As we go through the journey of life we need to keep the following three principles as the guiding force in life.
Learn: This is first guiding force. We should always strive to learn. Whether it a new area we learn, whether we learn the art of interacting with people or whether we learn some art like painting it does not matter. We need to always keep learning. In fact there is a wealth of learning that we can garner from our own experience and mistakes. Our whole life should be one long mission to learn. This will not only keep our minds supple it will also keep us young in spirit.
Act: This is the second principle. We should always act on what our ideas and vision. We should never be content in just dwelling in our thoughts. We need to put into practice what we learn. We need to put into action what we imagine in life, This is extremely critical. The more we act the farther we get in life. While on the one hand we need to spend time in planning what we do but this must be followed by doing what we planned to do. Otherwise our plans will be just plans and will not find concrete reality.
Share: This is the last of principles but is the most important one. We need to share what we have gained. We need to share what we gained either materially, technically or spiritually. The important thing is to give away and to gice away unconditionally without expecting anything in return. The more we give away the morewe get. We could share just about anything. We could share our happiness, we could share some kind words to those in mental anguish, or we could share our money with those in want. Give, give and give more should be more motto.
If we follow these three guiding principles we will gain a lot of mental satisfaction in life
Saturday, April 30, 2011
Saturday, April 23, 2011
Illusions of the Mind
The human mind is truly the culmination of God’s creation. With the mind we can invent, create, reason and do many things when we are in control. However if the mind takes possession of us then we can be led to wayward ways. The mind can be boon or a bane depending on how we use it.
One of the many things that we have to be extremely careful are the illusions of the mind where we can be led astray and made to believe things that are not necessarily true. Many times we develop a certain negative bias towards somebody or something. What happens after that is that we tend to be overly critical of them or it. We just fail to see their positive points and only focus on their negativity.
There are other times when we just get led by designations or honorific titles and start imagining greatness where there is none. We start associating great learning or divinity to people simply because we cloud our mind and reason. The faculty of reason and understanding can be easily covered by our imagination. We then will fail to see things in their proper light. Our mind will start exaggerating our ideas and opinions more than what is real. We will be unable to differentiate between the real and the unreal.
The mind is a wonderful instrument if we use it properly. However if we start to assume things without associated reasoning then, the mind, can turn into an enemy putting into our heads wrong notions. This happens as a result of lazy thinking when we assume things or jump to conclusions without any proper basis. We are all guilty of lazy thinking, at some times of our life, simply because it is less work. This is something we should particularly careful about.
The mind is a beacon of real understanding as long as we use it wisely and are free from biases and opinions. When we start being judgmental or begin to begin to imagine power and greatness in mere designations and honorific titles the mind because covered in the darkness of unreason. We then lose the ability to seeing things in the real light.
Hence it is imperative that in all our interactions in daily life we always look at things with a balanced perspective, neither being too critical nor jumping to conclusions too early.
One of the many things that we have to be extremely careful are the illusions of the mind where we can be led astray and made to believe things that are not necessarily true. Many times we develop a certain negative bias towards somebody or something. What happens after that is that we tend to be overly critical of them or it. We just fail to see their positive points and only focus on their negativity.
There are other times when we just get led by designations or honorific titles and start imagining greatness where there is none. We start associating great learning or divinity to people simply because we cloud our mind and reason. The faculty of reason and understanding can be easily covered by our imagination. We then will fail to see things in their proper light. Our mind will start exaggerating our ideas and opinions more than what is real. We will be unable to differentiate between the real and the unreal.
The mind is a wonderful instrument if we use it properly. However if we start to assume things without associated reasoning then, the mind, can turn into an enemy putting into our heads wrong notions. This happens as a result of lazy thinking when we assume things or jump to conclusions without any proper basis. We are all guilty of lazy thinking, at some times of our life, simply because it is less work. This is something we should particularly careful about.
The mind is a beacon of real understanding as long as we use it wisely and are free from biases and opinions. When we start being judgmental or begin to begin to imagine power and greatness in mere designations and honorific titles the mind because covered in the darkness of unreason. We then lose the ability to seeing things in the real light.
Hence it is imperative that in all our interactions in daily life we always look at things with a balanced perspective, neither being too critical nor jumping to conclusions too early.
The Value of Patience
In order to achieve anything in life we need to have a plan. Then we have to put the plan into action. One essential ingredient to success of the plan is the need for a liberal amount of patience in achieving it. This vital ingredient is generally missing in most of us. Most of the times, we are extremely impatient and want everything to happen immediately.
Whether we are learning a musical instrument, or we are waiting for exam results we are always on tenterhooks to know the result. In our impatience we tend to mess up things in the process. Similarly we want our children to learn everything and excel in what they do almost right away. We never have the patience to let them learn in their own time. We try to stuff things into them and expect immediate results.
Patience requires us to think deeply about things. We must learn to understand that many things in life take their own time. There is no point in trying to hurry things up. The real issue is that the mind of an impatient person keeps nagging continuously. If we don’t address this nagging thought we will never be able to get rid of it. It will keep popping up again and again. We just want the end result immediately. This is really characteristic of impatience. Trying to contain impatience is like trying to hold a balloon under water. The moment you let go off the balloon it will pop up to the surface.
What is needed is that we must address this cause of impatience in us. We cannot wish it away or try to distract our minds by focusing on other things. We need to look at this nagging thought and reason with ourselves as to why things will take time. Unless we satisfy ourselves consciously and unconsciously we will never be able to contain the impatience in us.
Our mind is very logical and will listen only to sound reasoning. We cannot fool ourselves by trying to think of other things or trying to mask the impatience in us. We cannot pretend to patient while all the time holding nagging thoughts in our mind. We must focus on our impatience and set our minds at rest.
Patience requires a quiet mind and a lot of mental maturity. If we have patience we will achieve a lot more in our lives
Whether we are learning a musical instrument, or we are waiting for exam results we are always on tenterhooks to know the result. In our impatience we tend to mess up things in the process. Similarly we want our children to learn everything and excel in what they do almost right away. We never have the patience to let them learn in their own time. We try to stuff things into them and expect immediate results.
Patience requires us to think deeply about things. We must learn to understand that many things in life take their own time. There is no point in trying to hurry things up. The real issue is that the mind of an impatient person keeps nagging continuously. If we don’t address this nagging thought we will never be able to get rid of it. It will keep popping up again and again. We just want the end result immediately. This is really characteristic of impatience. Trying to contain impatience is like trying to hold a balloon under water. The moment you let go off the balloon it will pop up to the surface.
What is needed is that we must address this cause of impatience in us. We cannot wish it away or try to distract our minds by focusing on other things. We need to look at this nagging thought and reason with ourselves as to why things will take time. Unless we satisfy ourselves consciously and unconsciously we will never be able to contain the impatience in us.
Our mind is very logical and will listen only to sound reasoning. We cannot fool ourselves by trying to think of other things or trying to mask the impatience in us. We cannot pretend to patient while all the time holding nagging thoughts in our mind. We must focus on our impatience and set our minds at rest.
Patience requires a quiet mind and a lot of mental maturity. If we have patience we will achieve a lot more in our lives
Thursday, April 21, 2011
The Lure of Praise
As human beings we are all susceptible to praise. We all crave for attention and hunger for appreciation. In fact the motive for most of our actions is the need for attention and the desire for praise. The desire for success is only half the story. The other half is the desire for the fame and praise that we will get as a result of success.
Such is the lure of praise that nobody is immune to it. The craving for appreciation is intrinsic to human nature. This basic need for attention and human validation is a probably very primitive and one our most basic needs. It is deeply ingrained into the human psyche.
When we get praise we want to strut about and when somebody criticizes us we feel crushed. We want people to acknowledge our achievements. We want this acknowledgement to come from as many people as possible.
Unfortunately we tend to base our self-esteem on the appreciation that we get from others. If none is forthcoming we feel let down and not sure of ourselves. This is not a good attitude. Ideally we should be above praise and criticism but this is difficult to do. However we should have a balanced approach and should not based our self esteem from external validation. Our self esteem should be solely based on the targets we set for ourselves and how we achieve it.
So having understood the basic need for appreciation and praise we should consciously make an effort to increase the world’s fund of happiness by being liberal in our appreciation of good effort of others.
We must make sure that we acknowledge and appreciate genuinely from our heart even small acts of others. It will definitely make the other person happy. We need to do this often and to as many people who deserve it. This will definitely create a cycle of happiness and goodwill among others. The only caution is that insincere praise is not only bad but is also injurious to the other person who may end up with completely wrong ideas of himself/herself.
If we make a habit of giving appreciation where it is due we can go to bed content that we were able to increase the world’s happiness level in our own little way.
Such is the lure of praise that nobody is immune to it. The craving for appreciation is intrinsic to human nature. This basic need for attention and human validation is a probably very primitive and one our most basic needs. It is deeply ingrained into the human psyche.
When we get praise we want to strut about and when somebody criticizes us we feel crushed. We want people to acknowledge our achievements. We want this acknowledgement to come from as many people as possible.
Unfortunately we tend to base our self-esteem on the appreciation that we get from others. If none is forthcoming we feel let down and not sure of ourselves. This is not a good attitude. Ideally we should be above praise and criticism but this is difficult to do. However we should have a balanced approach and should not based our self esteem from external validation. Our self esteem should be solely based on the targets we set for ourselves and how we achieve it.
So having understood the basic need for appreciation and praise we should consciously make an effort to increase the world’s fund of happiness by being liberal in our appreciation of good effort of others.
We must make sure that we acknowledge and appreciate genuinely from our heart even small acts of others. It will definitely make the other person happy. We need to do this often and to as many people who deserve it. This will definitely create a cycle of happiness and goodwill among others. The only caution is that insincere praise is not only bad but is also injurious to the other person who may end up with completely wrong ideas of himself/herself.
If we make a habit of giving appreciation where it is due we can go to bed content that we were able to increase the world’s happiness level in our own little way.
Monday, April 18, 2011
The Great Indian Technical Ladder Rope trick
Organizations in India from time immemorial have been very hierarchical and bureaucratic. Designations and titles carried a lot of weight. Promotions were strictly based on seniority and rarely on merit. However the west followed a different model in the 80’s where the organizations had a flat structure. A Technical Manager generally managed several highly qualified technical people. Designations and titles lost their significance and the culture moved towards meritocracy.
As many IT MNCs setup shop in India in the late 90’s, the organizational mentality also had to undergo a change. As the MNCs moved some of very key technical areas for development /maintenance by their Indian counterparts, there was a need for more qualified senior technical people. Soon many Indian IT organizations started to have two streams, one for those interested in a pure management role and another for those interested in a technical career.
However the only catch was that the technical ladder, like the great Indian rope trick, would disappear after a few levels into thin air. A technically qualified person could virtually disappear into thin air as he rose up or be stuck at the level at which the rope disappeared. However the Management ladder was and is truly the “stairway to heaven” to more weighty roles like VP, SVP, and EVP and so on.
This is really a malaise typical of the Indian IT industry which is very knowledge intensive. In India, a senior technologist is considered to be a nerd. The general perception among senior management in India, about qualified technical people, is that they are only good with computers and are incapable of handling people. Technical professionals are stereotyped into being only good with their machines and with little or no idea about people dynamics.
What is generally not understood is that the Senior Technical experts have to interact with everybody from senior management, sales people, developers and misbehaving programs. Many technical experts who have been in the industry for a couple of decades should be able to juggle programs and manage people with equal ease.
Unless India gives more importance to the highly qualified experts in the organization and has levels in the technical ladder, which are on par with the VPs and SVPs, there is a little chance of the country producing the kind of breakthroughs that a Google, Microsoft or Facebook does. There is no dearth of good software talent in India. What is truly lacking in our system is an environment where expertise and knowledge are given real recognition. . In fact this has been the primary reason that Indian IT has been playing catch up to the western counterparts for a long time. In Indian IT organizations people switch to project and people management early in their career and those who on the technical ladder lose the steam to learn new technologies because of the indifferent treatment meted to them. The organizational culture should be based on meritocracy and technical talent should be allowed to grow and mature. Organizations should create a climate of sheer technical excellence where top technical talent is given due recognition and respect. This is extremely critical in this age of increasing technical complexity where there is a need for people with deep understanding and knowledge to move the edge of progress further.
Clearly, any technologist who can comprehend complex algorithms and identify the root cause of a system crash/outage will surely be able to understand the company’s balance sheet or the organizational cash flow situation with some effort. Besides, as these technologists move up the hierarchy they can be given roles where they decide the business strategy based on technological trends. They can provide major inputs into the technological roadmap of the organization.
In order for India to increase its clout internationally in this knowledge era, it is very essential that the Indian IT organization nurture bright talent and provide them a clear path into the upper strata of management. The technical ladder should extend all the way to the very top. If this is done it will herald a new era in Indian IT and India will be software force to reckon with in future.
Saturday, April 16, 2011
Eternity Now !!!
It is our common experience that “time and tide wait for no man”. To most of us time just keeps on moving inexorably and we have no control over it. To a large extent this is true. Most of us just drift about in life and the rivers of time drags us swiftly forward continuously.
In our finite lives we are governed by time in all the things that we do. We are hard pressed for time whether it is job deadline, an impending exam or an event that we are organizing. We are so overwhelmed by the thought of the event that anxiety and worry take over us while we watch helplessly as the juggernaut of time just rolls by.
Is there a way out of this? Well yes. What is needed is complete focus and attention. When we focus fully on the task at hand then time will almost certainly slow down. When there is absolute attention we will realize that we have a lot more time to get things completed. An interesting analogy is that of a computer’s CPU. A faster CPU has more processing power for example K GHz or K gigacycles per second. What a faster CPU does is that it is able to accomplish more operations per second and hence can perform a lot more. Similarly when there is absolute attention on the tasks we have our minds starts working at faster rate and we can achieve many times more than when we have no focus. When there complete concentration it is almost as though we are zooming into time which will seem to expand almost infinitely. This is also one of the reasons why many people perform much, much better under situations of extreme stress and pressure.
So we should never get anxious or start worrying that we are running out of time. If we can focus our complete attention span we will almost expand the time at our disposal to infinity.
Also we should never feel that we are too old to do certain things. A common grouse that a lot of people have is that they are already too old and have no time to do many things that they desire. Actually nothing can be farther than the truth. Not only is it never late to start but whenever we start we almost have infinite time in the future as long as we concentrate our efforts on what we want to achieve.
Hence by focusing fully without anxiety we will almost certainly have an eternity now!
In our finite lives we are governed by time in all the things that we do. We are hard pressed for time whether it is job deadline, an impending exam or an event that we are organizing. We are so overwhelmed by the thought of the event that anxiety and worry take over us while we watch helplessly as the juggernaut of time just rolls by.
Is there a way out of this? Well yes. What is needed is complete focus and attention. When we focus fully on the task at hand then time will almost certainly slow down. When there is absolute attention we will realize that we have a lot more time to get things completed. An interesting analogy is that of a computer’s CPU. A faster CPU has more processing power for example K GHz or K gigacycles per second. What a faster CPU does is that it is able to accomplish more operations per second and hence can perform a lot more. Similarly when there is absolute attention on the tasks we have our minds starts working at faster rate and we can achieve many times more than when we have no focus. When there complete concentration it is almost as though we are zooming into time which will seem to expand almost infinitely. This is also one of the reasons why many people perform much, much better under situations of extreme stress and pressure.
So we should never get anxious or start worrying that we are running out of time. If we can focus our complete attention span we will almost expand the time at our disposal to infinity.
Also we should never feel that we are too old to do certain things. A common grouse that a lot of people have is that they are already too old and have no time to do many things that they desire. Actually nothing can be farther than the truth. Not only is it never late to start but whenever we start we almost have infinite time in the future as long as we concentrate our efforts on what we want to achieve.
Hence by focusing fully without anxiety we will almost certainly have an eternity now!
Monday, April 4, 2011
Behind the thinking mind ...
We are what we think. We are often told that we should think good thoughts since we become what we think. Hence when we think good thoughts we are filled with cheer and positivity. While on the other hand when we are pessimistic in our outlook we tend to become defeatist in our attitude. So while a large part of our life is made up of the thinking mind there is an equally large part that is played, behind the scenes, by our non-thinking mind.
By this I mean that there is lot of non-verbal, non-thinking activity that is performed by the mind. As we go through the day we experience several incidents and interact with a lot of people. While a lot of our interactions are accompanied by verbal thought, there is a large portion that is handled by non-verbal thought. There are many incidents of the day that are handled by this non verbal mind which absorbs the incident and organizes it into its appropriate slot.
Actually behind the scenes this non verbal mind makes a judgement, opinions and draws conclusions based on our inner values, likes and dislikes. Hence behind the thinking mind the non-thinking mind works incessantly in its own way. So don't be surprised when you find that you like or something intensely without you realizing it.
This is also the reason why sometimes we cannot explain why we sometimes are so inexplicably sad, or happy or why we feel drawn towards someone or something. All this is the work of the non verbal, thoughtless mind.
Hence while it is true that a lot is done by the non-verbal thought, this mind is based on our past memories, our values, beliefs and thousands of years of human evolution. So while we have no immediate control over this non-thinking mind we can essentially train this mind through our conscious activities in life.
By this I mean that there is lot of non-verbal, non-thinking activity that is performed by the mind. As we go through the day we experience several incidents and interact with a lot of people. While a lot of our interactions are accompanied by verbal thought, there is a large portion that is handled by non-verbal thought. There are many incidents of the day that are handled by this non verbal mind which absorbs the incident and organizes it into its appropriate slot.
Actually behind the scenes this non verbal mind makes a judgement, opinions and draws conclusions based on our inner values, likes and dislikes. Hence behind the thinking mind the non-thinking mind works incessantly in its own way. So don't be surprised when you find that you like or something intensely without you realizing it.
This is also the reason why sometimes we cannot explain why we sometimes are so inexplicably sad, or happy or why we feel drawn towards someone or something. All this is the work of the non verbal, thoughtless mind.
Hence while it is true that a lot is done by the non-verbal thought, this mind is based on our past memories, our values, beliefs and thousands of years of human evolution. So while we have no immediate control over this non-thinking mind we can essentially train this mind through our conscious activities in life.
Friday, April 1, 2011
It feels good to be miserable
The above statement must sound nothing short of blasphemous. How can one feel good when one is feeling down in the dumps? It simply does not seem to make sense. But what is suggested in this article is that when we feel miserable we should quietly tell ourselves “I am feeling miserable but I am feeling good”. By doing this we will be going against the grain of thousands of years of evolution of mankind where we are conditioned and programmed to feel lousy when we are miserable.
We may be miserable because our boss did not give us that raise we were expecting, because a subordinate is promoted over us or one of your colleagues is extremely rude to you that day. It is natural to feel miserable, angry and lousy when things happen in way that is different to our liking. The natural tendency when this happens is that we would like to sulk and work ourselves into total misery. We will soon start feeling the blues. What is required in this situation is that we should tell ourselves “it feels good to be miserable”. This article is certainly not advocating any masochistic tendencies in you rather it tries to make you look into and understand your feelings. While telling this to ourselves, that it feels good to be miserable, will definitely not reduce the misery, at the very least if we consciously tell this to ourselves we will begin to accept the feeling of misery rather than trying to fight it. When we accept the feeling of misery, which may certainly not be very pleasant, we begin to observe our own feelings that the incident(s) provoked in us. As we become aware of the thought process that has kicked in because of the unsavory incidents of the day we will begin to understand our own selves better. If we keep at it we can try to get to the root of the problem and reflect whether it makes any sense to subject ourselves to the misery rather than just shaking it off.
So while the affirmation to ourselves “that it feels good to be miserable” will not drive away the blues it will definitely make you accept your own feeling towards things besides also giving you a deeper understanding of your beliefs and values that are dear to you.
We may be miserable because our boss did not give us that raise we were expecting, because a subordinate is promoted over us or one of your colleagues is extremely rude to you that day. It is natural to feel miserable, angry and lousy when things happen in way that is different to our liking. The natural tendency when this happens is that we would like to sulk and work ourselves into total misery. We will soon start feeling the blues. What is required in this situation is that we should tell ourselves “it feels good to be miserable”. This article is certainly not advocating any masochistic tendencies in you rather it tries to make you look into and understand your feelings. While telling this to ourselves, that it feels good to be miserable, will definitely not reduce the misery, at the very least if we consciously tell this to ourselves we will begin to accept the feeling of misery rather than trying to fight it. When we accept the feeling of misery, which may certainly not be very pleasant, we begin to observe our own feelings that the incident(s) provoked in us. As we become aware of the thought process that has kicked in because of the unsavory incidents of the day we will begin to understand our own selves better. If we keep at it we can try to get to the root of the problem and reflect whether it makes any sense to subject ourselves to the misery rather than just shaking it off.
So while the affirmation to ourselves “that it feels good to be miserable” will not drive away the blues it will definitely make you accept your own feeling towards things besides also giving you a deeper understanding of your beliefs and values that are dear to you.
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