Spirit of Learning

This week’s Golden Nugget is inspired by Buddha. Very often we start following routines and form habits. Over a period of time these habits lose meaning behind them yet we keep reacting to the new challenges of life - in the old ways.

Buddha in one of his sermons said, “Do not believe what you have heard; do not believe in doctrines because they have been handed down to you of generations; do not believe in anything because it followed by many and majority; do not believe in the truth to which you have become attached by habit; have deliberations and analyze; and when the result agrees with reason and is conducive to the good of one and all, accept it and live unto it.”

When we hear motivational talks, there is very little that we already didn’t know. What is spoken is universal truth; and what differs is how the information is made relevant to the audience and made sticky so we can remember it when in need. Yet, most of us forget about these collected words of wisdom when we need them the most. This is because we only collect information and seldom deliberate on it or internalize it to make it part of our wisdom pool. The value of knowledge is when it is put to practice for the good of self and humanity.

In summary, Spirit of Learning is in being curious to acquiring new information, deliberating to get relevant wisdom out of it; and utilizing the wisdom by putting it to practice. Let us watch ourselves if we can put this golden nugget to practice J

Wishing you a very happy Vijay Dashami !

Emotional Intelligence 101

I was curious to know more about Emotional Intelligence and found it very interesting. So thought of sharing some key ideas with all...
Emotional Intelligence is being aware of your emotions as well as emotions of others you are interacting with; and using emotional awareness for making informed decisions or initiating actions. The emotional state you are in & what you are thinking at any time can affect your response to an unrelated event. Your response depends on your state of mind. So it does for others too. It is important to understand your own emotional state as well as emotional state of others to have a productive interaction with others. Non verbal cues may duplicate, underscore, match, oppose or replace verbal communication. It is not easy to read non-verbal cues, and therefore it is hard to gain absolute understanding of what a person is actually communicating. In my future posts, I will post some techniques to handle effective communications in the context of emotional intelligence.
Let me share a practical scenario that we all might have encountered in our professional life. Usually during any brainstorming session people get argumentative and emotions run high. It becomes difficult for the facilitator to keep discussions on track. What you can try is to pause discussions and ask people to share what kind of emotion they are feeling and why. Once people recognize their emotional state and get some time to reflect on it, they tend to think more rationally and emotionally charged arguments settle down. Give a small break and then continue with the discussion. Chances are that you will have much more fruitful brainstorming.
Let me know your experiences...