Robin Goel_BLP033_Happiness_September 2012

When I send down the thinking probe in my brain for the meaning of the word "Happiness" no surge of brilliance came up to greet me. I felt it, but couldn't find words to express it. After some more thought I was able to give some words to this abstract feeling.

I define happiness as, "The state when a person is smiling and feeling good about himself and the world around him"

Why is happiness so important? That is again a question which puzzles a brain like mine which has always been used for solving complex mathematical equations rather than dealing with the abstract.

The whole concept of why happiness and why sorrow is somewhat alien to this brain of mine, which has been conditioned to understand data not emotions from times immortal.

When I read about the concept on various online resources I discovered a new field of science which is used to define happiness called positive psychology. In a March 2009 edition of The Journal of Positive Psychology, Sara Algoe and Jonathan Haidt say that "happiness" may be the label for a family of related emotional states, such as joy, amusement, satisfaction, gratification, euphoria, and triumph.

Another popular American psychologist Mr. Abraham Harold Maslow created the hierarchy of needs (A pyramid depicting the levels of human needs (psychological and physical)) Maslow envisioned moments of extraordinary experience, known as peak experiences, profound moments of love, understanding, happiness, or rapture, during which a person feels more whole, alive, self-sufficient, and yet a part of the world.

It is the same thing that Mr. V.S. Mahesh discussed in detail in our class on Service Marketing.

Mr. Mahesh talked about how this theory was basically a small version of what was done by Mr. Rajashekhra in Kanauj centuries ago. Their Rajashekhra (The teacher of princes of Kanauj) published that though human needs follow this particular pyramid of hierarchy of needs where satisfaction of every consecutive need leads to more happiness in person’s life and the final state of human needs is Self Actualization where he the person is lost in the flux of happiness.

But Rajashekhra not only discovered this theory century before but also gave a very rare and important connect between Karma and need satisfaction. It said that the quality of karma is best when it is done by an individual who is in a state of Self actualization. This theory has huge implications as it means that for getting the best quality of work delivery from an individual/employee he needs to be in a state of Self Actualization or as some say it Perfect Happiness.

This theory if true can have huge implications on the way organizations see and use their employees. This theory basically tells the employers that if the best work needs to be extracted from their workforce then the employees need to be satisfied at each level of needs. For this extrinsic motivation (Rewards) can only inspire employees to be maximum of state of esteem needs. For reaching further the person need to be perfectly happy.
I believe this relation between happiness and efficiency is something that needs to be explored in research as it has the potential of altering the way in which organizations operate and treat their employees today.

Robin Goel_BLP033_Self Leadership_September 2012

September 10th the day 3 teams from our college had planned to participate at an AIMA event called Chanakya (A prestigious business strategy simulation game) being held in Greater NOIDA. The same day that was scheduled for a 2nd session on Self Leadership with Anil Sir, our 2nd class of the subject and associated with it was the huge confusion that happened due to the miscommunications all around us. Result we missed the Self Leadership Session from Anil Sir, which resulted not only in loss of knowledge, but also we were reprimanded by our Program chair (early morning over phone) for being irresponsible about the whole thing. Amends were made at the last moment but like all last moment works they were also shoddy.


After coming back I met lots of my friends at hostel inquiring about what happened in the class today, how the session was and what all topics were covered.

Somehow I felt people were a lot more calm and relaxed while answering questions than I had expected. The horrendous accident that had happened last week had shaken most of us up, the anxiety levels were high and somehow the days were dragging away with great difficulty. People were generally quiet, and eyes spoke more than words. But somehow when I came back I found people to be more relaxed and calm which seemed to have an inductive effect on me too.

People shared that the session started with Anil Sir asking us to remember our friends and share our thoughts about the same, and suddenly an avalanche of feelings poured out from the class. I heard about the class and felt connected and could see the emotions being reflected by Pravin /Jitin / Rohit /Waheed in their words and expressions.

The next session was on Appreciative Inquiry (AI) session in which Anil sir talked about the basics of AI and how to apply and use it. Everyone I enquired from said that it helped them know the person in-front of them better and not only personally but it was also associated with the joy of sharing with the whole class.

I wish I could have attended the session and learned more about myself and my friends. But with every missed opportunity comes another chance to succeed, and I sincerely believe in this.

Hopefully doing AI with my AI partner Hetal Gandhi would help me understand AI better.

Robin Goel__Self Leadership_May 2012

When I entered the class just after the morning circle, I saw Mr. Anil Sachdev already their in the class and ready to start the lecture. It was a bit surprising as we had just finished the morning circle and I had come straight from there to the class. I had thought that we might get some time to say hi and good morning to my fellows as he would probably get to 3rd floor, collect his stuff and reach the classroom. But he was there!!!, all set to start. Their could not have been a bigger yet subtle example of the value of time demonstrated by a person.

Anyways the class started and ground rules were set. As the lecture started a question was thrown to us,"If I need to lead myself what is the most important thing I need to ask myself ?". Frankly speaking after reading the question I was clueless. I asked my fellow classmate "Is the question correct?", and he looked back at me with a look in his eyes that made it clear that he was not to be disturbed with such nonsense questions. As I pondered over it, I realized that I could only self lead myself if I were happy doing it and thus started the avalanche of questions that I started asking myself. What makes me happy? Do I have the strengths to do things that make me happy? What is the way I need to work that makes me happy? Do I adhere to my values? Can I satisfy that higher goal in life which I have set for myself? And surprisingly the last 1 week of soil came alive in-front of me. We have already asked and explored all these questions to ourselves the last week and never realized that all this was an activity directed towards this single "simple"question.

The next part of the class was abstract for me (We were warned of this before sir started explaining this!!!) The six layers of self , the concept of the Body, the mind and the soul were mind-boggling and asked me question "OK ..... SO WHAT". So during the break I went to sir who smiling listened to the questions and said "Things will sink in, but don't loose your question. Stick with the question the answers will come"

Next we learned about powers of  observation, the power of listening and the power of touch. Each were taught through simple role play activities and was generously sprinkled with anecdotes of Mr. Sachdev's experience with industry leaders which made them pretty interesting. However the best part was the introspection of the activities that we did after completing the activity. This quiet introspection not only helped us understand the power of these communication tools but also to some extent answered the question I had asked in the morning.

Somehow I started understanding "Mindfulness" in a better way and was slowly able to relate mindful pillar with the six layers of self. It made me realize that only a mindful person can use these tools in an effective way. And the fog started to lift!!!!!! It is always a beautiful feeling when the truth dawns upon you through a series of seemingly unrelated activities and you start seeing the big picture. 

Frankly speaking the session left more questions unanswered than it answered but I believe these are questions that cannot be answered in a single day or two. "I teach simple things" was what Mr. Sachdev said at the closing of the session but we all know that simple things are the hardest to follow.
Hope in this new journey that I have started last week, I will be able to explore, introspect and achieve things that I am looking for and will be a stronger individual by the end of this course and maybe even a inspired leader.

Not wanting to end I will end this blog leaving you all with this video, a video that inspires me immensely. Hope you guys like it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kZlXWp6vFdE