problems start when the brain begins to deploy this while being influenced by inaccurate/misleading/ half-baked content that it receives! This is perhaps what throws even our poor brain off-guard- for beyond a point analysis will give into intermittent analytical paralysis and which will eventually grow into chronic indifference and apathy and end up changing your brain- from being an active -active discerning tool into a passive-passive reactive tool! You’ve heard about that phrase right, “Listen to Act, not to react” well, something like that, but sadly with more long lasting and damaging consequences!

An easy way to guard our brain, from reaching such a seemingly painful and unwarranted stage is to begin to filter what comes it’s way- the old adage “The company you keep!” Well, it works , whether you like it or not, be surrounded by people who are inspiring, more driven to specific causes, pursuing thoughts and ideas those are empowering and aimed for the larger good, looking outwards and upwards through sunshine and storm- this one simple trick will bring in a refreshing change and begin to re-wire and correct the lethargy and inertia over time as these more meaningful impressions begin to over-ride the cobwebs of the less serving and closed loop instances of the bygone time! As with people so with everything else, your choice of residence, it’s upkeep, the hobbies that you pursue, the vocation you choose (importantly the people you choose to work alongside or work for or have them work for you!), the books you read, the information that you soak in- what you allow to assimilate and what is that you filter and delete immediately- all this matters- even as much of this happens in an ongoing manner subconsciously, once you try to apply a focussed and directed effort to fine tune with some effort the results can be far more rewarding and enriching!

More often than not, you will also see that when it’s a fatigued brain, your ability to discern on a topic or task at hand, will seem to sway more towards an emotional response rather then being a calibrated rational discernment which is more logic and facts driven! This is another fall out a tired brain as it tries to strive a balance between the effort/ benefit space, the only undoing being that it’s perhaps not in the best of it’s health to do so! Something similar to wanting to lead when you are not ready for it, or trying to hit the asphalt when you are kind of a little tipsy, if not all sloshed! A tired brain, is in a simple mode- “If this doesn’t kill me, whatever action follows I am good!” so whether it is that meaningless shopping, only to come back and find out you have the same dress back home, or eating to realise, you actually have to rush to the washroom- because you lost track on the amount you binged! or many other such instances, which are almost always followed up with statements like “I should have, could have or would have” acted, done things differently!”

The trick to ensure that the brain is all wired right and is able to discern (and not emote) on the effort/benefit space is to keep it nourished and alert- as you may have guessed it a lot of that depends on what you consume and what is consuming you! Whether it is the food, the ambience, the people, the books, the social fabric around you- as long as you are able to soak in that adds value and empowers you to create lasting value- you will find your brain is as alert as that of a baby and is ready to usher in an eternal bounty of creativity/art and scientific enquiry based on the fundamental trait of a healthy brain- Inquisitiveness! A healthy brain, is always seeking, learning, un-learning, re-learning, adapting, adopting and building on what is meaningful and beneficial on the basis of rational and pragmatic discernment rather than an impulsive emotional response! I am no way suggesting that emoting is of secondary importance, rather when your brain is nourished you will find a greater degree of alignment between your rational discernment and your emotional responses and that’s when you hear the statements like “I love this life as I get to follow my passion and be successful through that!”

I leave you with these thoughts here, urging you to nourish your brain, as you must so that when you have a geared up brain, the tricks that it plays, empower and surprise you in a more welcoming and pleasant way, ensuring you follow a path of empowered thinking, creating more empowered actions for an empowered life!

Ciao for now, will be back soon with another topic, until then stay wise, stay nourished and consume what empowers you, not what consumes you!

The future of jobs.

~ Parimal Aluri ~ Leave a comment

Gone are the days when there was relevance to the question, “Where do you see yourself in “x” years, simply because in that time frame, the question itself will most probably end up being pointless! As the world embraces a more potent mix of automation and human intelligence (and latent dumbness), we are racing ahead to throw out a big majority of “jobs” which seem to be so cherished and meaningful in the context of today! Join me here as we decipher what really is unfolding and what is that you and I can do about ensuring that we develop meaningful relevance to our existence by associating with something that is timeless and ever relevant! So here we go!

The history of human progress in the last 300 odd years has been a complete circle of sorts! Starting with the promotion and encouragement of individual genius, greatness and spark of being a master- to moving ahead and encouraging social cohesion through promotion of similarity of thought and action (the great dawn of the MBA era- where rules were given to follow and break alike!) to an age that we have been witnessing through the last two decades- a confluence of ingenuity, cohesive effort through focussed asymmetric collective thinking! Going ahead what we are about to witness will be an age where if there is any one thing that will be held up with high regard and requirement- it will be your UQ – your Uniqueness Quotient! In the decades to follow through this century and beyond, before the reset to collective and cohesive collaboration again begins, there will be an oasis of calm that will reward humanity and humans who display a higher UQ!

There is no doubt that automation is here to stay and perhaps even out do humans when it comes to the space of managing the routine and in certain areas even the creative engagement with or without human assistance, but what will empower and enable people to ride this automation wave to build their fortunes will be their intrinsic opportunity to develop ingenious solutions and services by ensuring that the human element supersedes and rides over the whole stack of automation. So how do we go about it and what is that you and I can do to survive and excel at what is destined to come our way? Read on!

It all starts by tapping within and staying connected to your intrinsic competencies. For this to happen what is important is, being abe to develop an impeccable ability to behold awareness- about self and everything and everyone around you- minute to minute! It is only when you are engaged and connected from this pivot of unflinching endurance that you can measure what matters and see what is perhaps cloaked– both so vital as far as deciphering and decoding the future is concerned!

As the world races ahead to embrace automation, it will only become more and more vital to have intellect and innate wisdom to lead the way to ensure that the automation that humanity is signing up for is safe and sane! The world is replete with examples where automation has ended up throwing up unwanted and unnecessary glitches and aberrations which have then further gone to add more problems rather then provide solutions to the ones’ on hand! The way to decode this compelling paradox is to understand why did we agree to embrace automation to begin with!

Through the advancement in science and technology and the appetite for consumerism, the world moved ahead and began to experience the first wave of automation wherein goods could be mass produced through an engaging blend of human and machine dexterity, as time progressed more and more of mundane and routine, repetitive functions began to get handed down to the automated spaces under the garb of allowing enough free time for humans to further excel at their creative pursuits and come up with further and higher innovations and inventions- whether that worked or not is a different story to agree and disagree- but what that certainly ended up doing is that in no time humanity ended u being enslaved to the curse of automation! Today we have ended up in a zone wherein automation not only projects the overview or identifies the problem or suggests alternatives, but rather does all of this and even more importantly executes further instructions to alter and manage further scenarios of dynamic nature that geos on to impact production and supply chains not only at one location but across multiple locations all over the globe! This is the space where human intellect is being tested and challenged to stay relevant and deliver meaningful options overriding the mind boggling crunch game that powerful computers and nimble machines are able to do all by themselves!

It is only the application of intrinsic and directed intelligence and wit that can ensure that automation stays relevant and in command of human wisdom- that alone ensures that we have defined family of jobs and vocations in the future too which are able to walk side by side of prevailing automation. The singular fact however will be that all jobs of the future that have a human engagement will thrive and stand on the foundation of the UQ of an individual- whether organizations would want to further promote and propagate a collective UQ to deal with a compelling large problem at hand- is a different matter, but as long as Individuals are able to apply themselves to the tasks at hand on the pivot of their UQ, they will remain relevant and valuable, irrespective of the extent of the automation blended around what they do!

In a sense, the future of jobs is more to do with services and solutions that Individuals can offer- because of who they are and what they are- both as Individuals and as a part of some collective group or team and how well this is realized and deployed is what will go to define how and where automation will be check-mated and where it will go on to advance! There is no reason to fear or shun automation, as long as it is meaningful and relevant and in the real sense is able to liberate human intellect to pursue something higher and compelling, but when automation threatens to mimic and over ride human engagement and value based assessment of situations and processes, be assured it will fail and falter and the consequences of that melt down is something perhaps societies are not yet ready to pay up for!

What I see coming our way in the future is the excellence of automation and human intelligence going hand in hand aligned to their own respective core value ethos and needs! Professions and Vocations that elevate the human spirit, soul and the provide directed guidance, innovative thinking and accelerate deployment of wit and human ingenuity will thrive and progress. Jobs that empower people and create an impact and ring in continuing hope and promise for humanity will linger on and perhaps even get better with time! Likewise automation that helps take away the mundane, repetitive, low engagement and high risk job functions will get more advanced and better at getting things done with every new generation of research and firmware upgrades! For everything else that humanity chooses to do, it will almost always be the case of fleeting dynamism between varying degree of automation and human control! Sure enough a lot of it will get standardised with time and through trial and error!

Like the cycles of the bygone era, we are moving ahead to experience the finesse of human wit, intelligence and wisdom in the coming few decades and for the remainder of this century, even as automation races ahead to liberate and empower us, it is only the discerning human mind that will be able to behold any meaningful essence to achieve a dynamic balance between human efforts and automation!

I leave you with these thoughts for now, urging you to tweak your mind and set it up in an automated mode to empower you so that you may deploy your UQ and devise your own personal niche to embrace automation through the wisdom, wit and intelligence of your mind!

Ciao for now, will be back soon with another one, until then stay safe, stay wise and take that journey to tap into your UQ to embrace the automated future coming your way!

When numbers don’t add up!

~ Parimal Aluri ~ Leave a comment

As we come close to end of January, many nations around the world and organizations are busy diving deep into the number game! For some or the other reasons these numbers communicate and convey what their masters want them to say and no matter what you think, they never really add up! Join me for a short walk through this space and decode why the world embraces this number and data driven craze and what is that you and I must guard against and be wise enough to see beyond what the numbers portray!

To begin with let me share some statements with you, I got a 100% increase on reader engagement, I have a strike rate of 99% to finish articles and I write them; now let me add two additional information, first I have only 10 readers and I write only one article per year! Now what happens to your understanding and appreciation about me- am I effective or ineffective? Struggling or Great? Well, this is what the reality and truth of the world of numbers and data sets is, all the time, everywhere people are almost always presented with what will empower decisions to be driven in a particular way to conform to some needed outcome and as long as that happens, governments stay, CEOs can relax on their chairs and societies can keep doing what they do, but when the numbers and facts begin to stand out on the basis of what they are without any shadows around them, reality ushers in and people begin to get a taste of an oncoming reset and realignment of priorities! But why does this happen? Why do people get discreet and secretive with numbers and data? Why is it almost always shared on a need to know basis and never- rarely- in a comprehensive and holistic way? Well read on!

Part of the answer to the trickery involved in sharing numbers and data resides in the core values, strife, struggle of the bygone and the promise of the future and what path has been embraced to achieve the same! Say, you are a nation sure enough you may never want to- you will not and should never have to- share intricate details pertaining to your armed forces and preparedness as a nation- thats perfectly sane and when it comes to elements and sensitive data points like these, nations, societies, organizations guard them with all that they have! But when the guarding and distorting commences for all that is available in public domain, it sets the tone for competing analysis, conflicting inferences and a more confused decision making- courtesy- the conflicting data points and numbers which seem to have a mind of their own!

This happens all the time, sales targets are revised upwards with no or limited rationale, under the garb of operational efficiency and optimization, resources and people are driven to work and perform right upto their breaking point! Business have one number for the government ( to ensure their tax optimization is achieved) and one for the workers and yet another one for the investors! It is this space of conflicting objectives done simultaneously that creates a mirage of information which seems true all the time- depending upon who you are and what you are searching in that number maze! The reality, sure enough resides hidden away somewhere around and within that universe of staged appearances and narratives and this is what becomes the foundation for entities to either rise high (when their compelling cause is wise and just and sink deep when they are on a trajectory of self-destruction, already passed the stage of repair! So what’s the sane way to deal with this space and is there anything that you and I can do around this?

Well, the only real and meaningful way to deal with the number and data maze that keeps coming your way endlessly is by being pragmatic and being able to apply what is coming your way to the contexts that mean to you, even as you appreciate the contexts in which they were recorded! You see, like my first example a 100% increase in readership will have meaning and efficacy only when the numbers that go on to reflect that percentage are sizable and meaningful in the ocean of readership data! Sure enough nations, companies and agencies have their pressing compulsions to do what they do with the numbers that the have access to, but the ability to gauge and see what is not been shared, is where your intelligence and prudence comes to play and the more better you get at that bit, the higher are your chances to excel and surge ahead!

When governments, experts and organizations play with numbers to avoid chaos in the society, that is understandable, but when these data points are selectively played out and represented in a manner to benefit a few sometimes and yet few others all the time, things start to get undone and this is where mistrust and gross disregard for any sort of metric begins to manifest! Once this stage is arrived at, even the most well managed aspects of a society can come crashing down. What’s more worrying is the fact that when the big corporate world steps in to create compelling narratives on the bed rock of staged data sets by the governments, it takes the whole society on a joy ride to no real destination and this is what manifests as companies go bust and as markets crash every now and then!

Even as all this is unfolding, it is always worthwhile to remember that, there may or may note be a compelling need to cheat to trick per say, but when an intent to trick is set, things really begin to get awkward and chaotic, eventually the only way that they are controlled is by allowing them to run their race, fizzle out and diminish! No data set or number story has ever been complete or whole and there are good reasons for that to be that way, there are reasons too for stories to go the other way; what really matters is your ability to decipher this fluid nature of numbers and data points and appreciate that no matter how well you control or manage what you do, given the interconnected world that we all are a part of, there is very little real and meaningful control that you can exercise to be sure that numbers will always stand by you or your aspirations!

No matter what you do, and how much power you wield the numbers and data sets that wrap up around you, are the only ones’ that you get to play with and as long as you are alert, prudent and wise with regards to dealing with them, you will be covered! The moment you stretch or flex beyond what is manageable, things will begin to unravel and all the data and numbers that the world need not see, will end up getting spread to create even more challenges even for your tomorrow, than the ones’ you probably face in your now! Every segment of a society will have a contextually valid reason to assert and vouch for the data that drives their narrative and no matter what anyone else says or not, nothing will ever be accepted or paid heed to! The only way to work with numbers and data to ensure they at least seem to be agreeing upon something, is by creating pathways and mid-ways for converging divergent observations and summarize narratives withing permissible and meaningful margins of variance!

Individuals and businesses that are successful and resilient often are so because they have also been able to decode this crucial number game alongside building up and exceling at their competence in what they choose to do! Numbers and data, by themselves are never inaccurate, it is how they are actioned upon and inferred upon that either goes on to make them more potent or a piece of crap!

I leave you with these thoughts here, urging you to practise the pause as and when you immerse into the numbers and the data that comes your way, so that you are able to not only see what is shown but also what is hidden within and not visible at first sight!

Ciao for now, will be back soon with another one soon! Until then stay safe and yes, keep crunching those numbers and data set, but ensure that all what you do stays, relevant, meaningful and directed in the contexts that come wrapped along with them!

As protests become entertainment…

~ Parimal Aluri ~ Leave a comment

As I go in to write this piece the world is in a fluid state, across nations we have segments of the social fabric expressing anguish, disagreement, discord and negation of what has been sent their way! Irrespective of who you are, what you believe or stand for and whichever side you want to take, there is always a limit to what unfolds and as that threshold is crossed the very essence of the reason is lost and every struggle, strife or expression for a cause, ends up being nothing more then pure entertainment! Join me here as we take a trip down this route to understand why and how compelling expressions of humanity end up as entertainment! So here we go!

Through the progress of humanity or should I say as human societies evolved, every step and every chapter has been sprinkled with a generous amount of compelling narrative, thought or an ideological pursuit , either non-aligned, conflicting or competing with the main narrative of the prevailing social construct of the time, this is the essence of the genesis of protests, strife and struggle of humans within the societies that they give unto themselves, it sounds paradoxical and strange, but that is true and is what goes on to make who we are, as we are and wherever we are! The whole concept of protest, non conformity and taking a route to either compete or embrace conflict is all about creating an etched document in the space of time to record a simple fact that- not all were fine with what was unfolding and they did do what they could, the way they did! All seems fine until this space, but then if protests are all about competing o conflicting ideologies or thoughts, why do they get disregarded and brushed away as aberrations and end up being a source of entertainment rather being something meaningful and purpose driven? Read on!

As humanity advanced, alongside it, the way history was documented altered and as more multipronged societies came to exist, the confluence of influences coming into societies soon began to move away from a traditionally rooted way of documenting structured for- against views to multiple, competing and conflicting narratives. Needless to say, the truth has always been and will always continue to be embedded somewhere within and around this ambiguous cloud of human narratives! Based on what the majority of a given social construct happens to be in a context of time, that particular thought, idea will be taken up as being the high moral stand and the gold standard for all that gets done and undone! As times flows by, soon enough the public memory fades, hardships are accepted and dealt with and opulence is celebrated in a never ending party as societies simply shift their view away form what has transpired to what is unfolding and probably will in the times ahead! When protests and compelling narratives are seen through this space of human development and progress, is when you begin to realize that, these incidents are not mere aberrations or something to do with the “now” of a society but rather are a part of a long term attribute displayed and held within the very soul of the society! But then why and how did protests loose their potency?

Like with everything else, as and when there is an excess of something, that technique soon tends to loose its potency either because the execution and deployment begins to get sloppy or the way of tackling them gets better and better- owing to the previous incidents! Either-ways a once proven formula soon ends up being reduced to virtual nothingness and with that the social disposition towards the very essence and concept of a protest begins to fade away and as that happens- the society reaches a state where- what is served becomes the new standard , with no or little room to debate of what else could have been possible- simply because there is no other way around and no people available to show the pathway to that route! There is really no need to jump to a conclusion that, this may not be good for a society or be bad, that all depends on multiple other aspects- which is a totally different matter together! As far as protests loosing their credibility and potency is concerned the reasons are almost always, what I already discussed above and the next important aspect being the contextual relevance of what is being fought for! Unless there is a holistic consensus for an approach and view with a formidable echo, even the best attempts and well laid protests will eventually fade away and tire out as governments begin to play the protesting leaders against themselves and thereby end up creating other more competing and compelling narratives, ending up everyone confused wondering what the whole noise was really about! So how do we ensure that protests don’t loose their potency and remain relevant?

The only real and meaningful way to ensure that protests, strife and expression of competing or conflicting narratives stays relevant is by ensuring that the effort is backed up by a solid contextual understanding of what the matter is and more importantly is deployed and executed only when it really matters and when something can be done about what is being debated! Many a protests and strife take up high moral and utopian stand points which are neither practical nor rational and very often they end up evaporated in their own fog of confusion and day dreaming! Protests need to be timed, executed and deployed in a space where, there is a good enough probability for the counter narrative to be accepted, imbibed and adopted over a current prevailing approach and it is only when this fertile spaces is available that any protests will be able to move towards realizing its objectives and stay aligned to what it has set out to achieve!

Protests that don’t resonate with the thought and expression of the majority will fail and falter and even a whisper that echoes the concern of the many will rumble on to become a deafening roar- this is what the truth of history has been – this is what the rise and fall of empires across civilizations has always been all about- and that continues to be the case with rise and fall of nations across the world in the modern context of our times and lives! As societies get fragmented and torn within and around on different parameters of opportunism, opulence and quality of life- at any given time- some or the other segment will feel the compelling need to raise its expression and make itself felt, heard and healed, but if this is done with an unfocused and ambiguous mind- even the most well planned protest/ strife will end up being only a spectacle which comes up once in a while for one or the other reason and soon enough will end up loosing all its credibility and potency-thereby going to prove all that they were against- to be true- by just one move of retreat and failure!

In our current modern age, when we have so much to consume and ponder about, every meaningless act that arrives in the space of strife or protest, end up becoming the most entertaining space for the whole society- people on either side are kept engaged and glue to the topic, even as the nation, businesses and the people who make the difference and shape the future move on and stay aligned to their true purpose and objectives! Protests become entertaining acts, not because their content, orientation, competing narrative is wrong or misleading (which at times could be the case too!), but also because when the counter attack and new narratives come in to play- already a lot of energy has been lost in creating the chatter and as the space of negotiations and discussions begin to arrive- the twist of modern day media management drives in the final nail in the coffin of a protest to rob it away from it’s very soul- of trust, credibility and unity of purpose! This is how even the most potent and meaningful protests are failed and more often than not when that does happen, it leaves societies even more disillusioned and confused then ever before with the person-to-person trust issues hitting an all time low, like never before!

I leave you with these thoughts for now, just remember, you may be on any side, of an ideological competition or conflict, but only when you are able to decipher the nuances of the ability of the protests being managed or stalled is clear, will you ever know whether you chose the right side or not! Else you too will feel only entertained like the vast majority does and nothing comprehensively new, worth learning will ever get added to your repository of wisdom and intellectual finesse!

Ciao for now, will be back soon with another one, until then stay wise, speak up and stay safe, and yes, always remember, too much of anything will always act as the fatal foundation to conspire your failure! No one built a one storey house with a 100 feet foundation! Think it over!

The real miracle.

~ Parimal Aluri ~ Leave a comment

If you have been wondering what the world has ended up becoming and if you have been wondering if miracles do exist and how does one embrace them; join me here we we take a quick trip down this space and decipher the real essence of miracles and what is that we can do, to harness them and have them within and around us! So here we go!

Each one of us wake up every morning seeking, hoping or praying for a miracle, whether the definition of that miracle is wining that odd lottery, that lucky hand at poker or just being able to survive a day at a crazy workplace or perhaps even plain simple staying alive- whatever that means to you, the fact remains that human lives are an expression of this mad obsession to seek and hold the miracle that one pursues!

Humanity has always been a story of hope and within that space resides the compelling belief for a miracle to break free and manifest to address some pressing challenges, whether they are for an individual or for a collective society. But what are thee miracles really? Why are they so rare and infrequent? Why do they seem to favour a few and disregard the many? Why do they manifest when they do and why do they stay elusive at some other times? Well if you too have been plagued by these questions and others as well, read on as we take a step to understand these “miracles” more aptly!

Based on what it means to you or a society, the miracle could be a factor of either of the two fundamental blocks- they can either be intrinsic or extrinsic and each one of these will almost always have a rational and scientific explanation- which more often than not is either hidden in plain sight or for some reasons (best known to the people who do so)- is just overlooked! Whether it is about that sudden spell of rain (or should I say rain when you were not expecting it – for your lack of knowledge of the weather around you!) or that winning of lottery or game of chance (as you came closer and higher in the probability space) everything that the human mind has attributed to being a “miracle” almost always has been a story of manifestation of efforts whose count has been lost! This is the space where so much of labour has gone in and for so long that when the seed begins to finally emerge from the shadows as a tree laden with fruits- very often in the daily hustle of life we have lost track of that seed and all the fruits coming our way seem to be simply magical and a miracle- the real essence here is that the seed may not have been planted by you- but by someone else- either intentionally or unwittingly- you just end up being there to enjoy the fruits of labour (perhaps connected or not to you!)

When it comes to the bounties of nature and the miracles that happen as we engage with nature- they follow the rule of nature! We expect pleasant weather- where none is possible and end up creating a template around what to expect and not- this even as we know that the whole of modern science of appreciating and deciphering nature has evolved only in the last 300 years and the planet has been here longer than that and as humans we too have evolved through the eons! So when storms dissipate, we are thankful, when we sense that earthquake – we are on the edge and as we get to tame the waves, note the rain and decipher the snow around us- we begin to read the cryptic messages of nature and in no time- miracles seem to dwindle away as regular occurrences and it is then left to only a handful rarest of the rare weather manifestations which are left to qualify for being a miracle and more often then not these are a direct impact of a localized geographical phenomenon which binds the elements of nature in a strange manner!

Miracles are nothing more or nothing less, but the last remaining frontiers of time and space for which the rational thought and explanation is yet to arrive! However when it comes to the intrinsic space, the real miracle has been very accurately identified and deciphered- that space of the miracle is really who you are! The real miracle is you! Each one of us are a living example and an unfailing citation of being a miracle- by simply being who we are and what we are- whether that helps us to pursue what we strive for is a different story- but the fact remains that each one of us is a miracle unto ourselves and that is the real essence of humanity! This is what makes the world what it is- a diverse, complex and yet unifying mix of pursuits and passion which help us propel human societies a step ahead from where they were earlier! Then why is it that there is so much strife and struggle?

Well, the strife and struggle emerges as we begin to pursue and seek what is not meant for us – not because we can’t or we shouldn’t, simply because that is not what is meant for us to seek! Ships look grand in the harbour and aeroplanes look beautiful by the hangars, but that is not where they are meant to be! This is what is applicable to us as well, we may be good perhaps, too good being what we are, doing what we do, but the million dollar question is, whether that is what we are supposed to be doing? If you have ever wondered, why nothing miraculous has ever come your way, perhaps the answer resides in this space, your pursuits are in the wrong direction and perhaps for the wrong intent! Miracles will emerge only once you align yourself, your life and pursuits to do what you are meant to do and for you or me to understand and decipher that code- could be a day’s job or at times a lifelong pursuit that comes calling only when we have perhaps few extra months or hours to spare! This is the essence of relation that humanity has with miracles and perhaps that is what makes them seemingly so rare and elusive- as a large chunk of humanity keeps pursuing what is not meant for them, they simply keep moving farther and farther away from realizing their true potential to touch and experience the miracle that they are entitled to and this is what makes miracles seem so unrealistic and elusive!

The miracles are as real as your efforts, intent and pursuits are in the right direction and if there is any real meaningful miracle- that is about being able to find that right direction, at the right time and in a right way- for unless this happens- everything that is about to manifest- gets either vibrant and enduring or tends to get complicated and ambiguous- however in either of those scenarios- there will be a strong prevailing case for the onset of the miracle with a different timeline as far as the enduring value that it will bring along with it!

Miracles are only as real as your ability to decipher and behold them, timing is of essential value and alongside that unless the miracle doesn’t serve the greater good- rest assured it will lie buried or at it’s very best manifest as some half-done job by a great master!

Do take some time off and do ponder around the miracle that has come your way- if nothing has ever come your way- chances are- you- yourself perhaps are the miracle manifesting in the lives of the people around you- simply by doing what you do!

Ciao for now, will be back soon, until then stay safe and stay wise- yes miracles are real- as real as your ability to dream, behold and manifest them!

Are you lost in your wonderland?

~ Parimal Aluri ~ 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!

The Influence collective.

~ Parimal Aluri ~ 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!

~ Parimal Aluri ~ Leave a comment

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.

~ Parimal Aluri ~ Leave a comment

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!

Deciphering ” The Radical Thinking” mind.

~ Parimal Aluri ~ Leave a comment

If you are left wondering about what happened at the Capitol Hill on January the 6th and are feeling anguished, angry, dejected, proud or sad or perhaps little bit of everything, this piece is for you; simply because what happened at the Capitol Hill is not an isolated incident as it may seem and is played out across societies all over the world for one or the other reason and depending on which side you view what’s unfolding, either you will be elated or sad and either ways- what unfolds seldom serves you or the society in terms of moving it closer to the larger and greater good! So join me here, as we go further to understand what the so called, “radical thinking” is all about, from where does it emerge and what is that can be done about it- does it only harm or is it helpful too? So here we go!

The dynamism that human societies have witnessed in the last century have laid the foundation to what we witness and experience as our societies around us! Societies which have typically witnessed oppression, war, strife, struggle, more often than not tend to become more mellowed, humble and accommodative with time and as people in those societies begin to get equitable access to opportunities of growth and learning! On the other hand, societies which have always had a very intrinsic and unipolar view of the world and about everything and everyone around them tend to live and die in their own unwarranted over confidence or lack of it!

The challenge that societies have always faced and continue to is about being able to share the dividends of progress in a proportional manner- no one is suggesting socialism here, neither am I suggesting Capitalism is bad, what is relevant and contextually important is the fact that, unless the fruits of labour of progress are not shared in a proportionate manner (whatever that proportion is), societies will feel moving at different speeds within the sub-segments and thereby- you will witness people racing ahead and people being left behind and it is from these extreme scenarios of societies that radical thoughts begin to emerge- the ones’ who are racing ahead feel right about what they do because they are enjoying what the aspire and those who are being left behind, tend to feel right about what they do, thinking that is their way and approach to reach their unfulfilled aspirations! So you see in a sum total way, the essence of radical thinking emerges from the extreme ends of societies hinging on their association with their aspirations- at one end- being enjoyed and wanting more and at the other end wanting the basic ones’ first! Based on what society you live in, you will have different standards for aspirations and different levels of volumes at the extreme end and in the middle of the given society.

As long as societies have the majority of their constituents around the centre, the few on the extreme ends can be managed, but as polarization sets and more and more people start to feel compelled to take extreme stands (as part of the larger social conformation bias) the societal balance is thrown away and what you are left is with few people standing in between of two extremely polarized sections who have a large volume as well! This is what the story of many societies across the nations is today! The cause of that polarization could be anything from, political ideologies, personality worship, religious belief’s, genuine like or despise of available quality of leaders’ , whatever other hundred reasons that you can think about- the fact remains that no human is ever born with a polarized mind or heart and it is the society which goes on to indoctrinate that aspect and whether that helps or harms largely depends on what is injected into the impressionable minds of the people through their forming years and this is perhaps the on stage where societies can strive to check the run away polarization that only comes back to bite them at the end! But how and why do people get sold into extreme views or end up taking a radical stand?

As people begin to race ahead or begin to get left behind, despite and inspite of everything, the ones’ ahead are ready to do anything it takes to stay ahead and the ones’ left behind are ready to do anything that it takes to make that move ahead! For achieving this, whatever comes to their rescue works! This could be taking hardstands on political ideologies, personalities or perhaps even using matters of faith as deemed appropriate, all of this- just as tools or instruments to achieve something that is totally different and what’s worse is that, scoities which allow this to develop and get strong- do so with unwritten laws and incentivization based on how far to an extreme a person leans to! More often then not the heady cocktail of the political class and the people from the society and tool used for the hard-line stand ends up destroying and ripping away whatever would have been the unique identity of the society itself!

Before the rampant industrialization, societies had time and space and were more accommodative and allowing for people to pursue without the fear of getting left behind nagging anywhere around their minds! Today’s world is a different place altogether, trust me if Picasso or Gustav Eiffel or Einstein would have been present today, they would have at the most ended up leading the design or science lab at one of the large corporate houses and that would be their limited claim to fame! They too would have ended up being enslaved to fit into the social frame either as leaders racing ahead or as oddity left to struggle and sink in their own corner- which again are the same positions of the two extreme ends of todays’ world! It is almost easy to go on to a television debate show and claim that there should be no space for extreme thoughts in the society, well the problem with that statement is that all great discoveries and innovations have always had when extreme and radically different thinking was applied to something that can serve humanity and hence the problem is not with the space of radical thinking but rather the deployment of that ability for the serving or unnerving causes! So what’s the plan?

The plan is simple and straightforward, it is about creating enough space within societies to accommodate all the voices, feelings and thoughts that are there and try to resolve and address them the way it should be done! The maddening race to be ahead and the unwanted fear and anxiety of being left behind has to be done away with in totality- sure enough a tall and utopian order, but unless that happens, societies will keep drifting away from humanities foremost agenda of meaningful and purpose driven progress and end up sub-serving ourselves and the generations that rely upon us! If you though this is just a civic problem or the ones’ that politicians should be left to deal with it, think again!

The elements of societies are all of us, You and Me included, as we walk in and out of our offices, get driven in the cabs, are taking trains, buses, co-workers, vendors, clients, visiting stores and going about our social community engagement- we are knowingly and unknowingly touching and connecting with various segments of our society and the way we carry ourselves, behave and speak we are sending out a signal not only about the society around us but importantly also about who and what we have ended up becoming as Individuals while we have been either busy either racing ahead- to stay ahead or we have been striving and struggling to catch up as we have got left behind!

It is only when societies are able to create enough space for all constituents within its frame and enough scope for them to express and explore that we will see the beginning of the end of radical thinking and radicalization! may sound utopian, but that is the only way, human progress has been a story of the ingenious ability of the human mind to come up with new thinking and new solutions for perplexing problems at hand, with time sure enough, even this problem of radical thinking will be addressed- once the root causes that accelerate and provoke it are taken care of!

I leave you here with these thoughts for now, not pushing you to either edges of your thinking mind, and just sharing a final thought with you that, the problem is not about the human mind that thinks, neither it is the problem of the mind that thinks radically, the real problems is about what is the contextual truth around that mind which makes it to think the way it does! Fix that and you have fixed all the minds around you -fixed for good!

Remember, average thinking always produces average results, great thinking produces great results and all great thinking happens at the very edge of the thinking process and that is what Radical Thinking is all about- use it wisely and humanity will be endowed with gifts and bliss unlike ever before!

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

The “C” check approach.

~ Parimal Aluri ~ 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!

~ Parimal Aluri ~ 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.

~ Parimal Aluri ~ 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!

Welcome 2021 the 2020 way!

~ Parimal Aluri ~ 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!

Leadership nuggets for a new world order.

~ Parimal Aluri ~ Leave a comment

Well, sure enough you may be busy right now, packing your bags or navigating your travel for that much needed and required escape from the realities of the life that you have been blessed with; here’s a quick share with you on what is that the rejigged onset of leadership will possibly seem like as you arrive back to your workstations! So join me here and let’s take a quick sneak peek into what promise the corporate world holds and what is that you and I can do when it comes to leadership and deploying the same!

Well, if 2020 was what and how it turned out to be, it just goes on to stress the importance and relevance of leaders and leadership! Whether the space is about being a leader in the public domain, whether it is about leading a corporate house or whether it is just about leading yourself, irrespective of what is the mandate that you are accountable for, 2021 will be more of a benchmark timeline wherein new leaders will emerge and current leaders will have to reinvent themselves and their leadership styles to meet with the changing dynamics of the social construct around them and the evolving contextual realities! Importantly, whether you just choose to lead yourself or others as well, there will be few fundamental aspects that will have to be met with and which will go on to set up the narrative for leaders and their leadership in the times ahead! These fundamental spaces are what will go on to make leaders and leadership relevant or obsolete depending on how well these are either assimilated and deployed or ignored and forgotten! So what are these aspects? Well,read on!

Empathy: Empathy perhaps is the biggest pivot that will have to be deployed and leveraged upon in the times ahead! As humanity begins to take baby steps to re-connect and re-engage trying to establish the new normal or in-person connect, empathy will be the foundation on which everything else will reside. Leaders who are able to sense this aspect and demonstrate adequate amount of empathy will find it easier to collaborate, lead and inspire fellow members and thereby paving the way for an accelerated growth or that of a rapid pursuit of what has been set as an objective.

Intentional Listening: The times ahead will demand a new age of focussed and directed listening, what I call as “Intentional Listening” wherein the whole approach to listen is not to respond or react but to understand the contexts around what is being discussed and said and analyse the content with a holistic lens of what the matter is, who is delivering the message and sure enough, what the ecosystem is within which the impacts will be experienced and improvised. Leaders who invest more time in this space of “Intentional Listening” will be better equipped about the real over the apparent and thereby will be able to take empowered and decisive decisions based on a holistic detail that they will be be able to decipher through this space!

Simplified and Focussed objectives: The times ahead will demand leaders to provide ongoing clarity and demonstrate a continuing ability to uncomplicate complexities. With majority of humanity already tested to their limit of mental resilience in 2020 through the pandemic, before it and now after it, the last thing that co-workers, colleagues and members of the society want will be any remaining element of ambiguity or chaos – especially when it comes to areas of work and societal equity. Leaders who are able to uphold simplicity and clarity will be able to race ahead and make significant impact over others as they engage and work alongside teams to create magic like they did in the good old days!

Intrinsic Leadership: Sure enough effectiveness through leadership can be achieved by leaders emulating different styles and approaches, but the times ahead will demand a new way and that is the way of the “Intrinsic Leader”. You see, given the contexts from where societies are emerging and the challenges that they face, leaders who are able to share, display a strong intrinsic, unflinching and unwavering leadership approach in areas that they represent will see a surge of followers and leaders alike simply because “Intrinsic Leadership” is highly contagious and it is that super glue which empowers societies to move mountains, should the need arise. This enormous power comes from the fact that Intrinsic Leaders, lead from within and as they do so, they rely on their superpowers and their uniqueness to create unparalleled approaches which go a long way to address compelling challenges on hand!

Automating Human Intelligence: Leaders who will be smart enough to focus on the aspect of automating the available human intelligence within their teams and around them, will be the ones’ who will be able to make the most optimum use of any technological automation that happens around them to further their business objectives! You see, you may have the bets dashboards, the greatest MIS tool, or the simplest automated diagnostic tools at your disposal to propel your business or social experiment, but if the “people” who are entrusted with their management and design are handicapped in their ability to think the human way- well even the best automation will go waste and will end up being another piece of glorified digital garbage! Leaders who are able to fine tune their technological automation in line with the human intelligence at their disposal, will be able to take significant advantage and there by create an innovator’s edge to provide unique solutions and niche approaches to problems on hand! Global Leaders know this space too well and hence if there’s one thing that happens all the time behind the scenes with regards to artificial intelligence is the effective and resourceful deployment of human intelligence behind the scenes to ensure that what unfolds in services stays relevant, meaningful and viable! Leaders who are able to create an ongoing handshake between human kind and automated technological interfaces will be the ones’ who will be at a significant advantage and will also hold the key to create new bed rock for subsequent innovations!

The Humanistic approach: Leaders who embrace the humanistic approach will stand tall to reap the benefits of their approach, especially in the arena of public and societal leadership. If 2020, has done one thing, it has been a great leveller and a great teacher for humility! Leaders who continue with this belief will be able to see beyond the routine people engagement and will be able to carve out meaningful and directed interventions to serve humanity in the context of their span and reign of influence and control.

More the Leaders Greater the Influence: Leaders who recognize and are able to deploy their Leadership through others- by creating more leaders (as opposed to followers) too will define the Leadership style and success stories of the future! Humanity has learnt through 2020, that the same work can be done through different ways and even as that is been done- the efficiency or effectiveness would have more or less remained in the same broad range (else you would have either shut your shop or would have begin to hate the color pink- because of the slip provided!). This has created opportunities to devise new definitions of success for leaders and leadership alike and one such compelling metric involves the ability to influence so as to create more leaders and and thereby enhance influence through more leaders- rather than followers! Companies of the future that are able to identify and encourage more leaders will stand to gain as more leaders will go on to create a larger circle of influence overlapping among the leaders in an organization and externally create a more positive story for the services through their leaders and their leadership style!

Being Authentic: Finally this is one aspect that will matter in a big way, simply because the disruption of 2020 has brought home a vital lesson that templates don’t necessarily always work and that uncertain times call for unconventional solutions and answers! This can only be realized and delivered as long as Leaders and their leadership style empowers people to stay authentic and have their original ways of thinking working alongside the routine “work to order” set of thinking! It is the power of original thinking that has always empowered and rescued humanity from calamities time and again and history is replete with such miracle of human mind, especially when they were allowed to think independently, unconventionally and by being who they were, that is encouraging thinking in an authentic manner!

I leave you with these thoughts for now; sure enough this is not a limited list and you would want to expand it further and develop it in a more aligned matter to all that you pursue. Be the Leader that you always sought and deploy the Leadership that you always wished for and then you will be surprised to see the change and empowerment that you bring along for yourself and the ones’ around you!

Ciao for now, will be back soon with another one soon, until then get that much needed break and gear up to face another impressionable day!

Surviving the “New Year syndrome”

~ Parimal Aluri ~ 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!

The secret of resolutions that work.

~ Parimal Aluri ~ 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!