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Inspiration, the weekly capsules of
inspiration
Brain is the most powerful organ in a human body. Every
single idea and every single invention on earth has originated from the human
mind. James Allen in his masterpiece ‘As
a Man Thinketh’ has said “Mind
is the master power that molds and makes, and Man is mind, and ever more he
takes the Tool of Thought, and shaping what he wills, brings forth a thousand
joys, thousand ills-He thinks in secret
and it comes to pass; Environment is but his looking glass.” Deeply profound. Just re-read his words if you
didn’t feel the same in your first reading :)
Our mind has infinite potential. I was watching this YouTube
video ‘The Amazing Power of Your Mind’ which says, an average computer can
store over 250,000 pictures, 20,000 songs and hundreds of full length movies
where as our mind can perform 10 Quadrillion (10 to the power 15) operations per second without we knowing it. Amazing! Albert Einstein, the Greatest Scientist of 20th
century is said to have used about 20% of his mind. It is a sad fact that most
of us die without using even 1% of our mind.
Success in our personal and professional ventures depends a
lot on how we train our mind and what we feed our mind with. Shifting gears, this
Sunday, I share with you the correlation of our mind with the success in
future. I wrote this letter to the Employees on Tuesday, May 13, 2014 I hope you will like it. :)
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A Whole New Mind
A very Good Morning to one and all,
I hope you have started your
week most enthusiastically. In his book, the seven habits of highly effective
people, Steven Covey writes “We see the
world, not as it is, but as we are──or, as we are conditioned to see it.”
That is to say we perceive outer experiences through a filter made of our
beliefs, rules, values and ways of being. For instance, whatever I write is my
perception of the world. It may or may not be fully correct. While I never aim
for perfection, Excellence is what I strive for. A feedback on how I can
improve (as a team person, as a writer, importantly as a Leader) is most
welcome. A treat guaranteed when we meet in person :)
Today, I want to share insights
from Daniel Pink’s book ‘A whole new mind’. The book suggests the
future belongs to the Right Brainers i.e. the people with Right handed
mindset – viz the creators, artists, empathizers, pattern recognizers, and
meaning makers. The left brainers who are more of a logical and linear thinker
will be left behind. If I have to illustrate in terms of Profession, in
the new age the Artists will dominate over the MBAs, CAs, and Engineers for
often these are the people who create new things which do not exist earlier
than the heavy Degree holders who work as directed or who at most leverage the
existing things. Richard Branson, Steve Jobs, and Oprah Winfrey are all said to
be right brain dominant.
Before I dig further, Let me
briefly explain the dynamics of the most important organ of our body, the
Brain. Our brain has two parts: the left hemisphere and the right hemisphere. Each
side of the brain controls different types of thinking. Additionally, people
are said to prefer one type of thinking over the other. For example, a person who is "left-brained" is
often said to be more logical, analytical, and objective, while a person who is
"right-brained" is said to be more intuitive, thoughtful, and
subjective. Some of the abilities that are popularly associated with the
right side of the brain are Creativity, Imagination, Holistic thinking,
intuition, arts, rhythm, feelings, visualization, tune of songs, and day
dreaming While some of the abilities of left side of the brain are logical
and analytical thinking, sequencing, linear, mathematics, language, facts, and
so on.
Good news is the right brain
muscles can be built upon practice. Daniel Pink believes that while
we need to maintain out L-directed skills we should master six essential right
directed aptitudes namely: Design, Story, Symphony, Empathy, Play and
Meaning. With the description of these six senses the writer has tapped
into the subtle shifts that will shape our future. Let me present to you these
six aptitudes briefly. The idea is to consider each of these ‘senses’ one at a time per
day and think how you can improve in that particular area and try to apply it
into your work and personal life. Further, remember having an idea but not
implementing is as good as not having the idea as noted author and speaker
Robin Sharma says ideation without execution leads to delusion.
Design: Good design is essential to good products and R-directed
thinking allows us to understand how people use products in order to make
products better. As a Tester or Developer, How you can improve in your piece of
design. It may be say designing architecture, presenting solutions, Test
Planning, Report preparation, anything. Think about it.
Story: Pink describes story as “context enriched by emotion”.
Story is how information has traditionally been passed from one generation to
another. Even though facts are now available instantly and virtually for free,
story will remain important because of the emotional Impact. It’s the emotional
element that makes Information stick. Think of ways how you can present your
story at work and in personal life.
Symphony: As Pink says, “Symphony is largely about
relationships.” The Conceptual Age will reward those who can see
connections between seemingly unrelated areas for example someone who applies
their knowledge of say arts to business concepts.
Empathy: The concept of being able to enter someone else’s
“shoes” has always been considered an essential leadership attribute, but this
ability will be in even higher demand in the future. Empathy is simply Going
beyond logic and engaging emotion and intuition.
Play: In simple terms I would say do you find fun in your
work? If not, think of ways how you can make your work more interesting? Work
on ways to bring humor and light-heartedness to your work.
Meaning: The purpose is the journey, give meaning to life from
inside yourself. Ask yourself what am I here for, what is my Purpose on Earth?
I hope this email has helped you
to think of ways to strengthen your right-brain and there by prepare yourself
for the Challenge of future. All the Best!
All of you have a Productive
Week ahead!
1000 Thank you’s and Best
Wishes,
Narendra Gupta
The mind is not a vessel to be
filled, but a fire to be kindled. - Plutarch
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