Challenge Yourself

One of the things that created a sensation through social media, a few years back, is the Ice Bucket Challenge, which involves dumping a bucket of ice water on someone's head to promote awareness of the disease Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS).  Just when people across the globe were pouring tonnes of ice on their heads through the ice bucket challenge, a bunch of youngsters in Hyderabad city came out with an idea of Rice bucket challenge towards feeding the needy. 

Quiet Interesting! The trends of the modern world, in creating a hype even around a social awareness campaign makes it interesting and catches the public attention. This is the way, we can get the younger generation interested in something. Traditional methods don't seem to work.

The idea of challenge excites people. It triggers the adrenaline rush and people perform to their maximum potential. There are so many popular TV shows, based on the concept of challenging to do something extraordinary or daring to do something weird. There is a thrill and sense of accomplishment, attached to these types of events.

While these type of externally stimulated challenges are interesting, these could just be a fad and may not be long lasting. Whereas, if we need to bring about a sustainable positive change, we need to look into the possibility of stimulating internal challenges. This is something all of us can do. Let us say we need to discipline ourselves on certain areas, rather than holding on to it as just as a wishful thinking we can convert it as a challenge we give to ourselves. These types of internal challenges, when accomplished may not win the recognition or appreciation of the world around us, but it will sure be a morale booster to our own self esteem.

Challenges are not the big resolutions that we make on a New Year eve. They are just small targets we keep setting for ourselves day in and day out, and feel a sense of pride when we accomplish it. It is these small accomplishments that make us feel worthy of being able to achieve something bigger in life. Just for an example, here is a typical list of some of the challenges, I have given to myself.

• To wake up at 5:00am,  every morning no matter at what time I go to bed.

• To go for a 45 minute walk          as a part of my fitness regime.

• To send a “Thought for the  day” to my circle of friends every morning

• To write an article for my in-house magazine “PALMS PLUS” every month.

If I don’t accomplish any of these, nobody is going to question me, as to why I have not done it, but I take it as a sense of personal integrity. When I fail in any one of these, I fall before my own eyes. And it hurts.

I believe that by integrating such type of internal challenges in our life, we can make our life not only interesting, but also rewarding. The rewards are in the form of developing a healthy life style and inculcating some good habits that would last a life time.

Here is one challenge, I gave to myself quiet recently.  I asked myself, why not I share a quick review of the android apps I use on my mobile phone with my WhatsApp circle of friends.  I felt that it would be of use to many of my friends, who use an android phone. So, I decided to write a brief note of some of the apps, that I found useful and started sending it out as a WhatsApp message with a prefix “App of the day”, for the next 31 days at a stretch. It was not a pre-planned idea. It started just like that. No one asked me to do it. There was no compulsion. There was no obligation. There were no rewards for doing it, neither any punishments for not doing it. It was just a thought in my mind and I decided to put this little pressure on myself. The result of this challenge, I was able to create a new article titled “31 Useful Android Apps”.

When we challenge ourselves on something or other, it not only makes us more competent, but also helps us to become more confident. Challenge yourself and enjoy the rewards of your own challenges!

  D. Senthil Kannan,

  Managing Trustee, PALMS, Tuticorin.

  Author of "Transformational Thoughts" - A Journey of learning 

  Email: senthilkannand@gmail.com

 

The Minimalist Approach

“Remember this: Very little is needed to make a happy life”.
 -Marcus Aurelius, Roman Emperor 161 - 180AD.

A few years back, I bought a DVD Tutorial on how to make great PowerPoint presentations. The tutorial introduced me to a concept called “Minimalistic approach”. The key message conveyed through this concept was that when making a presentation, we should keep the key idea of the presentation intact and eliminate all the unwanted frills, attached to it. I found that concept appealing.

 

Recently, I went to a resort near Kanyakumari and there too, I found a statement saying that, “This resort is designed based on the ideals of minimalism”. Notably, I observed that most of the building work in the resort, did not look fully finished, like walls had no cement plastering, floors remained just cemented without any glazed tiles and so on. This I understood was the ideology of minimalism that they were talking about.

 

This word “minimalism” caught my interest, and I wanted to explore more about it. Obviously, I typed the word “minimalistic approach” in Google and was amazed to discover that minimalism is not just a concept of design but a way of life.

 

So, what is minimalism all about? Minimalism is an approach to rid yourself of life’s excess in favour of focusing on what’s important—so you can find happiness, fulfilment, and freedom.

 

We all want to be happy. We tend to find happiness by creating material abundance, which rarely serves the purpose. The more we have, even more is our need. It is a never ending vicious cycle. Time and again, we hear stories of billionaires, who lead a miserable life. Many people are busy trying to prove to the world, what they are capable of and in the process end up straining their health and relationships. This is clear indication that money and fame, alone cannot buy them happiness. You need good health and good relationships to enjoy life.

 

Minimalism is a “U-turn” approach. Minimalists search for happiness not through things, but through life itself. The starting point to this change is to determine what is necessary and what is superfluous in our life. Once we find this clarity we can stay more focussed on what really matters in our life and avoid the clutter of being messed up with too many things and activities. By doing so we will be less time pressed and money pressed.

 

Minimalist focuses on quality and not quantity. They are choosy about the thing they buy, but cherish it. They are choosy about the things they do, but they do it with passion and perfection. They are prudent in the use of resources, such as time, money and things. They believe that there is a need to pause and enjoy the things we have, rather than continuing to accumulating more and more things.

 

I also found a website, www.theminimalists.com, which is created by two friends who have taken up the ideology of minimalism and through this portal, they share how better their life has become, after they have adopted this approach. They say that, being a minimalist can help us:

 

• Eliminate our discontent

• Reclaim our time

• Live in the moment 

• Discover our life purpose

• Pursue our passion

• Experience real freedom

• Create more, consume less

• Focus on our health

• Grow as individuals

• Rid ourselves of excess stuff

• Contribute beyond ourselves    

·               

Their life revolves around the philosophy, “Have little and cherish it. Do little and enjoy it”. While this may sound anti-ambitious. It is not so. It is about living the life you desire and being focussed on what is important to you, and working towards achieving it.

   D. Senthil Kannan,

   Managing Trustee, PALMS, Tuticorin.

   Author of "Transformational Thoughts" - A Journey of learning 

   Email: senthilkannand@gmail.com

 

An Average Child Is No One’s Child

 

Of the many factors, that decide the academic success of a student, what we can identify as two predominant traits are his INTELLIGENCE level and ENERGY level. Energy could also mean, one’s level of self motivation. So, this gives way to a matrix which can be something like this:

 

Type 1:  High Intelligence + High Energy = Brilliant Student

Type 2:  Low Intelligence + Low Energy   = Dull Student

Type 3:  High Intelligence + Low Energy  = Average Student

Type 4:  Low Intelligence + High Energy  = Aggressive/ Adamant Student

 

Though we tend to believe that God created all equally, it is not true. We see difference in colour, character, and also the intelligence level. Psychologists classify children as Gifted children, Special Child and Normal Child.

 

The “Gifted child” is a quick learner as he has the ability to grasp and understand concepts effortlessly. The “Special child” needs special care, from the teachers and students, because they find it difficult to understand what is being taught to them. It is only by repetitive teaching or by a different style of teaching, can these children understand the subject. In between these two classifications comes the “Normal child” or the “Average Child”, which is of concern to us today.  They are like the seed with potential to grow to a big tree, but because they do not get the special care that a special child gets or the appreciation that a gifted child gets, they get stranded on being an average child.

 

There is a quote, “An average child is no one’s child”.  The responsibility of bringing out the best in an average child largely depends upon his/ her teachers and parents. But the attitude of the parent and the teacher, towards an average child is detrimental in his/her progress.

 

The general mentality of the parent, who has an average child, is that they are comfortable with the performance of their children and they are indifferent towards their performance. For example, if the child has shown some small improvement in his marks, he is not appreciated. He is always compared with the brilliant students and made to feel that his small achievements are not praise worthy. Similarly, when his performance goes down, they do not take it seriously. They just tell him to do well next time. There is no special care given to make him improve on his weak subjects.

 

Similarly with the teachers, the reason is because of the lack of involving them. Let as assume a class of 30. In this class the top ten performers are called the brilliant children and the last ten are called the dull students. The brilliant children are asked to take part in all the programmes and activities representing the school. The school is interested that it should win more prizes and awards to gain public honour, and therefore have the team consisting of the brilliant children. As far as the dull children, they are generally not interested in participating. But it is the average child who aspires to participate, but is not given a chance. This attitude of the teacher demotivates the child. He starts feeling inferior to others and he himself puts up a mental block, that he has not talents.

 

In a world of today, success is not defined by the academic performance of the student. What the corporate world is looking for today, is street smart executives who have a flair in communication and an indomitable spirit.

We have a role to play in shaping up the generation of tomorrow. Let us look with new eyes, to the average child and create a better world for him. This we can achieve only by involvement, motivation and appreciation.

 

 D. Senthil Kannan,

Managing Trustee, PALMS, Tuticorin.

Author of "Transformational Thoughts" - A Journey of learning 

Email: senthilkannand@gmail.com

Automation is the Future

 

“One machine can perform the work of a hundred human hands, but no machine can perform the work of one human brain”.

 

In a country like India, where the population is very high there is a huge amount of uneducated man power. While the educated manpower gets to reach the top positions, the uneducated manpower continues to remain as human machines. In fact, many of the MNC are interested in capitalizing the potential of the uneducated manpower, available in these third world countries.

 

When I visited Finland, on the Rotary Group Study Exchange programme, I had the opportunity of visiting a number of industries. What was very striking to me then was the level of automation these companies have employed in the workplace. When I looked at the production capacity of these units in relation to the manpower involved, I was thrilled. Big industries have just 20 to 30 employees. The simple reason is labourers are not available. For instance, in a paper making factory, I saw robots at work. These manlike machines were carrying reels of paper from one point to another point and stacking it in allotted spaces -as simple as the worker in the Indian factory who carries loads of material, from one point to another point.

 

For a moment I thought, what would be the fate of a country like India, if robots became so common that there will not be a need for uneducated man power.

 

What I then realized was that, as of today the economies of cost are not in favour of these industries, but in the near future this may be the in thing. Let me explain. Assume, that the cost of a robot is 1 crore rupees. Now to make a investment of 1 crore in a robot, means that on a conservative basis the interest cost would be approx 12%, which means the cost of employing a robot will be Rs.12 lakhs per year. The uneducated manpower in India is roughly earning about Rs. 300/- per day which means it is just approx Rs.1,00,000/- per year. Where is Rs.1,00,000/- as compared to 12 lakhs. So, Robots are not a workable proposition.

 

Now assume that these robots are made available to industries by mass production at Rs. 5 lakhs per robot. Now the interest cost is Rs. 60,000/- per year. This would mean that the robot would become a more dependable work force for industries. They won’t get tired, they won’t form trade unions, they won’t fight for a increase in pay, they won’t talk and waste time, they will give you the maximum production you desire, there would be precision and therefore no quality problems, and endless benefits.

 

Today, we talk about labour shortage everywhere. All of a sudden we do not get labourers to perform the menial work like we got before. We see every industrialist brooding about this issue. In spite of the temptations, such as free food, free medical expenses, free education for children, free van pick up and drop, production linked incentive, in addition to the daily wages, there are no people to come and work.

 

The employers who once felt like kings are now feeling so helpless without this much sought after work force. What we need to understand is we have to invest in automation in a big way. Even a country like China, which has a higher population than India, seems to have realized the fact, much earlier. Their factories today have enormous production capacity, not owing to its labour force, but owing to the high level of automation.

 

Let us wake up to the fact that , in India the transition of the physical workers to knowledge workers is on the rise and the availability of uneducated manpower is in a steady decline and unless we bring in more automation at our workplace, it is going to be difficult.

 

Start looking at the bigger picture. Automation is the future.

 D. Senthil Kannan,

Managing Trustee, PALMS, Tuticorin.

Author of "Transformational Thoughts" - A Journey of learning 

Email: senthilkannand@gmail.com