Fully Alive or Not?

There are probably only two ways to stay fully and truly alive.

To be completely engrossed in reality and merge into it; to absorb everything in the world and respond back to it so casually and efficiently that the give and take is seamless, there appears to be just one entity in all and there is no such thing as unproductive friction.

Or....to be amazingly unperturbed and detach oneself thoroughly from reality, as if it were of no consequence whatsoever. To be as if nothing actually happened even whilst everything happened.....if you get my drift. To behave like there is no other entity apart from the self.

Some enlightened souls, of course, would have us believe that both these ways are exactly the same. ;) #zen #paradox

The Dance of Life

Note: Made some updates - added a few more lines (5th Oct)

With due apologies to the Bard of Avon, all the world is a stage and we are all dancers on it. We can't help but dance in order to balance the paradoxes, see two sides of the same coin, experience moderation rather than extremes, manage perceptions and so much more. (Each of the following pairs of words could be seen as paradoxes, perceptions, extremes or two sides of the same coin!) 

The dance of the unique and the un-understood,

The dance of victory and vulnerability.

The dance of bliss and bewilderment,

The dance of humor and hope.

The dance of spontaneity and strategy,
The dance of seriousness and silliness.

The dance of silence and sharing,

The dance of solitude and society.

The dance of dignity and determination,

The dance of dearness and distance.

The dance of freedom and familiarity,

The dance of forgiveness and the future.

The dance of the constant and change,

The dance of the creative and the crazy,

The dance of the cool and the casual,

The dance of confidence and confusion

The dance of insight and indulgence,

The dance of inertia and inspiration.

The dance of risk and routine,

The dance of rejuvenation and resurrection.

The dance of the mundane and the miraculous, 

The dance of the mighty and the minuscule. 

The dance of the past and the present,

The dance of peace and perseverance.

The dance of the given and greed,

The dance of growth and governance. 

He stood up on one leg and reached for the crutch,

It was a poor substitute, but something he would, nevertheless, clutch. 

His dance would look awkward all right,

But his very attempts would make life less of a plight.

Conference Paradox

I've had a somewhat philosophical and broody - and inexplicably so - start to the day and it's not even the beginning of the work-week or something! :-) Half the week is yet to be covered. Not to forget, a weekend that one is typically forced to use in a constructive manner (which however rarely happens) is also waiting around the corner. Putting all these so-called 'troubles' aside, I'd like to rely on some craziness and humor to end the current state of affairs. ;-)


I had a sudden crazy thought yesterday as I pondered over a couple of recent conferences I participated in. I think one way to make conferences exciting and unusual (apart from having a smart plan/format, witty speakers, intriguing topics etc)  is to do something paradoxical. I haven't heard of this happening anywhere, so I am guessing it is a fresh idea (though it has been employed in a different form in other situations). Why not invite a good and unconventional speaker to present something totally against the topic - wait till I finish - something ridiculously and absurdly against the topic! 


I have a feeling this will not just be major fun but also provoke participants to actually think of some radical ideas as counter arguments. So, in the case of KM, for example, the presenter could say something like "KM makes absolutely no sense because in the long run we are all dead and the future generation will anyway find no use for the pathetic stuff we have learned!". 


Think about it.... ;-)

Wikipedia on Paradoxes

Being a big fan of paradoxes, it is a shame I did not spot this page earlier. Thanks to @rondon for the link.


https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/List_of_paradoxes

The Nothing Poem

Here's the terrible 'NOTHING' poem ready to unfold its intriguing story,

Giving you every bit of the details, both the noble and the gory!

Does Indifference really turn the corner when it meets Patience?

Or are we but simply staring at a huge bundle of inexplicable Nonsense?

Do we keep (expending energy) crossing many fearful oceans with all our might?

Or should we actually stop and wonder if anything at all is bright or right?

Picture Courtesy: Google Images

Are systems far too complex to understand and control?

Or should the people be blamed for allowing the system to take over and charge an unfair toll?

Is it worthwhile to create an imaginary world and wallow in its non-existent ideals?

Or is it better to put on a mask and fight the real one tooth and claw, however hideous?

Questions, questions and more questions, floating around in my adamant mind

Answers to which I realize, time and again, are extremely hard to find.

The Passion Phoenix

Another of those Twitter moments.

The only disadvantage of being passionate & sincere is perhaps that you're taken for granted & are thought to have no need for anything else. But, well, passion never ever dies. It may dip a bit but it will rise again for it's in passion's DNA to get up every time it falls.


Also, there are 2 ways to react to injustice. Give up or focus harder on being the person you are. Let's always choose the latter. Happy Weekend!

Zeroing in on Curbing Corruption

It's been a really long time since I spotted a paradoxical idea worth blogging about. This one comes to me after quite a long break. Source of Info: http://www.gurteen.com/gurteen/gurteen.nsf/id/zero-rupee-note
Original Blog Post on it:  http://www.boingboing.net/2010/02/05/zero-rupee-note-that.html

I think this definitely is a paradoxical idea at its best. Give them what they want. But make it so unique that they no longer want it. ;-)

Ideas....! Ideal or Idle?

An idea that is worth it can both rob you of your sleep & appear sweeter than sleep. Robbery when it eludes you & sweetness when you near it...(does that resonate?)

Here is a weak attempt to put this thought into a clumsy graph! :-)

Human Evolution

Another mesmerizing article shared by @Kirti.
I'm taking a print out and putting it along with my most treasured books in my book-shelf!


Not providing you with extracts as yet. Plan to re-read it a few times.
You must read the entire article to experience the knowledge.


Goes a long way to prove the impact of parenting and environment on children and human development as a whole!

Infinity & Simplicity

"Because God is infinitely simple, God can only appear to the finite mind as infinitely complex"- Thomas Aquinas


What say? Just a play of words or something with infinite depth? :-)

CEOs - Business - Motivation - Wodehouse - Bhagavad Gita

Lovely article.

* Resist the urge to label occurrences as bad (or good). Adopt a neutral view
* One needs to ferociously prevent one's thoughts from straying — stay in the "now"
* ....evaluate the mental models used by Psmith (one of PGW's ever-cheerful characters) and his cheery insouciance when faced with the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune
*....if you are looking for fulfillment, you won't find it in the job. It comes from inside you
* I encourage executives to invest completely in the process and not the goal. If they invest every fiber of their being into the process they are likely to enjoy the outcome. It is a paradox. When you become detached from the outcome, the probability of achieving the goal rises dramatically

Leadership Paradox

To be a better leader, give up authority.

From HBR. Of course!

Extract:

....We call such practices “mutualism.” It involves measuring workers not against revenue or other numerical goals, which we have observed to be ineffective as motivational tools, but against qualitative values such as trust, responsibility, and innovation. And it implies that leaders don’t dictate vision or strategy; instead, they enable employees to create a common vision through, for example, off-sites for discussion of strategic issues and regular feedback and education. Hitting numerical goals has been the natural outcome.

Reverse Brainstorming

I love paradox thinking! Totally into it! Fascinated by it, you know! Would be game to try almost everything that suggests a "reverse" approach! [Thanks to Derm Barret's book's - The Paradox Process - influence on me!] :-)

This is the latest paradoxical idea that I've bumped into and am craving for an appropriate opportunity to try it out! David Gurteeen's "Reverse Brainstorming". Extracts:

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The concept is simple: rather than brainstorm what you want - brain storm the opposite of what you want. For example, if you would like your KM project to be a success don't ask "How do we ensure our KM project is a success?" but ask "How do we ensure that our KM project is a total miserable failure?"

They are then taken through a process of prioritizing those items and coming up with antidotes i.e. things that if done would ensure the failures would not happen. Next they share these possible responses and insights between the groups.

This works best with about 30 people i.e six groups of five people.

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Questions & Answers

Gasp! I am beginning to get the feeling that my hold on this blog has been slipping a bit. No thought-provoking or original stuff for a while now! Huh? No. Not just writer's block. Maybe thinker's block. :-P But I'm hoping that this post is the turning point and the next few weeks turn out to be different and provide me with some cerebral gossip for this blog! Meanwhile, here's something that I think is good blog-material.

If you happen to be looking for a good example of serendipity, go no further. A week or so back I tweeted this “Some questions will remain unanswered. Take them or take leave of them”. Terry responded to the tweet and led me to a wonderful post – on his blog - that digs deeper into this thought.

My tweet, ironically, did not arise from deep thought and was more of a superficial response to mundane happenings in life. So, it was exciting to be led to a deeper level of thinking from where I was. Terry’s post says: Stop looking for answers….look for movement. Ask better questions and be comfortable with ambiguity! Attractive propositions for those who are exhausted in their search for certainty and predictability in this complex world and want someone to actually tell them – knock it into their heads - that it’s time they stopped being so naïve!

Interestingly, I have a huge fancy for idealism and perfection. It is paradoxical but sometimes this attitude, arguably, limits one’s thinking. Because such a person might continue to pursue the same thought for too long a time! She might not want to give up or adopt an alternative approach because of her need to “persevere”. And she wants to do a good job of everything she takes up. She needs to look good in her own eyes and there is nothing she doesn’t want to know. Bah. Sounds difficult? I guess it really is important to stop and reassess one’s attitude and expectations. Or just step back and take a look. This is the time when one needs to ask a different question like Terry’s post advocates. Or, perhaps, just let things be. Specializing in the impossible as Terry puts it, is such an intriguing thought.

The truth however is that for those in the typical corporate world, such a philosophy is rarely accepted by the community at large. Quarterly growth must be predictable and certain and....is nonnegotiable. ;-)

Flip Service...

Finished reading the book Flip by Peter Sheahan. The book, as you may have guessed, is about doing the opposite of what conventional wisdom suggests.

Things to note...in no particular order:

- Sheahan says "there is no wisdom in crowds" and goes on to qualify that by saying crowds don't innovate but only validate an innovation. I don't, obviously, agree. To my mind, what is meant by "wisdom of crowds" is not that groups innovate as a single entity but that groups are a breeding ground for ideas as a consequence of conversations, combination of knowledge, brainstorming and so forth.

Happy to get that out of the way. Now, to some of the things I was able to relate to....

- Pg 65. "Only after making the decision emotionally do we call upon our cognitive processes to rationalize our behaviour" [Fascinating and quite true I guess!There are times when I've surprised myself after having to justify something in retrospect. But this could even be what Malcolm Gladwell's Blink is all about]

- As I read one of the chapters on how consumers decide to purchase something it made me ponder over how, many of us buy something not because we may identify with the brand and what it stands for completely but more because we want the world to associate us with that brand and what it stands for. (Drink Sprite if you want to be seen as a straightforward and blunt person. You may however not really be such a straightforward person! Drink Miranda if you want to appear a little crazy and lighthearted etc)

- The last two chapters were the most exciting part of the book. These were about "giving up control to get it" and "action before clarity". One of the examples that the author refers to, to demonstrate how giving up control can lead to success, is how TV programs have now changed with many reality shows now involving the audience and even letting them make decisions. For me, personally, the last chapter was a hard slap on the face. Sheahan has penned a very compelling and inspiring chapter on how we should not wait too long for clarity to emerge before doing something and sometimes it would be just right to take the plunge. He assures and convinces the reader that clarity will follow action. (That reminded me of some situations wherein I gave up on some colleagues who I thought will provide clarity and instead decided to let them come back with comments after we'd put something in place. Adopting such an approach is a lot less frustrating than waiting for information and understanding...though in the long run, it may mean more wastage in terms of time, effort and resources. Also, one needs to then grit one's teeth and bear the irony of accepting comments and inputs that could have very well been provided earlier)

Two sides of the same coin

Heads you are strong, Tails you are stubborn

Heads you are flexible, Tails you are indecisive

Heads you are sweet, Tails you are meek

Heads you are humorous, Tails you are silly

Heads you are a child, Tails you are ignorant

Heads you are enthusiastic, Tails you are not practical

Heads you are thoughtful, Tails you are skeptical

Heads you are a leader, Tails you are dominating

Heads you are you, Tails you are not you

Which side of the coin you see depends on how you toss it

Sometimes it simply depends on whether you toss it or not

Who'll Bell the Cat?

Hear! Hear! Who'll bell the cat? has been a million dollar question for centuries now. Ever since some mice got together and wondered how to steal food without the cat's knowledge, I'd imagine. I am not sure anyone ever answered this question without scaring/challenging at least one person amongst the group discussing the problem, if you get the drift. But I came across a novel solution this weekend. A solution that makes the cat go Me? Ow?! instead of Meow! ;-) Not for the cat's ears.

So...what's this novel solution all about? It's something paradoxical. (Yours truly has been a bit lax in catching up with cartoons of late. But there was a nice opportunity that came by this weekend and I grabbed it. Not for nothing.) Paradoxical thinking on the part of Jerry's baby-student in the world's favorite Cat and Mouse cartoon show - Tom and Jerry! Jerry's baby-student has been sent to Jerry to learn the basics of survival but, ironically, ends up teaching Jerry a thing or two. The little mouse is still in his diaper days but has a razor-sharp brain and thinks in radically different ways much to Jerry's embarrassment and shame. So...when Jerry goes to great lengths to teach him 'how to bell the cat' with Tom as the subject, here's what Jerry's little student does. He puts the bell in a box, gift wraps it and simply walks up to Tom and hands it over to him as a gift. Voila! Tom goes, like I said earlier, For me? ow! and is all smiles as he opens the 'gift'. A few seconds later, Tom is happily sporting the bell around his neck. Squeal! :-)

Changing People's Behavior

Talking of change management, take a look at this obvious and yet intriguing article. Some of the implications and reasons, to my mind, are:

• The obvious is often overlooked to such an extent that simple ideas have now started to seem like brainwaves,
• Small things can and do make a big difference,
• We often choose to turn a blind eye to human attitude and behavior and focus only on the tool/process,
• We underestimate the need for human motivation and psychological boundaries

PS: Clearning the pile of files and books from your laptop table may very well make you use your laptop more than you otherwise would. Putting an inspiring book and the table lamp switch near your bed may very well change the way you think in the long run...and so forth. I think it would also be a good idea to consider paradoxical thinking in this context...

No Kidding...

No kidding! :-) This is a brilliant example of paradox thinking..! (In other - Hindi - words, kya bath hai!*) Calvin's certainly one of the most insightful kids I've ever come across. A few days back, I pondered over my lack of paradox thinking and wondered why I have not even observed it happening around me (which I normally do). So, this is intellectual Manna from Heaven..

A perfect weekend post as far as I am concerned. ;-) Warning: Do not try to imitate Calvin. And don't ever show it to your doggy if you have one - when push comes to shove, your doggy is bound to recall this gem of an idea while you yourself are likely to have forgotten it altogether.

*kya bath hai - Hindi exclamation that reflects appreciation of something!

Cartoon Strip sourced from - www.gocomics.com

2009 is Mine...!

Steve Goodier says, on his blog:

That all-too-quotable Yogi Berra once said, "If you don't know where you are going, you might wind up someplace else." (I think that happened to me once.)

But even if you know where you want to end up, do you REALLY WANT to be there? I'm not talking about traveling now, but where we're going with our lives. Is the dream you are following really that important to you?

Most people are not lazy. They simply have uninspiring goals. They don't accomplish what they set out to do because they lose interest. The dream they are following is simply not that important to them.

………..And that goes for anything that is truly important to us. If we want something badly enough, we will find necessary energy, excitement and drive to grasp it.

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Wow! That strikes a familiar chord. Two things I’ll certainly focus on in 2009. Sometimes, it feels like there’s no point waiting for a new year to revisit things and start a fresh journey….it must be a constant endeavour after all and not an emotion locked away till January. But, then, a New Year is still a great occasion to explore such a thing if one has been lackadaisical and unmotivated even if only for a few weeks before January. It is good to capitalize on the positive energy that floats around across the globe at the start of the New Year and use it to identify or pursue one’s vision with renewed vigor.

What do you really want from life? I guess the best way to find that out is to indulge in silence and introspection. I think it is important to not get stuck to a passing thought that created itself purely due to social influence and does not mean anything at a personal level. As far as dreams are concerned, the most important thing about them must be their origin – from one’s own soul uninfluenced by the constraints imposed by society and expectations from others.

Once you discover what you want, you simply must dream big. You must allow the vision and dream to inspire you. You must ask for it, believe that you will get it and then be ready to receive it - Thanks to the book, “The Secret” for this wonderful idea! :-)

I guess one of the best ways to be sure that you know what you REALLY want is to observe if it really lends you energy, excitement and drive! Paradoxical…but I think I am right. :-)

Let’s hope 2009 delivers. Let’s hope it is magical, full of miracles and proves to us that nothing is impossible!

As Jack Addington so wonderfully says, “It's a law of the mind that which you can conceive of, believe in, and confidently expect for yourself, must necessarily become your experience.”

DREAM – Dare to Dream, Be sure you’ll Realize it, Expect the world to give it to you, Ask the world to be your partner, Master the process and fulfill your potential – Leave the world a better place, share your dream with others but let them pursue theirs.

Recalling a related post from the past - http://nirmala-km.blogspot.com/2008/01/power-of-strong-emotion.html