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DISCOVER YOUR TRUE CALLING

Posted in Philosophy on 11/12/2009 05:56 pm by Sudhakar Ram

DISCOVER YOUR TRUE CALLING
www.TheNewConstructs.com
 
“Your profession is not what brings home your paycheck. Your profession is what you were put on earth to do. With such passion and such intensity that it becomes spiritual in calling” ' Virgil

I was invited to speak to the students at the Indian Institute of Management in Ahmedabad earlier this year as a part of its CEO on campus program. I thought long and hard about how to deliver the best value to these bright youngsters in a two-hour session. First, I wanted to share with them my own experience:  success is not about building a career, but about pursuing one's true calling. With the top global and Indian companies wooing them, it is easy for any IIM graduate to be lured by material trappings, and to confuse money or job titles with the true success of long-term personal and professional growth. I came up with a simple tool that people can use to discover their true calling.

Every person has a unique gift or talent that's his or her essence. Most of us spend a lifetime without  discovering or acknowledging this essence. Our education system, which is based on the principles of mass production, does not allow our unique gifts or talents to flower. As a result, we half-heartedly pursue a job or a career that does not completely and totally engage us.

The first step  is to discover our true gift. For some it may be music or dance. For others, it could be being a great friend or an empathetic listener. Someone else might be a great organizer. For me, it is seeing the big picture.

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Maybe you already know your unique talent. But most of us don't. One way to start is by asking friends and family to identify your unique talent.  The next step is to discover our platform to excel. Our unique talent may have many applications in the real world. For example, an empathetic listener could excel as a social worker. Or she may choose to be an HR person. Or opt to be a counselor. The choices are many. It is left to each person's imagination and preference. It is also likely to vary over one's lifetime. The key word here is excel. The drive should be to deliver a meaningful contribution, not merely a mediocre performance.


The third step is to be clear about our own measures of success. Too often, we blindly follow someone else's measure of success and feel disappointed. The Industrial Era, with its drive for standardization and scale, reduced success to a single dimension ' money. The measures of success in the Connected Age, however, will be more diverse, based not only on money but also on the ability to create global communities around your specific interests and passions. Individual financial achievement will still be important, but true success will include two other measures ' the your  community recognition and your social contribution.

Our true calling falls at the intersection of these three facets. When we pursue our true calling, we align who we really are, how we express ourselves in the world, and our goals and aspirations. In Jean-Paul Sartre's terms, our Being drives our Doing leading to our Having the success that we aspire for. As with martial arts, this alignment of body, mind and spirit leads helps us produce the highest impact with minimal effort or stress.
New Constructs is your resource to actively engage not only in discovering your own calling but also that of your organization, your country and your world. Stay tuned.

Long Live the Earth.

Sudhakar Ram

Lead Anchor , Author

www.TheNewConstructs.com


 

Concerns About Genetically Modified Food

Posted in Genetically Modified Food, Technology on 11/10/2009 12:04 pm by Sudhakar Ram

“Bt brinjal (eggplant) gets biotech regulator's approval', said the headline in an Indian newspaper.
 
The story went on to report that a key government committee has cleared the way for the first genetically modified food crop in the country. The company producing the genetically-modified eggplant seed says it has been tested for nine years and is fully compliant with guidelines and directives issued by government regulators. They claim that a million farmers will benefit because this strain of brinjal has been engineered to resist common pests that have hindered production in recent years.

Greenpeace India has questioned the bio-safety of this product and asked the government to hit pause and hold off on the commercial sale of this seed. Greenpeace commissioned a study by a prominent French scientist, who concluded that Bt Brinjal may present a serious risk to human and animal health.

Further, environmentalists like Vandana Shiva of the Navadanya movement have objected to genetically-engineered foods for fear of damage to surrounding land. The only other genetically-modified crop in India is a non-food, cotton, and it has increased costs to farmers. 

Shiva and other environmentalists also warn of the ingenuity of nature; pest mutations and strains can break through specific genetic modifications. In addition, moralists argue that seeds are nature's gift to mankind and should not be subject to profiteering by large corporations at the cost of individual consumers and farmers.

How do we, as lay people, react to this debate? I have watched e-mail exchanges on Yahoo groups and noted that while a few people raise concerns, for most of us science is like religion. We barely know enough to understand the positive and negative impact. Many of us view these developments as unstoppable. Helplessly, we are willing to live with the consequences.

To me, genetically modified foods are problematic for several reasons. First, the human body is incredibly complex.  I don't think science understands the way the body works in the same we understand, say, how an automobile works. As an example, on something as basic as our diet, there are varying opinions on the impact of carbohydrates, fats and proteins. We embrace diets that later turn out to be bad for us. Many people know more about what grade of gasoline to put in our cars than what food to put into our bodies.

Second, any impact of genetically modified food on the body could be long-term and difficult to identify. Only after decades of smoking have we realized the ill-effects of cigarettes. Even seemingly rigorous testing has not prevented the release of harmful drugs like Vioxx. In effect, the health of a billion Indians depends on a handful of scientists who are paid by the government to review mounds of data produced by many more scientists paid by drug and food companies.

Third, the best data links intensive, industrial farming using chemicals '" fertilizers and pesticides '" with soil erosion; the reduction in fertility rates; and barrenness of farmlands.

I recently met Nammalwar, an agricultural scientist who has dedicated his life to promoting ecological farming. He makes a compelling case for going back to nature's zero-waste design of growing crops, trees and animals in a farm '" and allowing the waste of one species to act as a food for the other. His own experiences have shown that ecological farming, at a fraction of the cost, produces much higher yields per hectare than intensive farming.

Human beings have a much shorter time on this planet than the flora and fauna. Until a few centuries back, we battled nature but did not have the weapons to do much damage. Unfortunately, the last two hundred years have led to environmental weapons of mass destruction.

We need a different approach to deciding on the fate of future generations '" an approach that is holistic, inclusive and sustainable. Can we really afford to leave it to the hands of a few scientists, economists and politicians? It's up to us. It's up to you. What do you think? Share your thoughts and get involved.

The New Constructs is an initiative to leverage Connected Intelligence in realizing the Connected Age. Please feel free to comment. We look forward to your active participation. Join the discussion on Facebook. Follow us on Twitter.
 

INDEPENDENCE - THE FIRST STEP

Posted in Philosophy on 11/09/2009 04:08 pm by Sudhakar Ram

INDEPENDENCE - THE FIRST STEP


"Independence is loyalty to one's best self and principles, and this is often disloyalty to general idols and fetishes." Mark Twain


Based on my studies, my experiences and my own reflections, I see human development as a journey ' a steep climb from dependence to independence to interdependence to transcendence.  This lifetime journey begins at birth, when we are dependent on our parents and other loved ones.


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The process of becoming physically independent is almost automatic with age. It is a natural part of growing up, and for most of us it comes easily. As we pass through childhood and adolescence and become adults, many of us also manage to become financially independent ' and that usually takes some concentrated effort. We take up jobs, move out of our parents' homes, get married and have children ' steps toward taking responsibility for our own lives as well as for the family members who are now dependent on us. For many, our quest for independence ends here.


However, being human is not only about physical and material development. We need to develop emotionally and intellectually.  Emotionally, many of us remain dependent ' letting situations around us control our emotions. We cannot claim to be independent when we still allow ordinary events ' traffic jams, forgetful spouses, colleague missing deadlines at work, unreasonable clients ' to trigger feelings of anger, frustration, helplessness or despair. If we are not masters of our emotions, can we really be masters of our own destiny?



Emotional maturity or independence is not about trying to control what happens to us. Rather it is about how we respond to what happens to us. It is freedom of choice in how we react to adverse circumstances. We can lash out, as we might have done as children, or we can choose to be reasoned and thoughtful and positive about moving forward. In my workshops on discovering one's true calling, I borrow a tool from 'The Art of Possibility' by Ben and Rosamund Zander. I ask participants to invoke the feeling of 'How Wonderful' whenever they are in a bad situation. For example, imagine you are late to an important meeting because a flight was delayed. Can you experience it as a wonderful moment? Imagine your child is embarrassing you by throwing a tantrum in public. Can you see that as wonderful?



Most participants  look at me as if I'm crazy. "That would be like lying to myself," the say. "Even if I say a situation isn't so bad, it's still a bad situation. It doesn't go away." As we workshop this idea further, they concede that they are more likely to come up with creative responses when they are in a good mood than when they are angry and upset. They also see how a frustrating situation could actually be a wonderful opportunity to learn something new or generate some creative ideas. They walk away thinking, "Hmm, I wonder if that might work. I'm going to try it "


Moving on to intellectual development, de Tocqueville remarked on how Americans have so little independence of mind but so much freedom of discussion. I don't think this lack of independence in thought is unique to Americans. It's a worldwide phenomenon. Starting from our schooldays, we are taught answers to questions that we don't even have. We are led to believe that there is one right answer and that there is some expert somewhere who has figured it out. As we grow into adults, we are brainwashed by the media, the marketing messages and the political propaganda; we live in the comfort of never having to exercise our intellect. In the Middle Ages, religion forced humanity into a set of beliefs. In today's times, we accept the supposed wisdom of scientists and pseudo-scientists - like economists - without much question.


Intellectual independence calls for applying discerning thought to how we interpret the world around us. It calls for accessing our moral compass and fundamental principles, as Mark Twain said, in generating the appropriate actions. It calls for integrity and alignment in thought, word and deed.
New Constructs is an initiative to promote independence in all facets of life in our journey to create an interdependent, connected world. How are you progressing through your life? What suggestions do you have for the rest of us in our lifetime journeys? Please share. Stay active, stay engaged.


Long live the earth,


Sudhakar Ram


Lead Anchor


www.TheNewConstructs.com


 
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