Monday, March 24, 2008

Everyone is an Analyst!


All the education in this world, formal or informal, aims to make a person more analytical. Having said this, please don’t think that I intend to confuse between ”understanding” and “analyzing”. Understanding things is a natural trait of human being and so does not require any education. This is with assumption that understanding is without any sort of analysis i.e. whatever is apparent.


Everyone experiences some sort of failure in day to day life which is most of the times because of lack of analysis of the situation. Analysis is one of the very important phase which we all learn and realize with experiences in life.


Being from Finance background, I am into analysis “environment” for quite a time now. Infact there are many job profiles now calling “Analyst” in prefix or suffix in all the domains. The reason for me to analyze and write this blog is a sudden increase in “analyzing” amongst people in the past few years. The primary reason for this increase is competition in all spheres of life and so everyone is trying to keep up the pace with the race. Some of the strange examples where this increase is apparent are sports, politics and parenting. Their meaning has changed completely like all physical sports have now become mind games.


At work, analysis used to be the responsibility of leaders or managers only and they were supposed to guide and direct everyone. With competitive generation, employees at all stages are expected to have good analytical skills to perform their jobs effectively. This is generally communicated to them in different ways and words like proactiveness which also means that always keep analyzing!


In many cases, personal or team relationships also get impacted as everyone is analyzing to judge others or infact sometimes judge themselves indirectly. Please beware that no body wants free classes on their actions or behaviour. Sometimes this may result in over analyzing which can be harmful, may be not at the individual level but as a group or society. Because while analyzing, one is conscious to some extent. With conscious mindset, one is not able to think or act naturally. Ones thought may also be overshadowed by the buzzwords and one may fail to take the holistic approach of the situation by focusing on few factors. This may create some unnecessary complexities because of gap between analysis done and the actual scenario. At times, this may lead to waste of energy as a group and less productivity.


To avoid all these issues, one should analyze before analyzing that whether it is the right case for analysis or it is just not required now! Even when one decide to start analyzing in right cases, one should always keep thinking when to stop it. Because sometimes after enough analysis also, you keep analyzing without much value addition. Beware! that this may result in delay in taking decisions or moving to next important phase i.e. Execution.


Concluding, I am sure you will enjoy reading this if you will decide not to analyze this blog too much:)

Don’t Simply Ask!


Most of the business as well as personal communication revolves around questioning and answering between two or more people, be it a business deal or just a casual gossip.
In most cases, question precedes the answer (except unsolicited suggestions:) ) because without the question, the answer is not required. So someone has to initiate with a question to start or continue the communication.


Most of the questions comes in ones mind out of curiosity or doubt. But immediately after asking that “question”, the ball is passed to the other person and make him responsible to answer. However if given a thought before asking, one will realize that the answer is common sense and you already know it but unfortunately this comes in mind after getting an answer from others. Sometimes people ask when they already know that the other person is also equally ignorant like them. But they ask to show their creativity of creating a question without making any effort to think of any possible answer. The same question could have been asked by other person before you, while he or she was thinking of a possible solution, instead of just making you responsible to answer.


The conversation gets in to a second loop when, to cover and maintain ones ego, question is followed by another question to pass the ball again (wasting more time). This is the reason why most of the meetings end up without any conclusion!


Can we say that questioning or answering are two different types of personality traits or attitude? I am convinced with this atleast to some extent.


Dividing the communication time in a fixed ratio between questioning and answering is not feasible because it all depends on the situations. But we should all try to spend more time in finding solutions or answers rather then just asking questions. Simply asking a question without much effort is also a disrespect to the other person. So if you can spend some time on finding a solution yourself, you will definitely add some value to the situation. This will also help you to reduce the dependencies on others and make you more confident. You may get different answers from different people which may also increase confusion.


I am not suggesting to stop thinking about questions because they are the basis of answers. And also it would be unfair with oneself to subside doubts within. Infact asking questions should be promoted among people around you especially among children and should be addressed with logical reasoning. This will go a long way to enhance their mental capacity and make them future ready.


Similarly, even for your spiritual quest, you should ask your inner self before approaching any guru or book.


You may find all the answers yourself!

Waiting For Death!

Death is certain and we all are unconsciously waiting for it to come. Waiting period may vary as it can come any time. There is no way to avoid this wait, so the only option available is to enjoy the wait and utilize the time in the best possible manner.

There are various other examples in everyone’s life where one has to wait for things to come or happen. Such waiting situations can be classified between controllable and uncontrollable situations. I am not discussing the waits which are beyond control because nothing much can be done about them like pregnant woman has to wait for nine months:)

However all the controllable waits are the ones which more painful and most of the times add complexity in life without much value. These are sometimes for fulfilling some or other desires and luxuries in life like wish for a bigger house or an expensive car.

Everyone should be able to identify this difference and should try to eliminate all the controllable waits in their life to enjoy the uncontrollable wait of death. This is because all waits which can be controlled can be avoided to reduce the uninvited frustration in case of failure at the end. This time can further be utilized in a fruitful way to make your journey of life purposeful.

Re-Birth, Re-Defined!

Do you believe in Re-Birth?

If yes, is it possible for you to tell what would be your next birth? As per Indian mythology, there are 84 lacs species in which one can revolve in the cycle of birth, death and re-birth . Even if one thinks that re-birth depends on good or bad actions performed during the lifetime, one can not be sure about the exact kind of your next life.

Even if one does not believe in re-birth, there would be a constant doubt about what happens after death. Only those few are not concerned who are striving to achieve salvation in this lifetime through different means. Such questions related to fundamentals of life and deaths have always been argumentative but nothing much has been discussed on possibilities or options available in your present lifetime.

Take a moment to think that this human birth is a rare and fortunate gift and so should be fully utilized and experienced. Now one may ask what could be done to reduce the ambiguity involved in the type of next birth which no one can forecast. Most of us relates ourselves either to our religion or to our profession. On being asked “who are you?” normally one will reply, ‘I am a Hindu” or “I am a doctor” etc. You can also ask this question to yourself and try to find the answer. This is a limitation! I believe in a different approach to to live multiple kinds of lives in a single lifetime. Let me call it re-births before death.

Given a thought, most of us are already living multiple lives in terms of different roles and responsibilities. One should be able to identify and distinguish between these different lives to enjoy life in a more complete and meaningful manner. Take the example of a man who is a working executive, a husband, a father, a son, a brother, a social worker and so on. This is a very normal scenario but not everyone is so blessed, give a minute to think of a beggar sleeping lonely at the roadside.

Now if you are fortunate enough to have more than one role, can you think of further expanding it? One might feel that only film stars have the opportunity to play different kinds of roles. In any successful film career, an actor performs many roles but actually, this will be “acting” experiences and will be different from real experiences. For example when acting as a singer, an actor doesn’t have to actually sing. So we need to understand this difference between reel and real roles.

We all have an opportunity to do different roles and so have different births in the real world. Have you ever thought of being a Hindu, Muslim and a Christian in the same life? But you will definitely believe that this is possible in different births, right? They all are human beings but somehow we feel that the person of the other religion is not ‘you’; Why? In this life you have a flexibility to choose a limited timeframe to be in a particular role like if you are a Hindu, you can become a Muslim for a week or two. During this time you can start visiting Mosque and reading Quran and have an all-together different lifetime experience. This also increases mutual acceptance and develops a peaceful environment in the world. You may also like to explore and understand different values and beliefs and then try to find a union among them.

In a similar way you have a choice to become whatever you want to become or fulfill your dreams right now, irrespective of your current age. You can become a student, a teacher, a social activist, a dancer, a politician, sportsmen, a painter, a lover, a musician, a priest or just a kind of person you have always admired. You can decide the life you have always wanted and not a life created out of circumstances. Again you have a choice to choose to be in a particular role for a week, a month or years. This can make your life colorful and will also give various learning opportunities and unique experiences. Keeping a draft of your own obituary in mind, you can also design your portfolio of different lives. If done with a free mind, this exercise can also help you to find the real and ultimate purpose of your life.

In case you are already satisfied with your current life or you don’t want to take risk with any type of change for any reason or difficulties involved, still you have an option to experience different lives. This can be achieved through empathy i.e. by thinking in a way of a person performing a different role and understanding his point of view. I believe such attitude can help you to broaden your outlook towards the society at large.

To develop such attitude, three mind tools can be applied. First, interacting with different classes of people can be really helpful to understand their life and individual perspectives. Interviewing them about what they like and dislike about their role can itself give you a feel of different experiences. The other effective tool is reading which has no boundaries and can take you into an entirely new world. You can read about anything under the sun like about history and cultures of different nations. May be now you are an Indian, you can have different experiences by knowing more about other places even if you are not born or traveled there. You can also read biographies of different people because every biography is a life in itself. The third way can be just “thinking”. It looks easy but needs much more efforts because of lack of two-way communication.

Life is an experience, so we cannot limit it to different roles and should include different feelings and personal traits. Being a leader, helping others, taking initiatives, assertiveness etc not only gives one a new birth but will definitely help in personal as well as professional growth. There are many people who regret in their later years of age because they spent their entire life in a monotonous way either running after money or having narrow goals. One can avoid such regrets by taking this new and changed outlook right from now. Each one of us has a potential to do something different and to contribute for the benefit of others. Living for yourself can give you only one type of experience with limited happiness but when you start living for others, you have unlimited choices and unlimited happiness!

MEET GOD TODAY

In ancient days sages used to do rigorous tapasya in forests and struggled throughout their life to meet God. An easy way to meet Him can be by knowing more about your parents.

The creator – What you “know” – You are because you were born sometime ago. This life is a gift given to you by your parents. They together have given you a unique identity with a different name, voice, face and personality.

What you don’t remember – If you have a very good memory, you might remember the luxury of eating without using your hands, just standing to get your hair well combed or having a ride on their back to the school. But you cannot re-call about your early years from 0 to 3 years. This is a fact that you were the top priority for your parents. It has been widely accepted by psychologists that these are the most important years for developing the mind and attitude. You get a sense of security in this new world and a self respect for whatever you are. They had spent sleepless nights and kept you always close to their hearts to make you comfortable and happy.

What you don’t know – That you have always taken them for granted without a second thought. They give you unconditional love without any expectations which is not possible in any other relationship. They have always done sacrifices for your well being and growth. They have given you the freedom of being yourself and at the same time are available in case of any need or guidance. They have made you civilized by providing best possible education and also directed you for a right career path. Their responsibilities include searching a right life partner for you to take care of you lifelong. Finally, you cannot count the number of your mistakes forgiven by them happily.

True “right-o-meter” – The logic – Anything can be either right or wrong. It has always been argumentative and difficult to conclude when opinions differ because of different perspectives and ambiguity due to relativity. I have read somewhere that you should always think that what God would have suggested while deciding in such situations. But sometimes it is not possible for everyone to visualize God and understand His wishes. However irrespective of your religion or situation, you can ask yourself that what your parents would like you to do, you will get immediate answers. But still choice is yours.

When they are not there – You cannot think and understand this, till the time you have them available. You will miss them but always feel them near you throughout you life. A sudden responsibility will be realized by you even if you were staying separately and living a “independent” life You might also regret that you could have spent some time with them and could do something for their happiness. However you will keep growing in your life because of their blessings as they still care for you.

What you can do – Worship them, nothing less.