Habit of Happiness

It seems years of research has found evidence that our brain works better when it is happy.  Some people however trash this whole argument as a figment of imagination.  They argue that those who are not happy even after repeated attempts do not pursue such research to present their story with evidence. Compelling argument.

Abraham Lincoln had said, "You are as happy as you make up your mind to be". One also finds that several scriptures assert that happiness is the innermost core of every individual.

This leads us to an important question. Is it possible that one can be happy regardless of where and to whom they are born? To many, it may appear like a heartless hypothetical question; given the kind of external situations possible.

There are however abstractions such as 'peer group' and 'social group'.  For most people, there exists an interactive group which creates a context for perception. World may be divided into social classes but that does not necessarily interfere in our day to day transactions.  It is the 'group' that matters more. For example, when people compare their own fortunes or achievements with others, they choose from among their 'peer group'. This choice is almost automatic and sub-consciously transmitted. The concept of 'groups' has made social media a powerful force as well - bringing sweeping changes.

Given this phenomenon, does a happy state of mind enable better performance? This is a key question. The answer perhaps is in exploring the 'habit' of happiness. A habit of happiness means every action is an expression of happiness. Outcome does not determine a person's enthusiasm. For such a person, even if the performance remains more or less the same as others, chances are: this person is perceived to have performed better. Author, Edward De Bono opines that about 80% of decisions in life are based on perceptions. The positive effect of such a person in any team is quite evident.

The tricky part however is, habits occur subconsciously.  One can be happy once in a while but a 'habit of happiness' is a tall order.  It may well be claimed that happy people (habitually happy) can be classified differently and they are not the same as other people.  

Whatever be the version of research or scriptures, the whole question for us can be reduced thus: "Can I make happiness my habit and trait?" This may be highly subjective. But worth every attempt! Whether true or false/ works or not, there is a lot to gain in every effort.

A habit of happiness may well be the result of other aspects such as perceived 'meaning of life', 'meaningful goals' and 'self-concept'.

Time and Change

Time is a fascinating phenomenon. Wiki says, "It is a measure of duration of events and the interval between them".  Some scientists say that the drum beat of time is not necessarily the same everywhere in the universe. Some say what we have is not a 'Universe' but a 'Multiverse' and so on.

In our lifetimes however, unless sweeping technological advancements lead us to a different dimension, all that we would have known is the seemingly flat world and human ego to deal with.  This is our reality that matters to us most.

'As time moves on, things change for better or worse'. This how we are trained to think unconsciously.  Is this not a fallacy?

Do things change as time goes on?

We seem to be telling ourselves that 'time' is like a train that we have boarded which moves whereas the scenery of life keeps changing in the window of our eyes.

Let us step back for a moment and investigate a little more.

Change is constantly happening.  The earth is changing its position around the sun.  The sun is changing its position in the galaxy.  The galaxy itself is changing its position in the universe and so on. We are never ever at the same place twice truly speaking.

Closer home, the plants are changing their form all the while, so are flowers and trees.  The walls made of bricks or wood are also changing - ever so slowly.  Look into the mirror. A temporary strange form possessing funny things known as eyes, ears, hands and legs undergoing constant change is what we see.

Change is the only thing that happens in the whole world. Time is simply a measure of it.

Time is perhaps like a carpet on rough edges. We use it to hide changes that are subtle and hard to detect.

Times don't change. It is change that times. Whatever that means!

Ganesha Symoblism

Hinduism believes in one God.  This often comes as a surprise to people in the west and of course, to many Hindus as well.  Hinduism is a collection of diverse philosophies with Vedas as its basis.  

The Vedas proclaim, "God, the Omnipresent is one without a second and is formless".  It has a lot of significance and meaning.  It does not fit into a theory that God sits above the clouds judging the world.

"Then why are there so many Gods in Hinduism?" Though God is one, there are several forms of worship in Hinduism.

While the Vedas declare God to be formless, there are the Puranas which bring out various aspects of eternal human values such as love, compassion, goodness and clarity of thought in a world that is temporary and fleeting.  Strategically, forms of worship are mixed into tradition and festivals.

The form of Ganesha is also very symbolic and traditionally viewed with meaning.

Two innocent eyes of the elephant says, "look at the world with innocent eyes".  An innocent eye does not carry the burden of past interpretations and judgements.  Every day is seen as new beginning.  

Two large ears of Ganesha symbolises, "listen more and talk less".  We talk not just with our mouth but also with our minds.  The constant chatter in the mind is also a kind of needless talking.  Good listening skills and good learning skills are one and the same, where mind is without self-made noise.

The ash in the forehead symbolises the meaning that, "the body will finally turn into ash".  This remembrance brings about purity and objectivity in our day to day transactions.

The two tusks of Ganesha symbolises our likes and dislikes.  We are programmed to do what we like and avoid doing what we dislike.  However productive activities require us to do what is needed though we may not like it.  One broken tusk symbolises our need to break our addiction to likes and dislikes.  This value system needs to be broken.

One hand has Abhaya mudra.  A psychological symbol of fearlessness and trust.  

One hand with an axe symbolising, "cut your unwise attachments".  Swami Sukhabodananda describes this beautifully.  Unwise attachment is one that says, "Without this thing (whatever the object), I refuse to be happy".  How often we think, "if this does not happen, I cannot be happy". That is an unwise attachment.  Action is to be out of happiness.  Not for happiness.

The rope in one hand symbolises, "the opportunity to climb up is here and now."

A baby elephant takes nearly one year to master using its trunk.  But once mastered, it is all powerful. Similarly the mind is hard to master.  Once mastered, it is all powerful.

While one leg is on the ground, the other leg is placed off the ground.  While our body is in the world and of the world, let all serious thoughts be placed above the material reality.

Finally, the form of Ganesha is dissolved in water after a week long worship.  Once the learning is complete, the created form goes back from where it came. A form made of clay becomes clay again.  As Swami Vivekananda said, the idol signifies the ideal.  

A weekday wish for a thoughtful world

Friday evenings are sweet. Monday mornings, not quite.

Hobbies are energizing. Work, not quite.

Then there is this term, 'compensation package'.  As if compensating for putting up with drudgery.  It is amazing how we have unconsciously inherited several insane maladies as a part of social transactions.  The phenomenon is universal.

What really is bothersome is how we walk into such social patterns unconsciously and remain oblivious of the damage it does to us.

We then ask, "How else? Isn't it natural?".  This is another part of the problem.  We seem to be constantly in need of instructions as if life comes with an instruction manual.

The challenge for us is to find for oneself how one can break free from this weekly cycle of weekday routines and weekend ecstasy and start living fully.

There are several social patterns that contribute to this insanity.  For instance, let us investigate what drives us to be right all the time? Why do we want to prove we are right always? In most cultures, 'failure is taboo'.  The moment failure happens to an individual, he or she is supposed to feel bad. If it happens to a team, a blame game begins as to who caused it.  This pattern pushes people to defend failures with stupid logic rather than change for the better.

Let us take another example.  How do we view formal authority?  How is it related to leadership?  We mix concepts of leadership and formal authority so much that we begin to depend on structures and systems to correct problems that our egos create.  We tend to think, "what worked for X should work for Y".  Really?  It depends on what we know about what worked for X. Doesn't it? How do we know that we know all that needs to be known?

Our knowledge is always limited.  Any concept that we learn depends on our previous learning. Our previous learning are influenced by all learning prior to that.  This goes on into value system as well.

These are just a few examples. Bottom-line remains we have been force-fed prescriptions of what we should fear, what we should like, what we should hate, what we should respect, what is considered taboo, what is acceptable and what is not.  These are passed on to us as the gospel, often without adequate reasoning.  Thus we walk into traps of thought flows and patterns that society has created by default.

To break free of these is a personal challenge for each one of us.

Weekdays are as energizing as weekends when the old prescriptions are filtered out reasonably in what we see and do today... every other day.

An Agile Mindset

Recently been to an Agile conference and it was quite fascinating.  We dealt with some of the core issues of organizational conflict that would surface on a journey towards Agile.

We discovered a need for a 'shared' leadership style as opposed to unitary/top-down/command and control style.  Every member in the team has a voice and is to be empowered to be proactive.  Second, a desired performance appraisal system where a 'Team' is recognized for success rather than choosing one or more star performers.  Not that there are no star performers but rather a realization that real star performers value team's productivity and happiness quotient over individual glory.

Is it easy to get there?

In our evolution of organizational culture and as a society we tend to carry a baggage of Managerial roles that issue directives, spend time in high level meetings and promise work outcomes but leave out all of the ground level work for 'others' in the team.  When the teams are well organized and committed it may succeed and keep succeeding over a period of time.  However it still is fragile.  It is not a sustainable model for the organization.

Every individual particularly in the Asian / Indian context who starts off as a technologist wants to become a Manager sooner rather than later.  This creates an artificial value system and is detrimental to the organization.  It is perhaps driven by a need to be perceived as the boss rather than a genuine interest in the field of Management.

There are Managers who say, "I head this team", "I run this team" instead of saying, "I am responsible for such and such thing..."  Whether an organization's culture creates a value for responsibility or sows the seeds for internal power games is very much in the language that people use.

Agile values can help cut the crap.

Agile can be a silver bullet.  However it requires a radical change in mindset top-down and bottom-up. It often forces a cultural change within an organization.  Calls for a different way of looking at organizational roles and responsibilities by redefining them if not eliminating them.

An evolutionary step in managing work in any sphere of life.  Agile manifesto is deceptively small and simple.  When put into practice it challenges several levels of corporate governance and is not limited to small project / product teams.

Truth about multitasking

Recently been nominated for a training on "Kanban" approach for process improvement.  Literally it means "signboard" in Japanese.  It was first used by Toyota apparently in their manufacturing process to set reorder levels for inventory management.

What came across as a vital learning was the topic covered under the title, "The myth of multitasking".  It would be very useful if one would use a pen and paper and do it oneself to get better insights. It does not take more than 60 seconds.  Am of the opinion this exercise can add several productive years in one's lifetime.

Ready?

As a first task, the trainer asked us to write a sequence of natural numbers 1,2,3... as many as we could in 10 seconds.  He counted to ten with a stopwatch.

Then he asked us to write a sequence of alphabets A,B,C ... as many as we could in 10 seconds and if we reached up to Z, cycle back to A and continue.

As a third task, he asked us to write a sequence such as A1B2C3... for 20 seconds.

Highly recommended that the three tasks above be performed before reading further.

Assuming it is done, it would be quite evident how our efficiency and productivity degrade when we try to multitask with alternate alphabets and number sequences.  Multitasking even such simple things is not a worthwhile exercise.

We may get different insights from this exercise based on our past experiences.  But possibly one common observation. "We are better off focusing on one task at a time before moving on to the next".

Of course this does not mean being hung up on one thing is a good idea!  That is a different topic altogether.