Skip to main content

A Thanksgiving to the Reflective Best Self Portrait Exercise

The exercise was about gathering points to draw insights about one's self. It could not have come at a better time. 

I am 29 years and 6 months, and a few days old, as I write this. There have been instances through my life where I have expressed my gratitude and then there are others where I haven’t. However, there are but only a few instances where I have begun a task by expressing my gratitude to just have had an opportunity to do it. This is one such a task. And for this I express my gratitude to Professor Dr Vijayalakshmi V, Department of Management Studies; IIT Madras.

The task, Reflective Best Self Portrait, has come at a time in my journey where I seem to have finally realized that I am on a journey, the destination unknown though. The traits of such a realization I associate to being relatively more aware of the time and space I exist in. This makes me understand the value of such an exercise, for, I believe, this exercise has created a way for me to interact with the time and space I exist in, like a mirror. Going through this exercise has also helped me break the wall of fear-of-the-unknown between me and my environment and has also gone on to make me feel like a part it rather than an outsider or an observer, be it professional or personal life. This exercise has strengthened my doubt on the existence of that that dichotomy itself.

I may have, in the past, come across similar such tasks in my work life but I was not motivated enough to do it with the rigor I could this time on. This was due to the importance attached to it as a task and the way the value of it was communicated to me. For that also, I thank my Professor, Dr Vijayalakshmi V.

I strongly believe that, when an experience like this exercise happens, the learnings are in stages and only a part of it has reached my awareness now; and also that there will be conscious and sub-conscious learning from this exercise way into my future.

I am grateful.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Is Learning All About Skilling Up?

The recent Reskill and Transcend theme of Samanvay 2017 made me a little nervous. There were these bunch of young professionals, most of whom have never set foot inside an organization yet, talking about reskilling. And here I was, almost 30, in an existential crisis of almost losing relevance. The major reason behind it is the changing perception of technology taking over every ounce of human need in accomplishing a task. The brain says its not true, the heart agrees but where then is this fear originating? I do not think technology is for all to fear. Learning technology is like learning how to use fire or the wheel. Just so fire was created did not mean who did it prior went out of style, it was the how that changed. The how is what is skill, the why, on the other hand, is much more fun to know, appreciate and enhance.  This, however, does not mean the role of skills is discounted, it only puts it in its place. A persons skills, or the lack of, account of the maximum volume...

Bias

The beauty of the grouping is the sense of security it gives to its members. The common characters that define the group, define the members. The lowest hanging fruit to satisfy the hunger of identity is to belong to a group and attach its character to the self. This satisfaction comes from the misconstrued nature of defining the self itself. Self in spiritual terms is the thing that remains when all thoughts disappear. Self in the pragmatic world becomes those very thoughts. Thoughts can be dangerous, as a wise man once told me, “the human mind can imagine anything”. Instantly, upon listening to that sentence, I felt proud. The endless potential of it gave the ego precisely what it was craving for. But then, realising that the ability did not belong to me, and not just me, meant the meal for the ego had come to an end. This means there is a need to create an identity that is relative and relevant to the immediate environment, the group! The happiness of belonging to the group now bec...