15 years ago
Wednesday, June 8, 2011
Saturday, January 2, 2010
Journey from 2009 to 2010
What was my achievement in 2009? When I look back at my life and take stock of the value of my existance, most of it was to work towards being a better mother. I am a career women. Not a very ambitious one, but I do love working and I especially enjoyed working in my organization. Being a working mother, I have gone through moments with pangs of guilt hitting me, especially because my younger daughter had to be at my home town Delhi, 2000 km away and we missed having each other all to ourselves.
My younger daughter is in 12th, the last lap of high school. I knew she will not be able to sail through with positive mindset if I were not available for her right there besides her. What did I want to achieve trying to give my child best education if she were to resent my absence in future. I guess part of education was to be with your family when they need you, whatever it takes. I knew I had to leave my job in order to do that because my organization did not have a division in Delhi.
I also explored various options that did not involve having to resign. I spoke with my collegues, my manager, our center head, the HR. Eventually my organization made way for me, wrote a policy especially for cases such as mine, and let me go for an year. I was indebted. This one year was the year to bond, to serve my relationship with my family and let me do the right thing.
There was a lot to do. Not only did the living condition of my delhi house had to improve, I had to improve too. We never realize it clearly, but we grow along with the children. When I shifted to delhi with my family, I was forced to look into every nook and corner of my personality, which was so tuned to being a working person with no growth on the emotional side which caters to the children's needs. There is an extra degree of sensitivity, another dimension which, if not used, can result in missing out a range of emotional development, which impacts our children irrevocably.
I was lucky. My father taught me how to give positive environment to allow expression of thoughts. I used those skills at home. As a result, my daughter gave me feedback on expectations and gaps in my attitude, perceptions, and organization skills which came as a huge surprise to me. First, on the capability of teenagers to think, the multiple dimensions, and the depth of their thought process. I kept tweaking and improving. Yet not there, but now we share a mother-daughter relationship which has a healthy future. Good memories, give and take, emotional support and involvement are the gifts of last years' hard work. I also am able to bond better with my elder daughter, who is finishing college at another city.
I am sure, my sensible daughters will be positive and constructive in their corresponding lives. This is what education is all about. One third of life's education, is given by parents, another by institutions and the rest by experience and learning. The right attitude, a sense of fairness, excellence in whatever you do, being competitive, but with self, to improve constantly, learn, develop emotional capability to respond to change, healthy lifestyle are some elements of leading a satisfactory life and contribute positively to the society. When you are true to yourself, everything else becomes easy.
I keep discovering more milestones in my life and at every milestone that I reach, I see new ones. This new year has affirmed my belief that one who keeps mind open, adapts and grows is never a loser. A very Happy new year 2010 to all who read this.
My younger daughter is in 12th, the last lap of high school. I knew she will not be able to sail through with positive mindset if I were not available for her right there besides her. What did I want to achieve trying to give my child best education if she were to resent my absence in future. I guess part of education was to be with your family when they need you, whatever it takes. I knew I had to leave my job in order to do that because my organization did not have a division in Delhi.
I also explored various options that did not involve having to resign. I spoke with my collegues, my manager, our center head, the HR. Eventually my organization made way for me, wrote a policy especially for cases such as mine, and let me go for an year. I was indebted. This one year was the year to bond, to serve my relationship with my family and let me do the right thing.
There was a lot to do. Not only did the living condition of my delhi house had to improve, I had to improve too. We never realize it clearly, but we grow along with the children. When I shifted to delhi with my family, I was forced to look into every nook and corner of my personality, which was so tuned to being a working person with no growth on the emotional side which caters to the children's needs. There is an extra degree of sensitivity, another dimension which, if not used, can result in missing out a range of emotional development, which impacts our children irrevocably.
I was lucky. My father taught me how to give positive environment to allow expression of thoughts. I used those skills at home. As a result, my daughter gave me feedback on expectations and gaps in my attitude, perceptions, and organization skills which came as a huge surprise to me. First, on the capability of teenagers to think, the multiple dimensions, and the depth of their thought process. I kept tweaking and improving. Yet not there, but now we share a mother-daughter relationship which has a healthy future. Good memories, give and take, emotional support and involvement are the gifts of last years' hard work. I also am able to bond better with my elder daughter, who is finishing college at another city.
I am sure, my sensible daughters will be positive and constructive in their corresponding lives. This is what education is all about. One third of life's education, is given by parents, another by institutions and the rest by experience and learning. The right attitude, a sense of fairness, excellence in whatever you do, being competitive, but with self, to improve constantly, learn, develop emotional capability to respond to change, healthy lifestyle are some elements of leading a satisfactory life and contribute positively to the society. When you are true to yourself, everything else becomes easy.
I keep discovering more milestones in my life and at every milestone that I reach, I see new ones. This new year has affirmed my belief that one who keeps mind open, adapts and grows is never a loser. A very Happy new year 2010 to all who read this.
Saturday, November 22, 2008
Thinking Out-of-Box
When you hear the string of words "out-of-box", what is your first reaction?
The reactions could be
"I wish I had the time, can be done in leisure"
"I always think out-of-box"
"I have never been able to figure out this term "
"Oh! R&D, six-sigma, process group etc should be doing this, that’s their job"
"Another management cliché!! Means nothing in practical life."
"You need to be a genius to be able to do that." Etc etc…
I guess understanding what exactly is “out-of-box thinking” is the first step towards it. Lets see.
Out-of-box is “Moving Out of Your Comfort Zone to Find Innovative Solutions”
What is comfort zone in the first place? A simple check on this is to ask your-self following questions:
Is today like yesterday? Isn’t the world changing constantly? Am I adaptable? If I lived a hundred years hence, would I be able to survive staying within my current comfort zone? What has made progress possible, is it a coincidence or sheer innovation? Am I living in a comfort zone innovated by some one else? What is my contribution to it? If home/organization/world were to depend on me, would I still stick to my comfort zone or step right out of it? All right, enough of introspection.
The next question is, can everyone think out-of-box. The answer is, yes!!… But how does one do so? To start with, look for symptoms of falling into comfort zone.
Have you fallen into routine and depend on it, so much that it disturbs your mind frame if your routine is disturbed?
The first step is, break your routine. Staying within the circle makes you blind to everything outside it. Challenge yourself constantly. It will give you something only you can earn…confidence and belief in yourself. Belief, that you can manage every change with positive attitude. Solutions might be close by, albeit lying just outside the circle. Stepping out of your mind’s closed circle makes out-of-box thinking possible.
If you think the above is sufficient to make you reach out to goals, think again, out of box…
You may have the skill and capacity, but you will need expertise and knowledge, and most importantly, motivation, the drive from within to make you truly creative and an out-of-box thinker.
This is the first of the series of posts on this topic. Happy self-discovery.
The reactions could be
"I wish I had the time, can be done in leisure"
"I always think out-of-box"
"I have never been able to figure out this term "
"Oh! R&D, six-sigma, process group etc should be doing this, that’s their job"
"Another management cliché!! Means nothing in practical life."
"You need to be a genius to be able to do that." Etc etc…
I guess understanding what exactly is “out-of-box thinking” is the first step towards it. Lets see.
Out-of-box is “Moving Out of Your Comfort Zone to Find Innovative Solutions”
What is comfort zone in the first place? A simple check on this is to ask your-self following questions:
Is today like yesterday? Isn’t the world changing constantly? Am I adaptable? If I lived a hundred years hence, would I be able to survive staying within my current comfort zone? What has made progress possible, is it a coincidence or sheer innovation? Am I living in a comfort zone innovated by some one else? What is my contribution to it? If home/organization/world were to depend on me, would I still stick to my comfort zone or step right out of it? All right, enough of introspection.
The next question is, can everyone think out-of-box. The answer is, yes!!… But how does one do so? To start with, look for symptoms of falling into comfort zone.
Have you fallen into routine and depend on it, so much that it disturbs your mind frame if your routine is disturbed?
The first step is, break your routine. Staying within the circle makes you blind to everything outside it. Challenge yourself constantly. It will give you something only you can earn…confidence and belief in yourself. Belief, that you can manage every change with positive attitude. Solutions might be close by, albeit lying just outside the circle. Stepping out of your mind’s closed circle makes out-of-box thinking possible.
If you think the above is sufficient to make you reach out to goals, think again, out of box…
You may have the skill and capacity, but you will need expertise and knowledge, and most importantly, motivation, the drive from within to make you truly creative and an out-of-box thinker.
This is the first of the series of posts on this topic. Happy self-discovery.
Tuesday, October 21, 2008
Work life Balance
Recently one of my network friends posed a question on how I balance my work and life. This actually forced me to dig into my memories on how actually did I manage over all of my 23 years post marriage. I remember, after my first daughter, I became somewhat of a perfectionist. I always wanted things so perfect that I forgot to enjoy little things. Then, after a weary one year, on my husband's advice, I started to prioritize work based on 80 -20 principle.
There were things I would aim at 100 percent such as health and hygiene, rest I would trade off with small moments here and there to keep space in which I give vent to my creative side. This allowed me to pursue my multiple interests such as stitch dresses for my kids, make them soft toys, have surprise outings with family, help children with studies, do furniture painting, glass painting and many small things such as hand painting terracotta lamps for Diwali festival, the festival of lights in India, making lantern frames with colored butter paper and bamboo strips and so on. The challenge was to have my kids participate in these events, give them fun filled learning. This amounted to more quality time than ever. They developed keen sense of planning, design and an appetite to take on challenges, which is definitely reflecting now.
Though I studied project management much later, somehow I always planned activities on paper, identified and budgeted things to be shopped, planned sequence of their construction, at the same time, did things iteratively, so it took me 2-3 cycles to plan and identify sequence of things to do. While I executed two activities, I planned the two other. Keeping a list of things to do gave me perspective and prioritizing and re-prioritizing always helped absorb all un-expected events. I aimed at reviewing my list once before I would retire for the day, which made the next day easy on my nerves.
There are quite a few things that I could have done better. Cooking was one of them. Though my family resigned and adjusted their taste buds to my cooking, I know, things could have been better. I do see my younger daughter filling that gap. She tries to cook recipes and turn it into something that looks more like the picture in the cookbook.
I have tried this and believe it to be possible. As a working mother, in order to make most of whatever time I had with my family, I tried to turn even simple things into an event. So, for example, when we know there is a good movie on TV, we convert the time to be shared into an event and generate so much excitement preparing popcorns, cooking in advance or just call for a pizza, throw all cushions into place and sit together and watch the movie. I really enjoy taking up challenges, and I do put some thought into it to turn it into an event for my family wherein I share my challenges, take their inputs, give them ownership of some activities. Believe me, it’s a beautiful experience to see them rise to occasion and actually work as a team.
I prefer to relate work life balance with an investment, happy memories being the interest accrued. These memories always give strength to you at difficult times and people around you will wonder why and how can you smile against the odds.
Keep smiling.
There were things I would aim at 100 percent such as health and hygiene, rest I would trade off with small moments here and there to keep space in which I give vent to my creative side. This allowed me to pursue my multiple interests such as stitch dresses for my kids, make them soft toys, have surprise outings with family, help children with studies, do furniture painting, glass painting and many small things such as hand painting terracotta lamps for Diwali festival, the festival of lights in India, making lantern frames with colored butter paper and bamboo strips and so on. The challenge was to have my kids participate in these events, give them fun filled learning. This amounted to more quality time than ever. They developed keen sense of planning, design and an appetite to take on challenges, which is definitely reflecting now.
Though I studied project management much later, somehow I always planned activities on paper, identified and budgeted things to be shopped, planned sequence of their construction, at the same time, did things iteratively, so it took me 2-3 cycles to plan and identify sequence of things to do. While I executed two activities, I planned the two other. Keeping a list of things to do gave me perspective and prioritizing and re-prioritizing always helped absorb all un-expected events. I aimed at reviewing my list once before I would retire for the day, which made the next day easy on my nerves.
There are quite a few things that I could have done better. Cooking was one of them. Though my family resigned and adjusted their taste buds to my cooking, I know, things could have been better. I do see my younger daughter filling that gap. She tries to cook recipes and turn it into something that looks more like the picture in the cookbook.
I have tried this and believe it to be possible. As a working mother, in order to make most of whatever time I had with my family, I tried to turn even simple things into an event. So, for example, when we know there is a good movie on TV, we convert the time to be shared into an event and generate so much excitement preparing popcorns, cooking in advance or just call for a pizza, throw all cushions into place and sit together and watch the movie. I really enjoy taking up challenges, and I do put some thought into it to turn it into an event for my family wherein I share my challenges, take their inputs, give them ownership of some activities. Believe me, it’s a beautiful experience to see them rise to occasion and actually work as a team.
I prefer to relate work life balance with an investment, happy memories being the interest accrued. These memories always give strength to you at difficult times and people around you will wonder why and how can you smile against the odds.
Keep smiling.
Sunday, October 12, 2008
The beauty of the new world, the network!!
Since I was introduced to the networking world (I call it a world because its not land space, its cyber space or virtual and has slightly different dynamics compared to the actual world, which I will elaborate on later) I wonder, in how many ways people relate to it. To be specific, each one of us has a unique view of whatever we relate with so this may be applicable to networking too. For example, some view it as a way to find companionship, some find it a medium to self expression, some use it specifically for business purposes, some for quest for knowledge.
I guess the real world was the same initially. We all had our own skies, our own unique perceptions. Our own ample space to explore and cater to our unique needs. We flowed with the nature of real world, became part of it. This was when the humankind was in harmony with nature.
Then came excesses. Human kind no longer flowed with the nature, they dominated it, led it, tried to control it, and was successful in manipulating and impacting it to change abnormally. They had the power to make nature's most beautiful species go extinct. Humankind themselves struggle to survive not the nature but each other.
Today's networking world is exactly how real world was thousands of years ago. There are wonderful entities floating around, free to have their own sky. If we are smart enough in real sense, we will keep this world harmless, free of manipulations, destruction and misuse. We could use the lessons learnt from the real world. Destruction is real and starts in very small ways. Each of us can contribute to protecting this wonderful dynamic world of networking and can start with showing respect and retaining trust.
I guess the real world was the same initially. We all had our own skies, our own unique perceptions. Our own ample space to explore and cater to our unique needs. We flowed with the nature of real world, became part of it. This was when the humankind was in harmony with nature.
Then came excesses. Human kind no longer flowed with the nature, they dominated it, led it, tried to control it, and was successful in manipulating and impacting it to change abnormally. They had the power to make nature's most beautiful species go extinct. Humankind themselves struggle to survive not the nature but each other.
Today's networking world is exactly how real world was thousands of years ago. There are wonderful entities floating around, free to have their own sky. If we are smart enough in real sense, we will keep this world harmless, free of manipulations, destruction and misuse. We could use the lessons learnt from the real world. Destruction is real and starts in very small ways. Each of us can contribute to protecting this wonderful dynamic world of networking and can start with showing respect and retaining trust.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
