Tuesday, January 13, 2015

Comfort Zone

Have ever wondered reason for stagnation in career/job? Did you ever feel tentative or uncertain when you started doing a new job ? Did you feel clueless and had a feel of lost in desert while put in a role that you are not prepared for ? list goes on - reason is the same 'comfort zone'.

I discretely remember the first day on road with my new car and no companion to guide me. I felt nervous and a bit scared. too many questions played on mind - what if car stops on road all of sudden? what if I ram into some one/some other vehicle ? I had a frustrating day that I wanted to leave the car on the road and take an auto back home. Now when I look back to that day, I feel how silly my thoughts were.  The utility my car is to me today outweigh the initial struggle I had to go through while learning the driving skill.

Similar experience many a times I had faced while changing role or job at work place. When I first walked into Onsite location as ONC (onsite coordinator), I had feeling of nausea and not very sure if my communication skills are adequate to perform the job. When I was inducted to team lead role, I felt initial insecurity that made me wonder if its really my cup of tea. When I got promoted to manager role, I was nervous even to walk in to one-one meetings of my team. Later I went through phases where I had faced initial problems speaking in front of huge gatherings.

When I look back now and compare how comfortable I am doing it today versus my initial hiccups, only reason I can think of is being pushed out of comfort zone makes an individual feel uncomfortable. Sometimes we resist it as well. But as we go along the path we start feeling comfortable and it starts becoming comfort zone for us. Moving out of comfort zone and doing something different is what makes an individual progress in career.

Sunday, January 4, 2015

ज्ञानं परमं बलम् -- Knowledge is Power Supreme

This is what we were told in college right from day1 as the motto of the University. Few students like me didn't understand the meaning of it then. As time progressed and we struggled through the life's ordeals, that is when we realized what it meant and the importance of knowledge in life.

Knowledge is multi fold and influences us in many ways in our day to day lives. Its not just the books that impart knowledge but major source for most people is through cognitive learning that life imparts.

Parents and Elders: Mother forms first source of knowledge for any kid. She starts teaching him/her language and pronunciation. She starts teaching the kid the good manners that are perceived acceptable in the contemporary society. Father supplements the knowledge imparted by mother with any additional learning needed before and while schooling. Also few elders like Grand Parents do their bit in inculcating good manners as well as teaching few verses/stories during childhood.

Teachers: Teachers/Gurus at various levels play a major role in imparting mammoth portion of knowledge to an individual by the time he/she graduates. The knowledge imparted varies from person to person depending on the choice of courses and level of grasping he/she possesses. Most times its this knowledge that comes handy in earning bread and butter for rest of life.

Friends: Friends at each level play a vital role in proper utilization one's energies in right direction. A person who made friendship with incorrect set of folks might set his foot in wrong direction thus wasting life's endeavours. On the other hand person who connects with right group might finish at a higher level than his innate state.

Books: This is for folks who love reading. Books serve as major source of knowledge during years of education. Capsules of knowledge packaged into syllabus will prepare an individual to continuous knowledge acquisition. Books keep serving a person with knowledge post-college era, if one is willing to pay attention to them.

Media and News: Media like TV , movies, internet, newspapers also keep feeding an individual with small packets of information. Unlike other modes of knowledge, this feed has to be assimilated and translated into knowledge by the individual on his own. Primary problem with this information is that it can be clubbed with lot of garbage and needs some mining to separate good from bad.

Experiences: Even though it is not a medium, mistakes one commits in life teach a person a lot more than success stories. Beauty of this is that lesson learnt hard way is difficult to forget in life. Also person grasps a lot of things by sheer observation of other individuals, situations and by personal reflection of them.