Wisdom Nuggets

( Reading time : 3 minutes )

I would like to begin this blog with a quote from the International best selling author, Prof. Yuval Noah Harari. In his book, ’21 lessons for the 21st century’, he says “In a world deluged by irrelevant information, clarity is power”. Lack of focus then becomes the major weakness in all our endeavors, whether it is personal life or professional work.

80% of our lifetime is being spent on a few major roles, which can be counted on one’s fingers. In a constantly changing world with countless variables, the journey becomes complicated, if our habits are misaligned with our goals. Let us get familiar with 3 Game changers, which can be applied together to re-engineer our personalities and sail through uncharted waters, easily.

• Game changer # 1 : STOP – These habits need to be stopped immediately, since they can act as impediments in our journey.
• Game changer # 2 : START – This refers to the initiation of a new habit, which will take us closer to our set goals.
• Game changer # 3 : CONTINUE – There could be certain habits, which we are already practising and need to be continued.

Example in Personal life  ( Goal : To maintain good health )  

1. STOP – We need to ‘STOP’ the addictive smoking habit, which acts against our will. Many such habits, if not stopped in time, can start eroding our self-confidence.
2. START – a suitable exercise regimen immediately so that we can return the excess fat back to Mother Earth.
3. CONTINUE – the habit of keeping oneself well hydrated regularly.

Example in Professional work  ( Goal : To become an inspiring leader )  

1. STOP – the habit of micromanaging the tasks of the team.
2. START – understanding the subtle differences between managing inert resources and leading talented people.
3. CONTINUE – the habit of praising in a team meeting and mentoring in private, as far as the team members are concerned.

If we need to stay relevant and focused, let us apply the 3 Game changers of “STOP – START – CONTINUE” in each of our roles together and re-engineer our way to success.

Dear Readers,

Thanksgiving holidays are here again ! I would like to take this opportunity in whole heartedly thanking you all for your valuable time, spontaneous compliments and motivational suggestions during the past 85 weeks or so.

Frankly speaking, I continue to learn every time, with your interesting feedback on each of the blogs. By the grace of God, we can continue in the same vein together so that we start looking insightfully at routine happenings with a different perspective in ‘The Journey’, which we also call as ‘Life’. Writing is always a joy, when it can ignite a spark of fresh thinking in the reader’s mind.

Best wishes to you and your family for the holiday season ahead !

Shankar Balakrishnan

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Just signing off the second quarter of 2018 on a lighter vein. My first official outstation trip, 25 years ago, was an unforgettable one. I joined a reputed engineering giant as a graduate engineer trainee in Bengaluru, South India. I was doing my orientation in Tool Engineering department, when my Senior manager asked me to design a dish washing system for our company’s canteen. It was a proud moment for me, as a fresh engineer to listen to the requirements of the system, which was supposed to have different stations, for spraying detergents, hot water, cold water, etc. & wash thousands of plates, everyday. I felt honoured to stand in front of the drawing board and start drafting the scaled technical views of the whole system, alongside experienced draughtsmen.

A couple of weeks into this project, the Head of Tool Engineering division and the Senior manager were quite satisfied with the progress. They hinted that I needed to visit a factory, wherein I could see an automatic dish washing system in operation. They quickly contacted our HR department and arranged a visit to an Automatic watch factory, who were supposedly having an automatic washing system in their canteen. The factory was located in a place called Hosur, around 50 kms. from Bengaluru. Everything was set for my official outstation trip.

I was really thrilled to be travelling with the senior professionals that day. In all, we were five of us, including the Head of Tool Engineering division. While on the way, all of them were talking lot of technical stuff non stop, which was very interesting for me, as a novice. We reached the watch factory and the HR manager ushered us into the plant. He slowly explained to us about their canteen facilities. Our Head of Tool Engineering division was getting impatient and politely reminded our host about the main purpose of the visit.

Our host quietly added that they had a “Manual” washing system in place. We were taken aback by his explanation. He took us to the rear side of the canteen where three old ladies were scrubbing all the plates diligently and washing them manually. They were really surprised to see 5 official techies coming to see them at work. I found it very tough to contain my laughter, watching the Head of Tool Engineering division, become red with fury. But, he wanted to show off that it was after all a technical visit and started shooting off questions related to the boilers, steam generation capacity, hardness of water, scale deposits, types of insulation, etc. just to divert our attention in this embarrassing situation.

The return journey was a very quiet one, with few words exchanged between us. Later on, I gathered some details as to how this incident could have happened. Our HR person had a peculiar accent while speaking. What he referred to as “Automatic wash” must have been understood by that company’s host as “Automatic watch”. Our host must have gladly agreed to this visit, since anyway there were manufacturing “Automatic watches”.

 

 

 

Life is a fascinating journey of learning and growth. The beauty is such that each human being is unique and can keep on discovering a new “personality” in them, during every moment of their lifetime. We have always been gulping in lot of theory, all through our lives. It is high time now, that we start learning from practical experiments in a wonderful laboratory called as the Universe.

Life has an uncanny ability to keep on doling out lessons in abundance. Hence, it needs a very pure, focused and vast mind to really unlearn what has been learned so far and keep learning for emotional growth continuously. While physical maturity happens naturally, emotional maturity requires lot of discipline and dedication from every human being.

The above picture shot on a midday summer afternoon in Karama, Dubai, a couple of years back, symbolizes the hide and seek game, which the clouds and the sun always seem to be playing. It is so fitting that we are starting this journey to keep on removing “clouds” of ignorance to discover a shining personality within.

Let us start the exciting journey of self-discovery every time. every day.