Tidbits – Education.

All the education in the world is focused on helping you understand every spoken or written word. And the world around you. That is the paradigm of knowledge. This is education that can be imparted. The sources could be all the books and literature that is out there and the medium could be a classroom or a seminar. The subjects to be learned here are definitive and the success of the learning process can be tested through traditional tests and graded as we know it all too well. The questions here are ‘how’, ‘what’ and, surprisingly, even ‘why’.

The other kind of education comes from understanding the interplays between you and your environment. On a daily basis. As you live life. If you are aware enough to sit up and take notice, that is. This education is experiential. It helps you understand yourself, what the world means to you and what you mean to the world. This is the paradigm of wisdom. Wisdom helps you understand silence just as well as the spoken word. This education is imbibed, not imparted. The source here is your life and your experiences. The medium is the entire ecosystem that you exist in. The subjects here are open to interpretation and there is no definitive right or wrong answer to questions. What worked in one situation may not in another. What is right is one situation may be wrong in another. Most things in this paradigm are relative. The premise is dynamic and moving. The questions here are ‘how come’, ‘what the...’, ‘why not’ kind.

Neither kinds of education can thrive without the other. What’s the point of all the education of the first kind if it cannot be applied effectively to impact lives? And what’s the point of all the education of the second kind if you do not understand the phenomena that belong to the first kind so as to interpret the experiences?

Some interesting read on this and related topics -

http://www.forbes.com/sites/sap/2012/08/15/what-is-the-purpose-of-education/

Tip of the day – How to live …appeal to your senses!

Take a short break from your routine, step back from the environment you are right now in, take a few deep breaths and just look around all the people around you. Wherever you are, whatever you do, it is likely you would find folks interacting with one gadget or the other. Someone on a laptop, another snuggling on a couch in front of a television, yet another browsing, talking, reading or texting on a phone or simply jogging with a headphone listening to music. Look for how many folks you come across who are enjoying the experience of their primary act for that moment and look for how long they stay with it before getting diverted. Chances are that they would be in minority!   

Reading about music is not quite the same as listening to it. Listening to music is not quite the same as playing it. Reading the preview or review of a movie is not the same as watching it. Watching a movie in an unknown language with subtitles is a far cry from watching a movie in a known language where you can follow the dialogues.

If you see the photograph of a beautiful or exotic flower, you are visually energized. It is not nearly the same as touching and smelling a flower. Rose fragrance appeals to the olfactory but is not the same as holding a rose to your nose. Watching a coffee ad on television is not the same as smelling it brewing! Reading through a recipe book with instructions, ingredients and illustrations of a recipe isn’t quite like eating it. What’s a wine if you do not get to smell or taste it?

Seeing photographs of snowy mountains is never the same as breathing the mountain air with a chill in the winds and seeing the enormity of it from its midst. Watching a documentary of wild animals in a dense forest with a commentary in the background does not convey the absolute silence or pitch darkness or when they are broken while in the jungle. The most beautiful images of the beaches, the sunrise, the waves and tides cannot give you the feeling of standing on a beach with the warmth of the sun on your back and the din of the waves and the infinitum of the horizon and the salty humidity of the coastal climate.

It is said that you ‘experience’ something when there are at least 3 senses involved in any single act. I would extend that argument to several acts that appeal to almost all senses we know of. But the crux is that one needs to go out there and experience it. Any amount of time spent watching, listening to or reading about things you like and love cannot measure up to experiencing it in person. There is an urgent need for people to go out and live their lives in the real world, be aware of and to experience everything around them…to appeal to their senses! Evolution has shown us that faculties that are not utilized for generations could eventually turn vestigial. The electronic generation runs a risk of beginning the process of doing precisely that to our species…by going virtual!

So go out there and live your real life…by appealing to your senses!

Tip of the day – What’s your destiny?

The relentless march of multitudes of people towards what they are convinced can be changed, their destiny, needs closer examination. By definition, destiny is predetermined, something that will necessarily and inevitably happen, and is fore-ordained.

So what’s all the fuss about trying to change one’s destiny all about, then? What does this mean to folks who are in hot pursuit of goals and are driven by milestones?

In simple terms, the pursuit has to be for the right things. If destiny is predetermined, there is no need to pursue it. One can pursue a variety of other things that make the journey fulfilling, exciting and worthwhile – health, wealth, knowledge, fame, happiness, friendship, peace of mind, to name a few. You cannot change destiny but you can alter the course to it.

Folks who set out to alter destiny hit the wall sooner or later because their purpose is flawed. People who seek fulfillment in the journey, set goals, targets and milestones around finding those ‘other things’ along the way, not at the end of it. And, tell you what? These are folks that do actually end up achieving a lot more in their lives. They end up altering the course. And filled with fire and passion, they continue to march along unfamiliar terrain charting their own paths. And their destiny does change. No, not in absolute terms, no! But surely in terms of what the world thought their destiny would be.

Mind you, these two categories of people put together, and in their own rights, are a thin minority. The vast majority goes through the motions and does not spare a thought along these lines for at least the better part of their lives. And, not surprisingly, they are not a point of most discussions anyway.

A few examples of the first category of people who set out to change destiny can be found in folks who waged wars and conquered territories to get there. Their kick was not in the journey. The destiny was in the end. And it certainly panned out so! And some from the second category, who did not set out in the pursuit of the theory of relativity, or the concept of gravity, or creating works of art that would be displayed to the world at the Louvre, or being the first heads of states, or founding the largest corporations of the world at different times till date. The list is endless. But these folks got there in pursuit of finding fulfillment in the journey. You would find enough examples across all walks of life, in your own lives, if you look hard, that vindicates the point.

So what’s your destiny?

Tip of the day - The knowledge hill in ignorance land and the theory of relativity that applies there.

The journey up the knowledge hill from the base of the land of ignorance looks like this -

I know little

I know what I know (1 in 5)

I know what I know and can talk about it in detail, with authority (1 in 10)

I know what I do not know (1 in 100)

I know where to find what I do not know and am inclined to know it (1 in 200)

I know where to find what I do not know and have read/tried to learn it (1 in 400)

I have understood what I tried to learn (1 in 1000)

I can apply what I have learned in most situations that warrant it (1 in 10000)

OK. The numbers may vary but the message does not get diluted. This is reality. The lower rungs of the hill are all about awareness and the slope is gentle. Awareness is the most rudimentary step in the pursuit of knowledge. And all one needs to climb the knowledge hill is to think and act. Plain and simple. But it takes commitment and effort.

Are there many such hills? Of course, for every sphere or field of knowledge, there exists a hill. Do we have successful folks, rich folks, knowledgeable folks, smart folks at all levels of this hill? Yes, we do. That is where the theory of relativity comes in. To every person at every level of the hill, except the base of ‘I know little’, there are a bunch of folks more knowledgeable and a bunch of folks less knowledgeable than them. What you do with them determines all the other attributes like success, richness, smartness et al that we briefly mentioned. You could exploit the lack of knowledge of the lower rung(s) to achieve some of these. You could learn from the rung(s) above to fill the knowledge gap and climb the hill. You could monetize your knowledge. You could socialize it. Whatever you do, it would be by choice as you go up the hill.

What do not exist at the bottom of the hill are choices. What does exist, even there, is opportunity.

All you need is to reach out to the folks just above! And if they aren’t helping, you know what they are in it for!!

Tidbits – What does AUTHORITY really mean?

Far too often, one comes across corporate leaders and managers referring to a lack of authority being a huge handicap in their ability to deliver the goods in their roles. It warrants taking a deep-dive into what authority really means.

The dictionary definition of authority throws up some interesting perspectives as well –

-          The power to enforce laws, exact obedience, command, determine, judge

-          The power or right to control, judge or prohibit the actions of others

-          Legal permission grated to a person to perform a specified act

-          Institutionalized and legal power inherent in a job, function or position that is meant to enable its holder to successfully carry out his or her responsibilities

-          Power that is delegated formally including a right to command a situation, commit resources, give orders and expect them to be obeyed; it is always accompanied by an equal responsibility for one’s actions or a failure to act

-          The power to make decisions; official permission

Some common (and different than the above) interpretations of authority in the corporate world include, but are not limited to –

-          Power inherent in a role or office to approve (of) a particular course of action.

-          One must assume authority, only responsibility is given

-          Or a slightly more benevolent ‘responsibility and authority go hand in hand’

The problems with some of these interpretations and why they usually go wrong is

-          In the natural scheme of things it is recommended that authority be delegated but be used responsibly and not the other way round. Various religious scriptures refer to this thought. Also, the meaning of assumption consists of taking for granted which by itself does not lend itself exactly to acting responsibly!

-          How often does someone see authority being exercised to disapprove of any action as compared to an approval of a particular course of action? It is few and far between, if at all. So who has made the decision anyway?

-          One of the dictionary meanings of responsibility is ‘The ability or authority to act or decide on one’s own, without supervision’!

-          Seldom has anyone seen someone being given authority with no responsibility but there are scores of examples vice-versa!

-          If most definitions of authority hover around power, and power is vested, the argument should be sealed right there!

The real meaning of authority, and perhaps even its genesis and roots, lies in the alternative description of authority being –

-          An expert or authoritative written work n a particular field

-          Evidence or testimony

-          Confidence resulting from great expertise

-          The ability to influence or control others

All of these meanings lean towards the best person to shoulder a responsibility being entrusted the same and being vested with all the powers to carry it out as he/she deems fit since no one has a better understanding of it anyway.

Tip of the day - Are YOU too…?

If you are too busy to listen, too impatient to get things done, too focused to see changes, too quick to judge, too slow to decide, too proud to ask, too rigid to change, too smart to learn, too closed to speak, too cagey to teach, too critical to encourage, too presumptuous to notice, too hard to please, too soft to reprimand, you can neither make a good parent nor leader yet. There’s still hope if you read this far though and hence the yet in the last sentence!

Tip of the day – Being at ease.

The paradox is striking - that being at ease is one of the most difficult things to do for most people! Most of us look for the causes all around us – the environment, the people, the past, the future, the circumstances et al. The answers lie elsewhere. I briefly touch upon three well-known concepts that aid the cause of embarking upon the task of simplifying being at ease.

The first deals with locus of control. Over a couple of decades back, I was introduced to the concept of the locus of control by an eminent management and leadership development professional who has since tasted significant corporate success in addition to authoring some good fiction and is a thought leader in the field. The concept was simple. The locus of control has to be within and not without. I could elaborate on this but it would for one, take the thrill out of interpreting it one’s own way and secondly, it is on a path of digression in the context of the current discussion. What we want to draw from this concept is the idea of the environment being distinct from oneself and the fact that we can, more often than not, only control things that are internal.

The second deals with the degrees of freedom. Students of science and/or statistics would have dealt with the concept of degrees of freedom. In layman’s terms, the degrees of freedom are the set of independent variables or parameters that define any state. To describe the current state in the context of oneself, the degrees of freedom would be, in a simplistic view, environment, time and the self.

The third is about state itself being a (I would have liked to add, a vector) combination of many dimensions of state. State could be viewed as physical state, emotional state, spiritual state, mental state et al.

Awareness of one’s current state along each of these dimensions, appreciation of the self being a (internal) degree of freedom on its own, and acceptance of the fact that the other two (external) degrees of freedom, environment and time, by definition are exactly that again – independent variables – is simply put, being at ease.

The concept is not stationary vis-à-vis the degrees of freedom, but transient. In other words, each of the states keeps changing with our position along the degrees of freedom. So our state – physical, emotional et al - changes with time and changes in the environment. Since movement along the external degrees of freedom is inevitable, if one’s state along all non-physical dimensions is a sole function of one’s self, one is likely to be at perpetual ease.

This is the essence of being at ease. It is being at ease with oneself.

Tidbits – Why do we have NO TIME?

Whatever happened to all the time?

The irrepressible ability of man to change the environment around him to suit his needs combined with an overwhelming urge to find more time in every unit of time, has, over generations, changed the dynamics of how time is perceived and what man has wanted to do with it.

The intent of every invention, innovation and in a broader sense, change, has always been to free up man’s time for bigger pursuits and better application of his time. In a sense, it is to overcome today’s challenges, make them a lesser occupation, and use the freed up time to embrace newer challenges. Somewhere along the road, the stuff man did centuries, decades or years back continue to be done. Only, they are done in lesser time and man has found more stuff to fill the freed up time with. This, no doubt, is very useful for progress and evolution.

However, the hyper-compartmentalization of every unit of the biological clock has led to the hands of time becoming the sands of time. The amount of time that someone can focus on any one given thing has dramatically dwindled. If there is one single epidemic inflicting the human psyche in this day and age, it is the attention deficiency syndrome. Sit back and observe people around you to see what I mean!

If there is one or two things that are low down in the priority list and therefore are compromised, they do not free up enough time any longer for someone to be able to put it to any productive use; because they did not take up enough contiguous time in the first place to free up anything of consequence. So what does one do if one had 10, 20 or 30 minutes freed up from two compromised chores? A power jog because you do not have time enough for a normal jog or walk, browse for the shortest route to office (so you can free up the next 10 minutes!!) or the best value offer on the hot new smartphone out in the market (so you can browse on the move and save the next 2 minutes!!).

And incidentally, what does one do with the time one does manage to free up? Find some pursuits that would help free up a little more time! Well, it is a vicious circle. This is somewhat like Kiyosaki’s rat race in a financial context!

So how does one find the time and what does one do with it?

First things first, you do not find time by freeing it up. You find time by finding something worthwhile to do, to start with. If you want it bad enough, you will find time to do it. You find time by prioritizing – doing the things that you want to do most, first, and so on. The second thing to keep in mind is that anything creative, cerebral, soul-searching, touching others’ lives, meaningful, at least for the majority of us, is seldom achievable in the ‘minutes’ timeframe that we have been talking about and freeing up. Those things, presumably the most important ones, take significant amount of contiguous time, and more importantly, ‘uncluttered mind time’. The third, and most important aspect to finding time is the appreciation that the process is internal – no one can find your time for you (remember it is not about freeing it up!), you have to find it yourself.

So, go right ahead and grab what is rightfully yours, and yours only!

Tip of the day – What’s inside the fear of the unknown?

Strange as it may sound, the ‘fear of the unknown’ is just cliché and a wrong one at that! If something is totally unknown, it would never be in your consciousness and consequently not felt. If so, it cannot invoke any feeling or emotions like fear. Or for that matter happiness, sorrow, anger…anything.

Let us take a closer look at the anatomy of an emotion and its definition to get a better understanding of fear. There are, in fact, two key words one would come across in any dictionary definition of the word emotion. One is experience and the other is consciousness.

If you have to experience an emotion, you ought to be experiencing what causes an emotion in the first place. Somewhere, emotion follows from an experience and what you learnt from that experience. If you gained complete knowledge from an experience, there remains no unknown. Usually, therefore, there is no fear attached to that experience. If you learnt nothing at all, you never experienced anything consciously. And if you didn’t experience anything consciously, there is no fear. If you learnt something but not all of it, is when you might experience fear.

Let us explore this further. Why does incomplete knowledge cause fear? When knowledge about something is complete, one is certain about all possible outcomes and what can be expected in every scenario. From the point of view of knowledge, and as we will see, fear, it does not matter if the outcome is a success or a failure as long as there is certainty about the process of producing it.

However, when knowledge is incomplete, there is a lack of understanding of which scenario and which course is likely to lead to what outcome. This is the paradigm of uncertainty. And this paradigm is defined by the rules of probability. And that is not in one’s control. At least, not till it is understood in its entirety! This is what translates into fear. On the same lines, fear of failure is a misnomer. It is the lack of understanding of what would lead to success and hence the uncertainty that surrounds the outcome when in the zone of incomplete knowledge that causes fear.

The fear is of uncertainty that is caused by incomplete knowledge and understanding of what one is afraid of. It really is fear of the not fully known.

Perspectives – Some self-defeating prophecies.

They say you should not take yourself too seriously. Well, if you don’t take yourself seriously, slim chance that someone else will.

They say you should not take friendship for granted. Well, if you don’t, you’ve planted the first doubt about the friendship anyway.

They say you should not take an opponent lightly. Well, if you take them heavily, you’ve already handed them the first victory.

Tidbits – Peace and Harmony.

The terms peace and harmony have been interchangeably used by many. I wanted to bring out one aspect of the difference that clearly distinguishes one from the other. The frame of reference for peace could very well be singular but harmony always has to have a plural context.

To illustrate the point through an example, one can be at peace (with oneself, and no external reference) but one has to be ‘in harmony with’ (something or someone or whatever, an external reference point).

Some dictionary definitions of the two terms do not seem to address this element of their difference clearly –

-          Peace

o   is a state of harmony characterized by the lack of violent conflict and the freedom from fear of violence

o   the state existing during absence of war

o   a state of harmony between people or groups; freedom from strife

o   harmony in personal relations

o   absence of mental anxiety

o   a state of stillness, silence or serenity

o   a state of tranquility or quiet

o   freedom from disquieting or oppressive thoughts or emotions

-          Harmony

o    A situation in which people live and work well with other people, or in a way that does not damage things around them

o   Pleasing or congruent arrangement of parts

o   Correspondence, accord

o   The attractive effect that is created when objects, colors etc combine well together

o   Joint, concord, agreement

o   To fit together, to join

o   A feeling that you are happy and your mind and emotions are well balanced

o   Internal calm or Tranquility

A couple of points about the differences that is interesting and noteworthy. One, the etymology of the words suggests that the usage had a strong bias towards the definitions in italics above during their origin. This is in support of the singular or plural view (or to extend the argument, internalized and externalized views) I had expressed right at the beginning. Second, it is worthwhile to think if one can exist without the other and if yes, which one – meaning, can there be peace without harmony or harmony without peace. The former does not seem probable whereas the latter definitely does!

Tidbits – Unraveling Relationships.

Relationships thrive when they enter the realms of total trust. It is the journey during the initial phase of a relationship, when it needs careful handling and constant nurturing to build that trust, that we focus on to unravel what makes or breaks it.

There are two forces at work during the building phase of a relationship that influences the amount of trust in the relationship – the Strength of Commitment and the perceived Pain of Compromise. The fact that there is an attempt to create, build, nurture and mature a relationship inherently means there is commitment at work and a realization that there is adjustments and common ground to be reached (hence the compromise parameter). It is in the magnitude and the balance (or imbalance) of the two forces, that the direction the relationship takes, is determined.

(Strength of Commitment) > (Pain of Compromise) = INCREASED TRUST

(Strength of Commitment) < (Pain of Compromise) = DECREASED TRUST

Relationships thrive when the strength of commitment, consistently and cumulatively, overpowers the pain of compromise. And they fall apart when the perceived pain of compromise is overbearing and eats into the strength of commitment. This is simple to understand because trust is the basis or the lowest common denominator in relationships and the quantum and magnitude of its presence determines strength of relationships.

What is also important to acknowledge is the presence of these forces and the fact that they are essential ingredients. If there were to be no perceived pain or compromise, a relationship would never have been tested. The fact that it has never been tested would breed doubt. And doubt obviously has an inverse correlation with trust. And an absence of commitment would entirely threaten the existence of a relationship in the first place.

The strength of commitment can be directly worked upon by sheer resolve. The pain of compromise can only be lessened indirectly by the acknowledgement of its existence and awareness of the arithmetic presented above.

Tidbits – It is a level playing field, it’s just not yours.

A level playing field is not about everyone having the same probability of success but about everyone playing by the same rules. The choice of the playing field, the game and its rules, are however, seldom in your hands (if they are, wait up, it’ll change sooner or later!). On this front it invariably is, ‘To each their own’, and you are not part of that equation! And if they get to choose their playing field, you need to play by their rules. Well, at least if you want to play!

To illustrate the point, you cannot appeal to the conscience of a snake or rationally negotiate a deal with a lion just as you cannot confront people with a stick to achieve your objectives. The field, the game and the rules are theirs. You can choose not to play. But if you do choose to play, and there is something to be won, you need to beat them at their game.

Tip of the day – What you sow is what you reap!

What goes around comes around. Most people know it does. Few believe it will make a difference. They perceive the probability, of the time period between the going around and the coming around being small enough to affect them anytime soon, as being really low. Simply put, the cause-effect cycle time is too high to affect their lives, in a larger sense, as they know it today.

This is neither entirely true nor untrue. To understand that, you need to look at two paradigms of cause-effects that drive behavior and are based on the cycle times involved.

One is the ‘Action-Reaction’ paradigm that represents the shorter cycle cause-effects. To cite some examples, ‘break a traffic rule and get a violation ticket’, ‘if you are unpleasant to someone in a situation, expect that demeanor to be thrown right back at you’ etc. In fact any kind of instant gratification, that is the norm these days, would be this category. This is fairly easy to deal with and understand since it has a near-immediate feedback loop. It helps people to self-correct and avoid (now-known) pitfalls on a constant basis. This paradigm can be dealt with, almost entirely, through knowledge and practice.

The second category is the ‘Choice-Outcome’ paradigm of longer cycle cause-effects. The feedback loops are spread out over a much longer part of one’s life. Examples could be people’s risk-reward profile, health hazards arising out of addictions and abuse, career and life choices etc. The effects of the choices made are unlikely to be known in the short-term and the feedback loop could be, at times, even in several years. This is a wisdom and self-awareness paradigm in contrast to knowledge and practice and is experiential in nature. A lot of wisdom, no wonder, comes from hindsight.

There is no problem when each category is recognized for what it is. The problem arises when we expect desired effects of the ‘choice-outcome’ paradigm in the ‘action-reaction’ timeframe and we see none coming. Or the corollary - concluding on the outcome on the basis of some undesired intermediate effects.

Our behavior is greatly influenced by how we deal with these paradigms. Both are equally important and it is necessary to be in balance. You could easily get lost in day-to-day transactions and miss the big picture focusing overly on the ‘action-reaction’ paradigm. This is about a lot of action without direction. It would be equally bad to only be focused on the ‘choice-outcome’ paradigm because you would be ignoring all the signals and be oblivious to all the experiences that day-to-day life offers to enhance your wisdom and your ability to adapt to a changing environment and most importantly, act on it. This is about all focus on direction with little action.

You don’t see it yet doesn’t mean it won’t come around. What you sow is what you reap. Sooner, or later!

Tip of the day - Should you curb your emotions?

It is important to feel every emotion when different situations evoke them. Emotions are the triggers for action. Not having emotions would render you inactive, much like a vegetable. In fact, emotions are the all important vehicles and tools that help you understand yourself. Emotions are the only tangible and measurable manifestations of your disposition towards yourself and the environment before the action occurs and hence, hugely significant.

The idea of curbing your emotions is a misnomer. The intent of that idea is that you ought not to convey or transmit the emotions as you feel them, to your environment. That would be reaction. Instead, it is highly effective to respond to situations, events and occurrences by dwelling in your emotions and analyzing them. This way the action would be a response.

The biggest difference between reaction and response, in my dictionary, is the fact that you have internalized and dwelt on the situation and the emotion it evoked and externalized the action only afterward.

Another important element of dealing with emotions is to cultivate the ability to feel them. It is the difference between ‘I am angry’, ‘I am sad’, ‘I am happy’ and ‘I feel angry’, ‘I feel sad’, ‘I feel happy’! In the former, the emotions rule you and in the latter you rule your emotions.

Tidbits – Knowledge

It is appalling to see the distorted view of knowledge that the world has come to believe in. Knowledge, unfortunately, is beginning to be likened to the understanding of where the information, regarding what you want to know, resides. You could anyway wiki and google the stuff as long as some literature on the same is available on the web!

Fortunately (or unfortunately) though, knowledge does not exist unless it can be applied. And it can be applied only if the subject in question is understood. The subject can only be understood when the information about it is interpreted. In the absence of all this, it is only information.

To elucidate the point, it amuses me to hear the term or phrase, knowledge repository. You can have an information repository, not a knowledge repository. Even if it is information on how something works or the proof of a hypothesis or a working instruction or a procedure or even a ‘how to do’ list, it still is only information till it is interpreted, understood and ready for application.

You also come across knowledge management frameworks anywhere and everywhere. And what is masqueraded is, in fact, an information management framework in the guise of knowledge management. Apply the simple qualifiers of the previous two paragraphs to what is really being managed and the truth is revealed!!

Tip of the day – Beware of where you share…

Be wary of sharing your philosophies with folks you built them on.

Tip of the day...

Stop working if you want to produce more!

If you are so engrossed in working through transactions all day, day in and day out, weeks on end, year after year, that the work you do governs and manages you and your time than the other way round, stop working right now!

Take a step back and reflect on what your work is intended to produce and what it produces now. Challenge the premise of how the outcome is produced and question why it cannot be done any other way. You have the unique opportunity to be the first one to get a bird’s eye view of your own work and what it produces. You’d be surprised how much less work is required to accomplish the same outcome or how much more outcome you can produce with the same amount of work that you put in.

But to be able to do all that, first you must stop working!

Tip of the day – Size does matter.

A right sized ego, a big heart and a small step in the right direction is all it takes to be on your way to success.

Tip of the day – Short-term fence-sitting is fine…

There’s a saying that the grass is always greener on the other side. The connotation of the saying is that this is an illusion. Meaning, the other side appears green when you look at it from where you are but if you were to get there, perhaps, looking at where you now are might be greener.

So what’s new? Everyone obviously knows this already!

The catch is - if everyone, now and in the history of humankind, had taken this saying to heart and at face value, the world would have stayed still. It is the weakness of the resolve to stay put and the strength of the mind to experiment and discover the new and unknown that has fuelled progress. However, there have been many instances of experimentation that has resulted in a step backward or progress with negative consequences.

This, finally, brings me to fence-sitting.

Imagine sitting on a high fence, not the barbed wire kind, with an aerial and panoramic view of both sides of the picture to be able to make a considered decision. If you stick around there forever, procrastinating the making of a decision in search of a sign from up above, well, that is long-term fence-sitting. That is the worst course you could take and the last thing I recommend. However, if you spend just enough time on the fence to get a view and understand the nuances of both sides of an equation, you are likely to be making the right decision. That is short-term fence-sitting and that is highly recommended!

Tip of the day – You cannot make a wrong decision!

We have all mulled over the wrong decisions we have made at some point in the past or the other. Especially when things have not panned out the way we had planned or desired. Haven’t we?

Well. There is nothing called a wrong decision. If there were something like a wrong decision, no one would make it, see? When we find that a decision was wrong, the symptom is the obvious – not attaining the outcome. The diagnosis, however, is that of a wrong decision. And that is incorrect. To see why, we need to understand the anatomy of a decision.

Decisions are based on facts and a hypothesis of what would work towards realization of the desired outcome. Lack of availability of all facts and the lack of soundness of the hypothesis are the only ingredients that contribute to the failure of any decision. However, it is often not practical in life to wait till we have all the facts and hypothesis straightened out before making decision. Hence we take chances on the pieces of the puzzle that are missing by making assumptions on what they could be. If these assumptions are all right, the decision is vindicated. Else, not!

When, at a later point in time, we do have all the facts and have a proven hypothesis to a desired outcome, we end up sitting in judgment over decisions made in the past. And hence the notion of a wrong decision!

Every decision is right at the point in time when it is made. It is also true that not all decisions stand the test of time.

Tidbits – Who am I?

Ever wondered what you refer to as ‘I’?

What you see in the mirror is your image. It is your body, your heart, your brain, your mind, your thoughts, your vision, your soul, your beliefs, your senses…

 If all of these ‘are yours’, then what is ‘I’?

It is in the state of being that ‘I’ can be found, it is the ‘I am’ that defines the ‘I'...

Tip of the day – If you are serious, do not swim across the tide.

You may have it sailing smooth or you could be roughing it out. You may experience accelerated progress because of the elements being with and behind you, or you could be overcoming numerous obstacles on the way. Either way, if you are in serious pursuit of a goal, you ought to be swimming with the tide or against the tide, and you would get there eventually. Swimming across the tide is like pursuing a moving target. Do so and you would meander through life. You would get somewhere for sure because you still have the ability to swim, but you are unlikely to reach the goal you started out with.

Tidbits - THE IMPORTANCE OF GREY

The first and most important step towards building consensus in a multi-party scenario is to establish the presence of grey. If the view remains binary till a decision is to be made, the only way to decide would be to have the majority prevail if the process is to be kept democratic. That is, often, the worst outcome in a multi-party discussion or negotiation since all parties in the minority have been provided infinitely more time to prove the decision wrong, and that too at the time of carrying out the action following the decision!

Tip of the day – What makes an idea tick?

It is often, not the novelty of an idea that determines the success of its implementation, but the perseverance to stay the course with the simple and obvious ones, that do.

Also often, most people let go of the simple ideas believing that if it is so obvious, obviously hundreds of folks would have put it into action anyway or there must be a catch somewhere, whereas it is the toil and rigor needed to implement it that the light-hearted had passed it up for.

Tidbits - Point of view and Ownership 

A point of view sans ownership will at best, only be heard. Adoption would be the prerogative of the receiver or audience. A point of view with ownership can drive decision-making and accelerate adoption.

Tidbits - Reflection.

Not for no reason does reflection have its two meanings – image, and contemplation or thoughtful consideration. The image you have, of everything from yourself to the people, society, nature, environment that you live in, changes with contemplation and thoughtful consideration.

Tip of the day - When time tells...

Time will tell. No doubt it will. Don’t wait till it does because when time tells, it really is telling.

Tip of the day - You become who you live with

Surround yourself with smart folks and that is what you become; surround yourself with fools and that is what you become; if you live amidst mediocrity, you become mediocre.

Where you can choose, make the right choices; where you can’t, present the choices to the folks around you and persuade them to make the right choices. The world would be a better place! 

Tip of the day - Preach before you practice

I am not recommending that you always preach before you practice. By all means, if you can, always practice before you preach. But if you are fairly sure about what you are preaching but do not practice it for various reasons, do not hesitate to share your thoughts and beliefs. Whether the receiver puts the message into practice or otherwise, has a factor of acceptance, experience, wisdom, observation, experimentation, inference etc at play before the decision to put words into practice.

So why hold back, go right ahead and preach, as long as you believe in what you preach, whether you practice or not!

Tidbits - Why we should ‘say’?

Remember the old adage – ‘watch what you say because you cannot take it back’? Well, I am not a huge proponent of this line of thought. While the above phrase is factually correct, it says little (no pun intended) about what could be the potential impact of not saying anything at all. I for one, think that a whole lot of what isn’t right with the world around us, or on a more positive note, how the world around us could be better but isn’t, is because most of us do not say anything at all. I think not saying or opining has more serious repercussions than saying something, even if it is not the whole picture or a tad in error. At least, it keeps the conversation going and the opinions coming so the picture keeps getting refined and complete!