Are you Activity Oriented or Achievement Oriented?

Are you Activity Oriented 

or Achievement Oriented?

“All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy”, goes a saying. But we also come across people for whom, all is play and no work gets done. While both of these are not ideal situations, we invariably come across these two types of people: Activity Oriented and Achievement Oriented.

These two types of people have totally contrasting philosophy of life.

The Activity Oriented people are the ones who believe, “Variety is the spice of life”. They like to try their hands on everything. They don’t say NO to anything. They enjoy new experiences. They are excited to know, explore and understand different things. They are a part of many social organizations and forums, as it gives them an opportunity to meet and network with people from various domains and be popular. They might also be active in social media like Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram. Their day goes with the flow. They are the “I wannabe all that I can be” type of people. For them happiness lies in experiencing.

The Achievement Oriented people are those who are often goal oriented, task focused, like to take up challenges and achieve it. They are into professional networks that enhance their contacts and learning in their specific field. They constantly improvise upon themselves are keen in setting new benchmarks. They often have great clarity over what they want and stick to it. They don’t get easily distracted. They are assertive people, who do not mince words. It is either a YES or NO, or never a MAYBE. They are the “I wannabe the best in what I do” type of people. For them happiness lies in winning.

From an Activity Oriented person’s point of view, the Achievers look like a bunch of serious people who do not know to enjoy life. From an Achiever’s point of view the Activity Oriented ones, are those who are busy wasting their time. But that is just a perspective.

While I am not saying one is better over the other, there are also some facts to consider.

The activity oriented person, might be busy doing different things, but will sense a void of not being able to make a significant mark in anything. And this is emotionally painful. One the other hand, the achievement oriented person, would be someone who is always focused, disciplined and a winner. But he would be missing out on a lot of other fun.

So, how do we balance it? It is not easy. But the simple mantra is “Work while you work and play while you play”. It means that we need to have a clear demarcation of work and play and should not mix it up. This simple yet though discipline will help one go a long way in living a more fulfilling life and enjoy the best of both worlds.

Ultimately the determining factor is: “What gives you happiness?” If you find more happiness in achievement then that is the track meant for you. But if you enjoy living life with a variety, you might have to spread yourself thin, over a number of activities. That is fine too. You just need to be clear on what you want from life. Don’t worry, about what the world says. Live life in your terms. It is your life after all.

  D. Senthil Kannan,

  Managing Trustee, PALMS, Tuticorin.

  Author of "Transformational Thoughts" - A Journey of learning 

  Email: senthilkannand@gmail.com

Statue of Unity

On 31^st October 2018 – the world’s largest iconic statue measuring 182 metres was inaugurated to honour “The Iron Man of India”, Sardar Vallabhai Patel, to mark his 143^rd Birth Anniversary.  It is a fitting tribute to the person, who was instrumental in making India into united country today. If not for his efforts, India would have been a fragmented country. We have all read this in our school history.

Yet, I was surprised that when this statue was inaugurated there were a number of negative comments or critical questions, from few of our fellow countrymen. Of course, everyone has a right to their own opinion and we don’t need to feel offended, but still some of the questions felt outright skeptical.

One of the comment was, “Does India need a statue for Rs.3000 crores, when there is so much of poverty and other requirements in the country?

Yes, there are other priorities in the country, but that does not mean we shouldn’t create an iconic statue like this, which has great symbolic value. Just because we don’t have roads in a few villages, doesn’t stop us from having airports in cities. These sort of comparisons are unjustified and misleading. Let us be value conscious, and not price conscious.

We go abroad and stand in awe in front of magnificent statues, such as the Statue of Liberty. We also joke or brood that these type of things are a faraway dream for India. But now, we have a statue that is taller than everything else. India will now have tourist flocking from across the globe to see the tallest statue in this world, and feel awestruck. Is it not something to be proud about?

Another comment was, “Why should we build a statue for Sardar Patel, while there are other more important leaders like Gandhi?

The efforts of great leaders in building the nation, cannot be discounted. Everyone has contributed in their own way. If Gandhi was instrumental in bringing in the freedom movement, it was Sarder Patel who was the architect in bringing together the various states together, as we see in India Political Map today.  I had the opportunity to visit the Sardar Patel National Memorial Museum at Ahmedabad, a few years ago. It showcased his life story and the enormous amount of work; he has put in, to see India as a united country and thereby formed the seventh largest country in the world.

Another critical comment was that “India has imported so many tonnes of brass from China, for creating this statue. It is a shame”

China didn’t give any charity, it just sold their brass. So, where is the shame here? We live in an interdependent world and we trade resources. Even the statue of liberty was gifted by France to USA and not made there. Does it take away the pride of the statue?

Someone remarked, “Statue of Unity sound like a copy cat name of Statue of Liberty”.

So what? If Liberty is a value, Unity is another value.  I don’t know what better fitting name can be given to this statue. The statue is a fitting symbolism of great value Unity.  

Let this statue be a reminder to all of us that like this statue India too stands tall as ONE STRONG UNITED NATION, because of the efforts of this great man, who was instrumental in creating the United States of India.

 D. Senthil Kannan,

Managing Trustee, PALMS, Tuticorin.

Author of "Transformational Thoughts" - A Journey of learning 

Email: senthilkannand@gmail.com

Peace Begins With Me

I was invited to be a speaker, by a college to address the students on World Peace Day which is celebrated every year on 21^st September .  As I started to ponder on what I could talk about, I thought more deeply on what exactly is peace. And the closest definition that I could arrive is "Peace is but the absence of conflict."

So I ask myself, "Is it possible to live a life without conflicts?" A World without conflicts sound beautiful, yet utopian. Especially, with so much of egos at play, unfairness, wars and fights happening in the world in the name of national boundaries, natural resources, trades, religions, castes and creed, conflicts becomes inevitable.

As long as there is life, there will be conflicts. Asking for a world without conflicts, is similar to asking for the 7 billion people existing on this earth to attain enlightenment, at one go. If we think this is impossible, then global peace is impossible too.

Peace is no doubt the highest ideal, that we should aspire for, but Is Global peace a possibility?. My genuine answer is a NO.

But why then do we talk so much about something which is not achievable?

Though Global Peace may never happen, we can aspire for inner peace. Because, I believe "Peace begins with me." We can choose to be a peaceful person. If we become aware of the reasons for our inner conflicts, we can take action to redress it.

So, what could be the various reasons for conflict? Pride, Prestige, Discrimination of any form, Superiority Complex, Competitive spirit to win at any cost, Greed, Jealousy and many more.

If these are the reasons for personal or interpersonal conflicts, then the antidote for this is Love, Care, Happiness, Understanding, Empathy, Forgiveness and Acceptance.

Of all the above, I feel Forgiveness and Acceptance are the two vital behavioural skills or attitude we can change, to achieve Peace.

Those who want peace, must learn forgiveness. People will wrong us. People will hurt us. We can choose to hurt back or forgive them. When we choose to hurt back, this will create a continuous loop. This will put us in constant pressure and we cannot have peace. It is only by forgiving someone can we break this loop. Forgive not for the sake of the offender, but for ourselves, because not forgiving disturbs our peace.

 The next quality is Acceptance. I feel, acceptance is a better word than tolerance. Tolerance is negative and painful, whereas acceptance is positive and blissful.

Let's learn to respond and not react. Do we bark back at a street dog, that barks at us? No! Why?  Because, we accept that it is a dog.

When someone hurts you, remember that person is hurt. So, instead of reacting to anger with anger, respond with consolation and understanding. This will change the situation.

Peace and Progress, sometimes sounds like contradictory statements. But, it is not necessarily that way. We can have both peace and progress, when we grow and help others grow too. Whenever we strive for a win – win situation, we can have peaceful progress.

Ubuntu is a South African Philosophy, which says, "I am what I am , because of who we all are". It is the belief that our welfare depends on the welfare of others. It is about the kindness among men to co-exist, without fighting and competing beastly, with one another. Ubuntu is the humanness quality of human.

Let's try to imbibe this virtue and be the torch bearers of peace. Like they say one lamp lights the another. May our words, actions and deeds make others imbibe these qualities in them.

 

D. Senthil Kannan,

Managing Trustee, PALMS, Tuticorin.

Author of "Transformational Thoughts" - A Journey of learning 

Email: senthilkannand@gmail.com

 

Do you look for the Stars?

Five Star Rating is the new trend in product/ service review/ feedback.  I am sure all of you, would have come across this five star system of rating, somewhere or other. A typical five star rating , is as under

1 Star - Poor

2 Stars - Fair

3 Stars- Average

4 Stars - Good

5 Stars – Excellent

 

In today’s scenario, how do you check the credibility of a product or service, before you buy?

Gone are the days, you needed to call some techie friend, to find out a best model of mobile phone or call a frequent traveller to find out a good hotel, in an unknown location. The world is fully wired and connected. In a touch of a button, you can have the review of almost any product or service, you are looking for. Be it doing some online shopping, planning for a movie, or booking a hotel room or anything else. We tend to check for the number of stars in these online reviews, before we can make a decision.

 

I see this as a positive trend, because it makes the product sellers and service providers, to offer the best quality, in order to get a positive review. And as we are all aware, people are quick to make a negative review than a positive review. So, the vendors too have become extremely cautious.

Let me share a personal experience. I had booked a hotel room in Coimbatore by Goibibo – a hotel booking app, under the “Pay at Hotel” mode. As I went there, to my surprise the hotel guy said, that rooms were full and he could not give me a room. When I told him, I had made a booking he said, “Yes Sir, but you have not paid any money. We tried to call you and you didn’t pick the phone, so we cancelled the booking”.  So, it was a sort of tricky situation.  I was contemplating, what can be done to resolve the problem. I said, “You cannot do this to me. You have put me in a helpless situation. If you deny me a room, then I might have to give a very poor rating for your hotel in the website. These words surprisingly acted like magic. He said, “Please wait, Sir”. He then called a few higher ups and got my problem sorted out. He gave me a room that was booked by someone else. I don’t know how he handled the next guest and that was not my problem too. But somehow he made my problem disappear.

It was then I realised that these star ratings are having such a big impact. I am not advising you to use this as black mail weapon, but if you have a genuine issue, don’t hesitate to use this. By giving appropriate rating, we can push our product sellers and service providers, to provide a higher quality of product or service.

So, the question is while you look for the stars, before deciding on buying a product or availing a service, how often do you do you do a rating or submit a review after buying a product or service?  If you haven’t done so far, please start doing it, from now on. Don’t think it is a waste of time. By doing so, you are helping others and in turn someone is helping us too. It is a win – win situation.

It is clearly evident that both the sellers and buyers are actively looking for your rating.

As a buyer, if I see a good rating, it becomes easier for me to buy a product or service.

As a seller, if I get a good rating, it becomes easy for me to sell a product.

Sellers know that, they cannot take the buyers for granted any more. People are checking for the star rating before making any purchase decision. A good review helps to sell a product or service much easier than having to spend too much of money on advertising.

So, please take the time to do a rating and submit a review, every time you buy a product or avail some service. This can help to create a quality conscious business environment, which will improve the image of our country.

D. Senthil Kannan,

 Managing Trustee, PALMS, Tuticorin.

 Author of "Transformational Thoughts" - A Journey of learning 

 Email: senthilkannand@gmail.com

 

6 ‘I’s of Group Leader Communication

I am sure many of us are members of various social organisations, like Rotary, Lions, Giants, Jaycees, Round Table etc.  As we rise up the ladder, someday we would be given the role of a club president or a group leader. In order to discharge our role effectively, we have to be an effective communicator, which would help us to carry out the various projects, we plan to do in the particular period.

In one of the conference of Giants International, I was invited to speak on Communication Skills for 15 minutes. As a trainer, I searched for relevant material and found the normally discussed concepts, but then I thought within a time span of 15 minutes, what is that I can ideally convey to the meet the requirement of my target audience. So, my mind was wondering on how to customize it, so that the participants can relate to it and put it to action.  I spent some time thinking over what typically happens in a service organisation. As I have been a president of few service organisations, I was able to see a pattern of how it operates.

As acronyms are powerful ways of helping people remember things, I chose to use words starting with the same letter and arrived at 6 words starting with ’I’, which I felt would be the ideal 6 steps for effective communication in a group. They are:

1.            Ideation
2.            Intimation
3.            Initiation
4.            Invitation
5.            Implementation
6.            Information

So let us probe each step, in a little detail.

The first one is “Ideation”, which is nothing but idea generation. We often see various organisations having a brainstorming session or discussion meeting to pool in the ideas of all the members. It is these ideas, that eventually gets validated and then decided to be done as projects. So, this is the first step.

Once we have come to some conclusion on what projects to do, the next step is “Intimation”. We need to intimate to the members what has been decided.

Once we have intimated our plan, we need to call for action, which can also be called “Initiation”. For example, let us say we have planned to donate Rs.10, 000/- to a needy person, the leader can say “I would like to initiate the project by making a contribution of Rs.2, 000/-“. So, when we initiate, others will know that the proposed project, has kick started and they would start to add their contributions too.

So, now that we have got commitment from group members, we need to plan an event where this service project will be executed. Once, we decide a date and time, we create and send out an Invitation, for the event. Today, most organisations works on Whatsapp invitation, which I think is a good idea because; it saves on paper and postage.

And then the event happens. This is what we call Implementation, because the project that was planned, is now actually taking place.

Once we implement a project, we will be clicking photos and we might have discussed a few things in the meeting. Unfortunately, not all members would have turned up for the meeting. So, as a group leader it is our duty to make sure, that all the group members, are made aware of what has happened by sharing the photos and sharing the minutes of the meeting. This also serves as a documentation of the project. In most organisations, we are expected to send a monthly report to the higher officials too. This process of informing all members and higher officials,  is what we call “Information”.

By following these 6 steps of communication, I am sure you can be an effective group leader.

   D. Senthil Kannan,

  Managing Trustee, PALMS, Tuticorin.

   Author of "Transformational Thoughts" - A Journey of learning 

  Email: senthilkannand@gmail.com