© Vijaykumar V 2024
Personal Growth
It is not about Physics, Chemistry and Mathematics anymore. This is what they teach us in school. Biology, Computer Science and Economics. These are still needed. But not sufficient. Yes, we need to understand the physical world. We need some control over nature. We need to probe more into the living world and beyond. The sciences provide us with awe and wonder. They also serve a huge practical purpose in making life a lot better. But in today’s day and age, in the 21st century, is it enough if we just master these?
For those who are in their forties to sixties, they will remember going through a simple life at home when they were young. Enough food, sport, learning and some television. That is the good part. There was probably some abuse too. A strict, military style father or father figure. Plenty of authority and control. Throw in some affection to confuse matters. These left an indelible mark in the mind. These stay for a long time. Our likes, interests and decisions are governed by these experiences. We choose a career based on our childhood patterns and personality. We are far more left brain than right. That is what the system teaches us. Going to a foreign country changes things a bit or in some cases more. We take up new personality traits. Not exactly integrated but absorbed. These are good and bad. I have seen so many leaders who are not grown. I work for a company called Resolve. Its CEO Mark Ashton talks about this theory where the world is governed by maniacs and abusers who constitute a mere 10% of the population. These are not mature people at all. They don’t know anything deeply. They just work hard and drive others. And most of us fall prey to our desires and ambitions. We are hugely conditioned by the society.
What is the salvation from this predicament? Is there a way out of this? Towards a better way of life? Well the answer is probably. There are huge problems in the world. You know about them. It is not possible to live healthy in this world. But we can start the transformation somewhere. Mark posted a note today and I concur with what he quoted. “As a business founder/leader, if you’re not growing personally at a faster rate than your business then it is likely to flounder and may well fail in due course.” This is an important statement. What it means is come hell or high water, we have got to take personal growth seriously. If we are leaders or will be at some point we have got to able to navigate the rough waters of business more skilfully than ever in the known history of the world. There are demands of all sorts. Technical, people, ethics and environmental to name a few, while running our lives and business. We have to evolve. We need a different vision and an overarching philosophy. We need to stay healthy. And not miss the goal of happiness and contentment.
I am currently mentoring an American friend who loves my insights. If you want personal growth please contact.
We live in times where the old sheet-anchors of tradition, customs, religion, culture, family, workplace and community are not supporting us anymore. People both in India and abroad are living meaningless and pointless lives. Paradoxically these times also offer us several insights in the form of research and teachings such as that of the Enneagram. Psycho-spirituality and the personal growth the Enneagram supports get people to think, reflect, contemplate and meditate for the first time. Young men and women find some solace in these teachings away from the usual rut of workplace and community strife. Spending some time with this literature awakens the person’s intelligence and makes him and her more capable of facing the threats and complexities of modern life. In the above you will find a post shared by me on LinkedIn as reflections and commentaries on living. These are meant to encourage you to take up some form of spiritual teachings to uplift your life and grow as big as an oak tree from the small kernel that you are now.