Self Exploration is the key to
positive change. My belief was further strengthened in the leadership class
conducted by Mr.Anil Sachdeva. What a
wonderful session, so many things we often think about but cannot vocalise were
put into perspective.
We started off by discussing the framework
for decision making invented by Ron Howard which essentially provides guidance
to an individual and aides decision by following a process that involves an
individual asking his or her self a set of six questions these questions are follows
1. Define the framework for decision you want to take 2. Collect meaningful and reliable
information 3. Define several creative and doable alternative (Selecting
alternatives which are realistic and you know you can accomplish them), 4.
Define the logic for evaluation (In terms of risk and return), 5. Value and
trade off (a decision might seem highly rational but possibly conflict my core
values), 6. Looking at implementation (What one should do to get things
implemented). To understand this concept better we did a small individual
exercise, I asked myself the question, I want a job if so what kind, I must
admit that not only did doing the entire exercise bring more clarity and
guidance that helped me reach a decision but it also carved a path to reach by
end goal essentially by working backwards.
Our next session was on
creativity, a forgotten term for most of us since we are now so conditioned and
tuned to thinking only logically. We essentially tried to identify why we are
so low on creativity and what factors could be possibly responsible. I agree
with the entire discussion, the sad and harsh reality remains that from our
childhood; we are socially conditioned by our parents, teachers to think
logically, any signal of creativity is silently discouraged. We were told of an
experiment where a group of students whose teachers were told that their class
is not bright, dropped out of college and vice - versa. The statistics
therefore are not surprising; India scores the lowest on creativity.
Even when sir conducted the creativity test
exercise by either showing us a pen or asking us to create a product, compare a
stubborn engine to a mother in law. I must admit I found it quite hard and not
so because the exercise was difficult but only because I hadn’t thought this
way in a long time. However the best part of the creativity session for me was
running around, becoming an engine, flying like a bird. I cannot begin to
express how free and spirited I felt, after a really long time. Surprisingly I
dint feel any inhibitions.
We then spoke about the mostly unspoken ‘fear’ in which we were
asked to ask ourselves four questions mainly 1.whenever I am trying to do
something new, to what extent does the thought of failure strike me.2. When I
am doing something new to what extent am I bothered what others would say. 3.
To what extent I am concerned about ambiguity. 4. To what extent are you
concerned about time and resources 5. Are you scared of natural resources? To my surprise, I scored in the medium range,
this taught me a lot, the fact that I am more fearful then I actually thought.
I would also need to do some work in this area.
We also spoke about inspiration, thought about books, movies and
people that inspired us and what that tells us about our. I realised I am
inspired by people who challenge themselves every day, work with sincerity and
dedication. Lastly we discussed the
ladder of inference which involved seven steps .We analyse what is happening
around us and then reach a conclusion. Our mind starts believing that what we
believe is the truth and truth is obvious, On the basis of what we have seen ,
we associate our meaning and whichever suits our best, we tend to draw
conclusion based on that.
The last day of the class was a session of power, emotion and
motivation. We were told some harsh and
brave stories of soldiers who laid down their life for the country. We tried to
infer the reasons for this kind of courage to appear, why had Indian soldiers
in 1962 war against china fought the war so bravely when they were only 130 in
no compared to 3000. How did Anil sir collect build a community that would
successfully defend itself in times of the 1984 riots? Why do people shield
others without fearing for their own life? The answer was courage but how is
the courage born is it inbuilt or does it appear, was what we tried to figure
out. Some wonderful thoughts emerged, realisation that we are a part of the
universe a country, possibly if one is passionate about something, a habit way
of life comes in a moment of emergency. In desperate situations, comes when you
have deep love in your heart. According to me, courage comes when you value
your life and yourself, it is this realisation which gives you the strength to
make a difference since you feel more valued and privileged than others. Also
only if one is highly motivated does one become courageous?
We saw a video on happiness and discussed on our table what
happiness means to each of us. The video essentially outlined the importance of
managing your mind. We often focus on every aspect of our life, manage our
physical fitness but we forget that our mind needs tuning and managing as well.
How your mind can be managed through meditation which is enhances an individual’s
compassion and makes one more mindful. The video also distinguishes between
happiness (internal) and pleasure (materialistic). When we discussed our
definition of happiness, according to me happiness is enjoying the small things
in life, be it getting wet in the rain, drinking coffee with your family at
midnight, doing good work.
We also spoke about money and happiness meter, where after a certain
point no amount of money can increase the happiness levels. I agree with this,
as I have seen it happening around me. We also spoke about the power of
unconditional love, just like a mother has for her child and the feeling of contentment it brings to
selflessly do for people.
We did the happiness exercise and I was relieved that I and my group
scored fairly well on the happiness meter. The most interesting part of the
next session was asking myself an important question, what is it that I need to
change to handle my emotions, relationships better. Honestly I realised that
maybe If I was more practical, I would do much better in every area of my life.
Not only do people value practical people, the less one is taken for granted.
One must strike a balance between doing for others, doing for self. Both are
important.
Lastly, we talked about Robert Kegan, Overcome the immunity to
change. A powerful tool that helps people overcome tough habits and fears by
the immunity x ray.
By Manvi Chopra
No comments:
Post a Comment