Thursday, March 4, 2010

Gita Shibir

I do not know the expectation of a B-school from me. First there were Learning Management classes and then PG Lab and now Gita Shibir. From objectivity to subjectivity to a mix of both! That is what I have been oscillating around. I must have an objective goal in life and then do everything to achieve it and now I have a subjective goal of attaining the happiness which is somewhere hidden in my self. This goal is subjective because it is related to my understanding of the whole matter. Actually it is about understanding only. Once I understand and confirm the way this particular concept of achieving happiness works, I suppose I become successful in life, at least for that particular instant (considering life means integration of all such small events). Like I enjoyed a good meal or a good walk, I feel content about it, satisfied about it. That is what I need to practise in my life, to have these walks more and more. But the whole concept of happiness keeps changing as you evolve yourself. And that is why I call it as subjectivity.
So the problem is not like which way to take. As far as my understanding goes what we as b-school students or more active corporate individuals needs to make sure of this subjectivity in the attainment of objectivity. And if we do that successfully I think we have done our part.
I suppose I do not need to stop and first attain the happiness and then go about being a CEO of my dream company but in the process of becoming a CEO I should attain the happiness level required to have personal harmony. This way I will be successful and happy and probably more effective.
Do you see any problem in the above given context or you think that you will be able to do it. I don’t know whether I will be able to do it or not but my problem is I tend to get involved in one side of it. Once I feed myself with the dreams and ambitions I tend to become more objective and tend to loose the balance on being happy. And if I think about being happy then I tend to become more easy going and less ambitious towards my aim of owning a Ferrari one day.
Is that a correct understanding of the thoughts we have been exposed to. I would say no.
Let me consider a situation where I am content with my life as in whatever I have, I think is enough and does not need anything to add materially to my life. Now if I need to serve the purpose of serving to the society I need to have few personality traits which will make me realise that I should do something for the society. Personality traits like kindness, compassionate, non-violence, truth honesty. I am talking about a very ideal situation where I am content with whatever I have and now because I am very kind and generous, and when I see people in grief I try to help them. These personality traits will be my motivation to work for the society. For keep doing work for the society it becomes imperative on my part to be always content otherwise I will never be able to work for the larger cause. An easy understanding of the situation is if I am thirsty it is less likely to share the water I have. So the point is to quench your thirst first and then go about helping others in quenching their thirst.
So now I hope it is clear to have your thirst quenched first (because only then you will be able to offer yourself totally for the sake of society at a large) and then do something for others (because of your inherent personality traits like generosity, compassion etc).
How does it fit in the roles which I will be doing in my future? This is generally a mistaken thought that who is self happy will not and will not be able to change the society at large. But can you change the society if you are not a part of the system. So those who are working for the society are at that level. The more at a higher rank I am in the corporate ladder the more effective I will be in bringing about these changes. And if I posses the required personality traits then the effect on the society will be immense. Few example Ratan Tata. Ratan Tata is most effective when he has the natural personality traits (dominated in his personality) and then he achieves a rank of CEO and then brings about changes. Had he been just a happy man and not doing anything for the society would not have served the purpose of his attaining the happiness.
So objectives are few
• First and foremost to keep self happy and content with the life (subjective part of this objectivity)
• Understand that I can bring about changes in society at large only if I have the required natural values assimilated in my personality.
• Understand that I need to be a part of the system to work wonders for my goal towards the society.
• And then keep achieving objective goals by being objective at large and keeping my content quotient intact with me.
This I had put in these words but I don’t know how I will follow my own words. Probably I don’t need to follow. What I need to do is to just chill and just keep a check on my value system and make it a rule to not violate my value system whatever may come. I think rest all will fall in place automatically.