Do you have a Dream or a Goal?

We all believe it is important to set Goals. Research confirms that those who set goals do better than those who do not, especially if it is self-generated and vivid and regularly monitored. What you may find surprising is that revealing your goals widely (as commonly advised) may actually boomerang in your motivation to meet the goals.

In this article, I explore goals more fully….

When we truly tap that energy within a goal, then only can we and empower oneself. Alive within a goal is a deep purpose that needs to be understood. A desire to see a force of potential. It is only this that inspires and lifts. Ideally, a goal should be replaced by VISION - it is broader! A vision is a direction, like a sketch. When it becomes a clearly defined map, it is disabling. It is like a globe, where Greenland appears larger than Australia, but one must know that it is an illusion (Australia land mass is 3 times that of Greenland). Knowing that goals are itself a perspective, it allows one to traverse the path, with one's own experiences.Goals that give meaning to our lives is a prayer, else it is an albatross!

Research says that once you fix a goal you limit yourself. Take the case of Roger Bannister breaking the one mile run under four minutes. If you know it is under 4 minutes that sets the record in the mind and for years it will act as a constraint. Take the bumble bee. It is not aware of the laws of thermodynamic. Yet it does not know this and it flies!

Goals are Games we Play

Goals are like a 'Finance Plan' - it is a general direction. It is an assumption. It is a plan, it is a commitment to deliver. It is a path forward. it is indicative of progress. It is a journey with stretch. At all times it must be remembered that this 'goal' was based on a foundation of - beliefs, assumptions, values, knowledge and desire to succeed. As such, rigidity to one's goal becomes a burden.

Goals are like pieces on the chessboard. To many there are powerful like queens and knights. Yet, they are all wooden pieces and lie inert in the box when the game is over. All equal. All inert. All lifeless. All meaningless. Only in the game does the player give it life. This is important to remember, that the chess pieces are portent or otherwise, only as per ‘rules defined and agreed’ and by the players, not by itself.

At its best, a goal lifts us up, at its worst it imprisons us to a self-slavery, or worse mortgaged to others. This must be understood. If it becomes a 'duty' or a compulsion, then we no longer enjoy it - we do it mindlessly, as if it is the only thing we have to do. I hear many people say, “What to do? This is my duty so I do it”. I disagree - one should do it only if one enjoys it, not otherwise. when one is aware of what one is doing, fully aware and enjoying what one is doing - then there is a goal.

What is an alternate to sharp Goals?

Rather than goals focus on system instead. If you are a Sports Coach, your Goal is to win the tournament, your System is what your team does at practice each day. If you are a Writer, your Goal is to write a Book, your system is a writing schedule each day. If you are a runner, your goal is to run the marathon, your system is your training schedule each day.If you are an entrepreneur, your goal is to build a Million Dollar Business, your System is Sales and Marketing.

We are all motivated by 'wins' and get depressed by 'losses'. Have milestones along the way, so that you feel you are moving towards something each day. Keep the milestone related to each day and celebrate the small wins. Alcoholic Anonymous focus on staying 'Alcohol Free' each day! That's measurable each day and wins or losses are easily measurable. The trick is not 'avoidance' ( like stop smoking), instead it is about, 'smoke free today'.

Timothy Gallwey, in his book, 'The inner Game of Tennis' shares that we have two selves - Self 1 and Self 2. Self 1 is egoistic and tends to worry, while Self 2 is intuitive. He argues that one should allow for Self 2, and let the game be played by intuition and by the subconscious rather than with an outcome focus. And finally to discover the Self 3, a better human being.

Can we manage without Goals?

It is seductive to hang onto goals. It’s a game we humans play.

Tsu Lao, would have commented, there is no need to journey across to the shore. The shore opposite is here. The beginning exists with the end: the alpha with the omega. When one has a sense of one's full journey, through a vision of his own purpose, there is an inner light that drives him forward. he moves on his own violation – ‘phototropicity’, I think scientist call it. Then there is no need to travel: one moves only in the RIGHT path. One moves intuitively only in the correct ways.

Let me simplify: if one is a great batsman, he needs no targets! he just enjoys batting and is aware each moment. He plays to each ball, he is alive to each moment. Then he knows what to do when a ball comes through: he knows what to do with a full length, good length or short pitch - he acts without targets. He acts only with a vision and purpose and values. He steps forward or back, or sideways. He moves all at once. He is ‘here and now’ – fully aware. The spectators do not see a bowler or a batsman: they see a display of genius. Martina Navratilova, a tennis player when questioned about her age replied that ‘the tennis ball does not know that’.

For when one is in flow, the actor, and the scene disappears - just the act remains, the dancers give way to the dance. Then there is only the dance, no dancers at all. The musician and the flute disappear – just the music remains. Goals, when embraced , without pressure, lift pleasure; when taken on as 'desires' or obligations de-energise. You can life an alternate without goals: attach oneself to an inner purpose. Abandon measures and milestones. They do limit.

Goals belong there - not here! Goals lies in the future: an expectation. A phantasy. Drop Goals: here is. It is here already. It has always been here. No need for a search - that is a desire. Drop the desire, drop the source of the desire, drop goals. This world here is real, with the other: an unreal, never to be realized.

When there is no goal, one relaxes: with nothing to do, the ego disappears. The 'I' disappears. Then acceptance, grace begins.....the Bhagwan within unfolds....Drop all goals! Stay aware!

May I request you to not simply like and move on. Do join me in this conversation. What do you think about Goals?

Rules and Principles - Are they Similar?

Rules and Principles - Are they Similar?

A Rule compels you through threat or punishment to do things others deem right or good.

Principles are guides to respectful living, freedom and being open.

Why do we need rules?

Rules are put out by a community to guide collective action. We do need rules to govern our lives: to play its game. Rules provide a reference point for how a game is to be played out. Imagine a game of soccer or cricket with no rules: it would be chaos. Even in contact sports like boxing you have the queens’ rule. These rules in organisation include code of conduct, compliance guidelines or Company Policy. They are created for consistency, fairness and an opportunity for a level playing field.

Often the rules provide for a handicap, where the forces are unequal or dissimilar in terms of natural endowments. Like in the case of horse racing or golf. These are affirmative actions to create a balance. Same could be said for the reservation policy. We all like rules, it allows for a pattern of order (traffic rules), builds trust and respect around how each person can hoped to be treated. When we bend rules covertly, we signal, unfairness, arbitrary whims and fancies and we end up being distrusted. However, for some of the rich, the powerful, rules are disliked: they wish to find loopholes: through Jugaad. Imagine all of us succeeding through ‘Jugaad’: we never would.

Principles to live by

At and individual level, rules turn to personal principles. Remember, there are no eternal rules: every rule lies in its context, and needs to change once context changes. ‘The old order, changeth yielding place to the new, and God fulfils himself in many ways, lest one custom should so corrupt the world”, write Lord Tennyson.

Our Indian tradition (Dharma) asks for us to be mindful of collective discharge of duties and obligations (rights are not stressed) but also to follow one’s own path (Sva-Dharma). It emphasises that we should be a part of community; but foremost to be individual. It offers the principle of Appadharma to guide through crisis and emergencies.

Rules and Principles

Conceptually, rules come from ‘location’ in context: they are prescriptive, often stale and anachronistic. Uncalibrated, and without reform they become draconian, living in staleness, living corpses of the past, of dead traditions and rituals whose original sense and meaning have been lost to obscurity.

Rules are to be followed as a general principle but abandoned if dysfunctional. Stake not your life, but your meanings about life, said Pulin Garg, my beloved teacher and Guru. Like goals, they provide direction but are meaningless by themselves. Many of the rules of war and tradition were abandoned in the Mahabharata for instance.

Our principles are with ourselves. Do we drive across a red signal light, because others do it, or if no one is around? Are our principles relative to others or absolute? In our professional career, having competencies are important, but it is our principles that act as a ‘booster rocket’ to take our career upwards. Many careers have been ruined because this has not been understood.

In the end, like a chessboard, the rules create the game! But when the game is over, all the board pieces go back into the same box – inert, equal, same. Rules are ephemeral, principles are eternal.

Where do you sit with this? Join me and comment on post. Please avoid ‘Like’ and moving on. I would love to have you engage.

Hey, it’s Crazy and Sad!

 

Hey, it’s Crazy and Sad!

With the Covid pandemic amidst upon us, it has become a trendy to use the managerial acronym: VUCA, short for volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity, and a catchall for “Hey, it’s crazy out there! So what are the Competencies that allow for employees to be effective in such crazy times?

The law of entropy (the degradation of the matter and energy in the universe to an ultimate state of inert uniformity), a universal phenomenon plays itself out as simple moves to complex, single correlates to multiple, and order to seemingly disorder. The only constant they say is Change. In such times, I would like to share my reflections what are the critical issues employees need to manage in such VUCA times.

For one, Soothsayers are many. Truth is, no one really knows what is out there. For many, the future will not be unknown, some will make it happen. Rather, than crystal ball the impossible, I would urge we develop ‘white water rafting’ skills to navigate our current environment and work our way through the ‘next twenty yards’.

The Metaphor of White Water Rafting

The metaphor throws up many competencies relevant to our times. I shall elaborate on four.

For one, Need for Speed. Almost everything is required to be done in ambitious deadlines. During such times, one cannot cross the chasm in two leaps, and one needs to simultaneously work on both the urgent and the important. Change agents need to work hard, and smart, anticipate issues that would come up, while consolidating gains already made. At these times, discerning the 80:20 will help as well, and to avoid being trapped with ‘busyness’.

Secondly, need to manage ambiguity and uncertainty. Change by definition, means the design elements are changing. I have realised that people are open to change, provided they can be helped through moving out of their comfort zones, feel ‘safe’ in the change process, and if asked to participate. The key is to ensure regular communication at all times: milestones and clear path to destination. In addition, fair set of consistent and fair and sensitive principles, on how people would be managed in such times.

Thirdly, the change champion needs to manage personal frustration. During each day, there would be countless trough and peaks: trials and tribulations. She requires to be balanced and moderate her emotions through this period. Emotional intelligence is the act of using one’s emotion for self and the other. Frustration is the result of ‘what I love is threatened’ and hence the reactivity that follows. Ensuring that thought, emotions and actions are balanced and in harmony is key during such stressful times. Hope and curiosity are two positive emotions that exist in troubled times. Crucial to see the ‘glass half full’.

Finally, during explosive change the change agent needs to manage personal obsolescence. Managing change requires new skills: often drawing from past experience, often crafting new solutions, most often re-inventing oneself. The ability to reflect and learn and be willing to recognise one’s own limitations and lack of knowledge is crucial. Wise is he, who knows that he knows not.

What do you think? What other metaphors come to your mind?

Please Comment and Engage, and let’s start a Conversation, shall we?

Most things Divide, Few things Unite

While most imagined ideas divide us as a society, three things allow us to engage, albeit gain momentum towards collectivity: money, politics and religion.

In-group/Out-group (Apna / Paraya)

Our brains are wired to create psychological boundaries to define what’s in/what’s out. All species mark their territories: what is 'ours' and what is out there, 'not us'. What is 'us' is then a subject of bonding and relationship: the family, the commune, the property we hold, our faith and beliefs. Naturally, to engage with the notion of what is ‘ours’, boundary conditions need to be imposed, be it a tribe or a church or a panchayat.

This bonding defines and overly crystallises a strong culture of who we are and how we do things around us. Culture is essentially then what divides us from others, but allows us to unite us amongst ourselves. The culture within is the power energy within to create the inter connectedness, within, yet it is also the basis for the fragmentation with that outside itself: the 'other'.

The imagined notion creates the tradition, the rituals and the passage of what is the norm: that which is acceptable and that which is frowned. The culture flows from the dominant logic, the DNA of deep seated values over time, and the alignment of multiple infrastructure: Processes, Work systems, rituals, that allow for its prorogation.

Even within the commune, divisions and classes are created to sub-divide so that it helps each one to relate with the other. The very culture that is created meets it antithesis: the rebellious ‘sub-culture’ as its counterpoint. Paradoxically, the rebellion itself is coalesced within a structure such that the 'sub culture' itself is uniquely held. Way back in the 60’s, the US Culture gave way to the rebellious Hippie culture, the sub-set having a clear identifiable whole. Either one or its counterpoint are held in structure: both allow itself to confirm to norms.

Culture and beliefs are not similar

An important distinction to note is the term Culture and Beliefs: they are not the same. A member of a commune may subscribe to a culture, but arrive at it from a belief system quite different to another. Organisations that try to unify 'beliefs' pay the price of frustration, an impossibility. What makes Jack come to work ( perhaps job security) may be quite different to what motivates Jill (the cordial work atmosphere). Clearly, aiming for a ‘Shared Values & Culture’ with a north star of ‘Organisational Purpose’ is enough and can unite. Trying to change the individual belief systems of all of the members to a 'common one' would be fruitless and impossible.

The unknown 'out there' beyond the boundary is treated with suspicion: it is but natural that neighbouring countries would harbour distrust of each other. What is unknown, is distrusted, leading to splitting and projection. Trust in one's own commune and distrust with those outside are the two natural axis of human emotions.

Within the commune collaboration can exist and extend itself on the imagined notion: a tribal chieftain will have tribal members, wealth would be jointly owned or secured through powerful laws and a religion would emerge that would unite the commune. So to, culture within an organisation. Collaboration works best when individual and group interests are conjoint. That's the way it has been for many centuries: a world that belonged to many numerous small worlds.

So what would make one tribe engage with another?

I argue that it would be reasons of money (trade), a feeling of superiority of one's religion over another or a lust to amass more political influence: to have a larger tribe, and soon a kingdom.

It is these forces that have paved the way for global colonisation, that has paved the way for mass religious conversions and where annexation has not been possible then the next best alternate is lucrative trade. Lucrative trade is but a start, akin to the East India Company that gradually harboured ambition for political power of the territory. It is this desire for political power that has created NATO, the Euro, and international federations.

The Imagined Order

The imagined order is what is. Fromm refers to Social Character, Harari uses this term. There is no reality. The imagined order is itself transient and changes with passage of time. The imagined order creates the values and laws for that transition art period of time then it adapts to a ever changing set of values for it to cope and adapt. All values are transitionary and would change. For what is created must change, and eventually die to a new form. That is an immutable law of nature.

One astronaut wisely remarked when viewing earth from a shuttle, that the earth was just one unified body Inter related and interdependent on its parts. He could spot no boundaries. All boundaries are man-made. The man himself is a bounded self: arising from a self-notion of what is him and not him. The ego in the self creates the boundaries within man, and around man. Ego is the false self. It does not exist. It is like the shadow that lurks around but is never there. It is the Ahamkara (one of the devolutes in Sankhya Philosophy) of the fusion between Prakriti and Purush. Our projection of ego creates the incessant needs that can never be satiated. Left to ourselves, sans ego, our needs would have been adequately met.

If we are to unite we must become fully aware of the forces within that divide! Like the article picture we are all unique fingerprints - there is no other like us. Our possibilities exist to connect with all unique beings!

What forces do you believe would support us to Unite?

Please join me and Comment on the Post.

We shall Overcome

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Steve Correa

Executive Coach & HR Consultant Author, The Indian Boss at Work: Thinking Global, Acting Indian

94 articles

We shall Overcome

Soothsayers are having a field day. Has there ever been a time, when we have not been paranoid with the pace of the future? Too much is already said on COVID and the new world of work. Whether Covid or not, the world was inevitably to move from globalisation to polarisation. We saw those trends with each country focussing on ‘Made in Country of Origin’. Polarisation will strengthen (enabled and slowed by technology) but it will give way to ‘universal shared values’ and which comes from a growing consciousness, which would trigger a world of mutual trade and exchange based on the axis of Values.

Why do I say this?

Societies collectively develop Conscious Consciousness. However, even while we collectively develop our conscious intelligence, this varies from individual to individual.

Ken Wilber, a leading thinker, although controversial, posits his version of consciousness – tetra apprehension. He explains how this dynamic interaction may be happening. In this, the ‘previous moment’ is made an object for the subject in this moment, who adds to it, a ‘newness’ of creativity. As the new subject reviews the previous subject, by way of an ‘object’, it includes and enfolds the past, and creates a causality to the present, not just a strict determinism, but with the added newness, it transcend the causality, and creates new possibilities.

By way of an example, the evolution of our human brain has evolved in somewhat this manner: it contains within it, the limbic, reptilian, mammalian, even while the neo-cortex, is the more recent phenomenon. Ken asserts that the Universe has three ultimate’s: the One, the Many and the ‘creative advance into novelty’. As such all phenomenon must include and transcend, and with the newness create a new subject. Through this process, more and more order is built from more and more chaos. This newness is not a random chance, instead the Universe is winding up, with the creative advancing novelty continuing to add to the complexity and sophistication.

In this each individual is ‘growing up’ to a new consciousness. In other words, integral theory posits that evolution is not limited to the exterior forms of reality (of both matter and organisms), but it is also evident in the interior spaces of reality, i.e. development of culture and consciousness. Sri Aurobindo echoed a similar though when he dealt with the ascending planes of consciousness from matter to Satchitananda, but unlike Wilber postulates that consciousness lies outside the four quadrants and only manifests or expresses itself in them.

Communication technology has allowed for us more instant human touch and opportunity to connect. The changes that lie ahead are aligned with the eternal principles of consciousness. We shall overcome! Our path will lie not just in technological advancement, but in human consciousness as well. We will continue to progress, being even more resilient. Of that I have no doubt. I see the young ably capable to lead the future. My world is filled with hope and possibilities.

Many of you click Like and move on. I would love for you to Engage – drop a word or two. Let’s connect.