Many years ago Isaac Newton came up with his laws of motion. The laws still stand after all these years.
Out of the 3 laws of motion, the 3rd states that every action has an equal and opposite reaction.
That might be true for propelling a rocket or while applauding for example, but the question is this: Would the law stand for human behavior as well?
Let me ask the question in a different way: If you were to trust someone do you think the person is going to trust you back? How about issues with love, freedom and empowerment? All important things but reciprocity in the same form might be missing.
How about truth? Would being truthful guarantee that you get truth in return?
I think the answer is a no!
Alas, it looks like Sir Newton's great third law of motion does not hold true with us humans.
The intention of any relationship, familial or professional is usually associated with forward motion. We are constantly working for our relationships to get better. How can we be better professionals? How can we be better husbands, wives, fathers, mothers, sons, daughters or friends?
The "reaction" might not be there, but I think that we should not stop doing the right thing.
Leadership, parenthood and almost any successful relationship can be a wonderful experience if we become givers.
Over a period of time, with us setting the right example by being truthful, sharing, leading and spreading joy, who knows Sir Isaac Newton's wondrous 3rd law of motion might gain ground in getting us the right reactions as well.
Image: Wikipedia
This last week was probably the biggest week in my life as a Cricket fan. That one person that represented Indian Cricket, and was the epitome of everything that is still gentlemanly about the game decided to hang his boots and bid adieu to the game and millions of fans.
Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar was not dubbed the "God Of Cricket" for his Cricket prowess alone though. It was the man himself with his fearlessness in the face of adversity, his composure and calm and his mentoring of the future cricketers. Overall he has been a true leader, a great cricketer and a gentleman.
What did it take for a small kid from a middle class family in India to become the biggest name of the cricketing world? According to the great man, it took a lot of practice, hard work and faith in his abilities.
That forced me to think. If we practice our art, work hard and believe in ourselves, can't we become great in our own fields? Anything that we are involved in, be it sports, finance, manufacturing or consulting, the goal should always be to become the "Tendulkar" of that field - the best that ever was and will be.
Greatness cannot be an easy thing to achieve. People that get there, toil hard for years without complaining. They work, usually, with similar impediments to their progress like the rest of us. The only difference is that they do not look for short-cuts and never lie to themselves.
Fatherhood for me is an opportunity to get better as a person. That too, like anything else, requires work, patience and conviction.
Leadership is something else that cannot be learned overnight. It is an art-form that gets better with practice. It needs trust and truth at its core. Without the core being correct, it can become like a house with a bad foundation. It might still work, but things are shaky at best.
Unfortunately, greatness and leadership can only be achieved with a lot of hard work and practice. Unlike almost everything else these days, there is no app for that.
Photo: Flickr(sourmash)
I have always thought of Golf to be easy. How difficult can hitting a ball with a club be after all?
As I were to find out this week, quite difficult actually.
My version of playing Golf was pretty simple before this week. It included:
- Hold club in hand (preferably a driver because the bigger head should make it even easier to hit)
- Stand next to the ball, which at this time should be on a little peg (or a Golf tee)
- Swing the club and hit the ball with all your might.
Easy peasy lemon squeasy, right? Apparently not.
A good friend of mine taught me the basics this week. The fine game of Golf, just like any other sport that deserves to be taken seriously, needs a few other inclusions.
So my 3 step process to hitting a Golf ball got a little more detailed. It now includes:
- Hold club in hand the proper way (something about the thumbs facing downwards) and focus
- Stand next to the ball, with the ball right below the eyes, bend the knees a bit, balance and focus
- Swing with proper form and concentrate on making good contact with the ball rather than hitting it long, and always keep your eyes on the ball.
All that focus, concentration and mindfulness took a lot of work this week. It is not as easy as it seems.
The realization is going to help me a lot; both at home and at work. The idea of getting better, no matter what we do is rooted in:
- Being focused in what we are doing
- Concentrating on the goal
- Intentionally minimizing distractions and,
- Not expecting things to happen easily
Looks to me like leadership resembles hitting a golf ball. If we are all about hitting the proverbial ball as hard and as far as possible, we might lose out on the form and focus that would help us get better. We might even get lucky and taste occasional success (even with my terrible form, I did hit the ball sometimes), but if we are in for the long haul, we have to continuously work on and correct the basics.
Turning adversity into success requires a lot of intent, hard work, positive attitude and an unwavering belief in self.
My feeling is if we concentrate on fixing the obvious things, treating our team well, speaking the truth and working with goodness in our hearts while ignoring all temptations of taking the short-cuts, we will end up being champions.
Are you a Hindu? Truth be told, I have always hated that question. Not because I dislike the religion that I belong to, but because of the usual set of assumptions that accompany the question.
"I have heard that all Hindus are vegetarians" - No. "I have heard that you guys have a lot of Gods" - Yes.
Does it really matter what God I pray to? How is it important if there is religion in my life at all? What significance does it hold apart from boxing ourselves in a particular category with a few million others?
Like everyone
else, I get hurt, feel pain, have opinions - both wrong and right, have a
list of things that I like and another list of things that disgust me. I
fall sick, get better, have a few pounds to lose and can eat, sleep,
think and speak better. There is a whole host of things that make us
similar, but we are so concerned about what is different that we let these
commonalities - these opportunities of engagement and possible relationships - go.
Am I a Hindu?: I am not really sure how to answer that question. I am a bit pre-occupied with working on being a human at the moment.
Our son does not care what the religion of the person is that he is playing with. As long as what the person is holding out for him makes any sound and preferably flashes, our son is fine with it. There is a very important lesson and inspiration in that for all of us.
Instead of looking at ourselves as Hindus, Muslims, Christians, browns, blacks, whites, left-wing, right-wing or centrist, or any "category" for that matter, how about choosing to look at the human being in all of us? How about looking for good in someone with no bias towards the extras?
I am sure it is possible. It will just require a little more work, trust and faith.
The same can be said about our work place. All true leaders have the
power to look beyond the surface. For them, there is no color, no creed
and no gender. The question is very simple: Can the person handle the
responsibility and perform, successfully, the task at hand? If the
answer is in the affirmative, nothing else should matter.
If a person is stupid, incompetent, lazy or ignorant, I am sure it is the person to blame. Just like their greatness is theirs and cannot be attributed to them being a part of any group. Their color, country, religion, gender or political inclination has nothing, and cannot have anything, to do with it.
Image: Flickr(
gustavoluz)
