Self –Improvement Books and their authors

​​ Self –Improvement Books and their authors why they tend to attract many.

For those who pessimistically and condescendingly generalize self improvement books and authors as some random didactic drivels to know that most self improvement authors (other than those with either covert or overt religious ideological agenda) have had some episode of spark or shock which has left them with a very impactful experience.

These sorts of experiences are all the more delightful if they occur to individuals who are also prepared intellectually, psychologically, physically,  emotionally to encounter them without any bias or inhibition.

That's why most of them exude confidence, clarity and conviction conveyed through such experience(s).

They are also passionate about sharing their observations, perspectives, perceptions and interpretations of such experiences (which very often tend to make their overall outlook philosophical) by prompting others too to have similar experiences and hence pour out their joy through anecdotal references and incidences, sometimes spicing them with humor, hubris and hyper enthusiasm at having grasped a new dimensions of life.

 

Often they are so immersed in the joy or impact of the experience that they feel like churning out as much and as often as possible something out of such experiences and its concomitant lessons or realizations. 

To the unappreciative and uninterested these may look like over stretching and over repetitive of some theory or truth.

Sometimes certain types of pervasive inspirations result in motivating (at times construed by some as intimidating and preachy by some preconceived opinion carriers- if it is their take away we cannot do anything about them).

At a higher level these sorts of inspiring performances end up in mutual understanding, admiration and encouragement.  This is often witnessed in sports, music, arts, science, literary circles etc.

At times even professional jealousy based pungent criticisms carry a subtle undertone of admiration.

Relevance is in general based on frames of references to find connectivity

Relevance is in general based on frames of references to find connectivity which will be difficult to find if one gets stuck​​ in some selective identity or fixation or Mentalese of comfort zone where anything that does not fit into the expected answer becomes incomprehensible. 

The beauty is then how people find relevance in observance of anything that is not tangibly visible or understood. 

We need not even talk of things beyond normal reach like clairvoyance, clair-audience, ESP, aura study etc.

For example , relevance and connectivity of carrot to the eyes is possible only when one includes vitamin A as one of the frames of reference.  Not seeing carrots as a vegetable and eyes as human organs.

I repeat for whatever relevance it may have for the 'n' nth time. " It is not often our perception but the scale of observation and frames of reference which create the phenomenon. The scale of observation depends on man; it is he who creates it. In nature, different scales of observation do not exist. There is only one immense, harmonious phenomenon on a scale which, in general, escapes man. The structure of man's brain necessitates dividing into arbitrary compartments and cutting up into isolated pieces. With the aid of several instruments science creates more phantasmagoria: "on our scale of human observation, as pointed out before, the edge of a razor-blade is a continuous line. On the microscopic scale, it is a broken but solid line. On the chemical scale we have atoms of iron and carbon. On the sub-atomic scale we have electrons in perpetual motion which travel at the rate of several thousand miles per second. All these phenomena are in reality the manifestations of the same basic phenomenon, the motions of the electrons. The only difference which exists between them is the scale of observation" [Human Destiny, Lecomte du Nuoy- a marvelous book that everyone must read.

Branded and brandied about systems and fixed ideologies

Branded and brandied about systems and fixed ideologies.

Most things and individuals have remained unencumbered by political ideologies formed and framed to homogenize everything and everyone and exercise control over and dominate and rule.

The bandwidth for dissent, discussion and different opinions must become  actually much wider and better than merely allowing it to get limited by brain washing propaganda instilled narrow alleys of many branded and brandied about systems and fixed ideologies.

STRATEGY FOR MODERN MANAGEMENT

STRATEGY FOR MODERN MANAGEMENT 

SIMPLE PEACEFUL WORKS PAYS TO PROMOTE GROWTH

Scientifically proven and rationally acceptable methods;

Intelligently applied approaches devoid of identity affiliation;

Mentally balanced means ensuring humane attitude;

Perspectives which are broader coupled with compassionate perception;

Life enhancing, not merely livelihood assuring, unqualified love based attention;

Environmentally compatible approaches adopted without any extremist positions.

In short it is a one sentence Mantra

PEACEFUL WORK PAYS TO PROMOTE GROWTH

Psychological and physical factors of every one,

Employee Privileges,

Abilities of every one,

Conventions followed culturally and socially,

Exchanges between and among all staff,

Functional Practices in prevalence,

Utility value of each person,

Laid down Rules and regulations,

Workable and worthy goals,

Opportunities,

Responsibilities of every one,

Kindness in the form of encouragement and incentives,

Procedures and norms and

All these together

Yoke Duties

Successfully

Towards

Overall targets to

Perform

Resourcefully

Operating with top

Management and all other staff

Offering

To

Enhance

Growth either with or without group discussions and conferences;

Revenue and rewards sharing based on

Overall profitability

With

Total team work within a perfect

Hospitable environment for all.

8 Vital Points for a new era beyond managers

8 Vital Points for a new era beyond managers

 I feel there is lot of wisdom in the following piece which Phenella writes in “The Unwritten Comedy”. “To be ignorant of many things is expected. To know you are ignorant of many things is the beginning of wisdom. To know a category of things of which you are ignorant is the beginning of learning. To know the details of that category of things of which you are ignorant is to no   longer be ignorant.” 

1. Inevitable laws: - Life’s evolutionary aspirations are tossed between repetitions and changes. “In the end nothing less than the whole of everything can be the truth of   anything at all”- William James. Life is an unmapped atlas which gets its maps based on our choices, beliefs, actions, reactions, thoughts, attitudes etc and it is our hands to make each one of these continents as great and as good as possible.

2. Bad, worse and worst:-So, any mental fixation in any domain is bad; status quo addiction to such fixations is worse and worst is to extrapolate anything and everything with such fixations is worst. “We live in a changing universe, and few things are changing faster than our conception of it”-Timothy Ferris. “There is no tomorrow. There is only a planet turning on its axis, and a creature given to optimistic fancies”-Robert Brault

3. We cannot deny or defy the importance of anything: - We cannot predict all emerging trends and therefore much less prepare for any change with a bunch of known factors as trend predictions is yet to evolve with scientific precision

4. Evolution is the final judge and it is a process:-Whatever terminology we may adopt or whatever vocabulary we use to define any emerging phenomenon or trend it is ultimately the play of evolution in the domain of organizational or administrative structure.

5. Contexts created by change change the characteristics of the contexts:-The most important wisdom is to make the necessary adjustments to emerging changes and contexts.

6. Civilization in its totality is nothing but evolving trends and trending changes:-

No individual life is permanent and nothing is a panacea for any aspect of living.

7. Value of vocabulary or words:- At any cost no one can afford to discount the value of vocabulary then it may cost a lot because words used in any context or domain are important as  they set the narrative and even influence thinking but we also need to look beyond and behind the connotations of the words.

8. The beauty of life: - It consists in the unknowns and the unending searches and researches –the unending process of evolutionary trends in everything.

We must remember that we owe to so many souls that have made our evolution to enhance from Kuru disease generators [this disease happens because of cannibalism] to cyber Guru Venerators.

 

Generalization is wrong

​​We cannot over generalize and pit everything or anything against something else.

Everything can coexist but subject to certain conditions which have come to be accepted universally for various valid reasons and they need not be brushed aside as Western or Eastern.

There are requirements and procedures in everything. One cannot walk into a school classroom and take classes even if one is better than all the existing teachers in the school. One cannot go and occupy a cabin in a bank and decide on loan disbursement though one may be better than any existing bank manager.

Similarly, there are many basic requirements for any product to be introduced, especially in medical field like proper documentation of the ingredients, empirical proof, double-binding, peer review (it may have its own short comings) and universal availability and accessibility to the product.

For that matter all BP and 99% of main Type 2 diabetic medicine ( Metformin) are plant based extract from flower.

Metformin is derived from the plant, Galega officinalis Linn. [Figure 1]. G. officinalis is commonly known as Goat's rue, French lilac, Italian fitch and Professor-weed.

BP from  Rauwolfia Serpentina and the politics and false claims and credits in Science.

https://contentwriteups.blogspot.com/2015/05/nobel-prize-and-science-credits-and.html

Similar is the case with the controversies surrounding many patents. I shall give an example for this from one of my articles that I wrote for the Indian Express some 25 years back. At that time there used to be a supplement on every Tuesday called Science Express where I wrote half page article. Some extracts 

“For example as early as 601 AD in the Vaghbata complied by Indian physicians there is mention about the medicinal herb ‘RAUWOLFIA SERPENTINA’ and only in 1949 in the prestigious British  Heart Journal an Indian physician Rustom Jal Vakil published that powdered root of ‘RAUWOLFIA SERPENTINA  is very effective in lowering blood pressure. Then in 1952 Reserpine was isolated by Swiss chemist employed by CIBA under the direction of Emil Schlitter who produced pure crystals of active ingredient in ‘RAUWOLFIA SERPENTINA and Boston heart specialist Robert Wallace Wilkins observed that Reserpine not only reduced blood pressure but also reduced anxiety. Now to whom will you give the Patents’? Leave alone all the controversies surrounding the product itself.

Unfortunately the things are further complicated, especially in the field of science, by the nexus and fights between industry and academia. While one of it has credibility the other has incredible influence. They generate with the help of media and publicity wings many questions of morality versus utility etc and the ultimate causality is truth.

Naming and nuances

Protection or Security

Verbal/word nuances are context specific. 

We need to be careful when we use certain words, especially when we talk to or try to convey something to a non professional or a person not connected to the domain whereby we make that person understand generally the words.

Then, we can explain to them the specific context. The professional person will anyway know the difference.

It is good that you have raised the mute question. In cyber security, as in many other contexts too, protection refers to prevention from outside influence or attacks and secure means through prevention we ensure to secure a system or data or operations from probable damage or disturbance. 

There are two major aspects to any word what it denotes (denotation) and what it connotes (connotation).

If we go to a site called www.powerthesaurus.com we will get minimum 500 associated words for every word. 

​​

The world's largest dictionary rather to be more precise is called lexical site is run by Google platform called www.Omnilexica.com

For example, STANDARDIZATION is very important in certain spheres like size of plug point or size of Sim cards; in certain areas UNIFORMITY is a necessity to measure and make comparative analysis to determine relative merits and demerits like syllabus in education system.

However, forced HOMOGENIZATION to mutilate variety is unwelcome like compelling everyone to lead only a certain way of life.

Similarly, even natural beauty like a vast mountainous region or travelling in big rivers like Amazon can get boring after sometimes due to sheer MONOTONY.

Either unintentionally or intentionally all the four above i.e. Standards, Uniformity, Homogeneity, Monotony all indicate some sort of sameness or similarity.

However, their importance, impact and our interest in them are obvious but in the case of homogenization it is subtly injected and in the case of MONOTONY it is our mental reaction or attitude.​​

Evaluation of any profession must be based on matters intrinsic to the domain and relevant to context. 

Heart itself is wonderfully referred to as HRUDAYA in Sanskrit which is one of the most perfect terms to indicate both the physical and psychological functionality of the heart.

Besides these surface meaning there is also an esoteric meaning in most of the Sanskrit words.

Meaning of "Hrudaya" from the Bruhadaranya Upanishad:

'Hru' means to bring. This involves bringing impure blood from the body to the heart.

'Da' means to give, involves giving pure blood to the body.

'Ya' means to set right all the activities and maintain the stability of the body. 

It is like in Telugu Saint Tyagaraja’s wonderful kriti where he sings

‘nidhi cAla sukhamA rAmuni sannidhi sEva sukhamA nijamuga palku manasA’

My Mind (manasA)! Tell me (palku) truthfully (nijamuga) whether wealth (nidhi) is very (cAla) comforting (sukhamA) or the service (sEva) in the holy presence (sannidhi) of Lord SrI rAma (rAmuni) comforting (sukhamA)?

We cannot either read or explain seperately the two ‘nidhis’ . It has to be explained or understood only in context .

Judging and evaluating

Many of us have this inherent weakness while judging persons and evaluating issues and rushing to conclusions.

I wish certain words that refer to some thoughts, ideas, and actions reverberate in our consciousness so that when we comment on or judge anyone or anything or any issue or ascribe motives and intentions [which are often our guesswork or presumptions] we don’t falter.

The words being:-

•        Contextual relevance,

•        Nuances of the situation or issue,

•        Intrinsic aspects or merits of the action,

•        Rational approach,

•        Avoidance  of hyper emotional  reactions 

[Entrenched biases and ideological prejudices may be excused as exceptions to these in certain matters of taste in art or preferences of food].

Using one off incidence, single activity, a particular situation, a single goof up, one failure, one slip of the tongue etc to over generalize, to jump to conclusion and to resort to judge the overall character and credentials of a person based on them is wrong. Whereas, if there are signs of consistent manifestation of bad attitude and poor perspective in the way one relates with others, issues and things, then one can evaluate and pass judgments.

Just because a particular top player has performed badly in one encounter /match, even if it is vital one that does not make that person misfit to talk about the game forever.

A single fight or disagreement on a single issue with a spouse does not make one a bad life partner. [Hope it is not interpreted as advocating multiple and regular fights]

Parental Love

Life is best ensconced only in the warmth of parental love 

Father's Day a few years back someone asked me to write a 500 word article.

Whether it is Mother's Day or Father's Day, parenting has a lot of nice things and offers many lessons.

Any relationship we may choose to evaluate or expect aspects like trust, reciprocation, gratitude, understanding and multitude of other compatibility aspects and trade-offs.

However, when it is the parental relationship, none of those are expected and that is the very beauty of this unique relationship where most things are present, taken for granted and most importantly many sublime factors are on offer like unqualified affection, care and love.

Best part is till children grow up it is mostly one way traffic.

This is perhaps the reason why our tradition has placed duty bound reverence in this order Matha, Pitha, Guru, Daivam. [Mother, Father, Teacher and God] 

Parenting involves too many things with too much of involvement.

Many of which may be contradictions, blatant manifestations of hypocrisy etc.

Still, they all work together with too many strong ,personal , interpersonal emotions like care, concern, some amount of possessiveness, obsessive protectionism, sentimentalism, indescribable love which does not seek reciprocation; being and wanting to be physically and mentally available; wanting and willing to eagerly participate in the growth and evolution of the children etc. 

All of these can be realized only when one is or becomes a parent.

However, the following advice brings some sanity to otherwise too involved parenting.

"When you parent, it’s crucial you realize you aren’t raising a ‘mini me’ but a spirit throbbing with its own Signtaure- Dr. Shefali Tsabary.

This is nothing but what JK used to say as allowing the inward flowering.

Parenting very often does not know to differentiate between involvement and intrusion.

All said and done life is best ensconced only in the warmth of parental love which can be taken for granted at any circumstance.

People whose parents are no more alive, when they think of them, many fond memories cascade down the spine and fine feelings gush up the spine and both together flood the heart and choke the throat.

We all need to relish with love the relationship of our parents for whatever they did or did not or could not do and as parents let us do whatever we can to our children with love.

I- the grand inflated ego injected individual called human being

I- the grand inflated ego injected individual called human being.

Many things are conjured up over time in the space between our two ears. 

​​

With these we create a grand identity which marches in its mortal frame briefly as 'I'. 

This 'I', if we investigate and look into it in-depth will actually be made of many 'I's.

They range from great

Ideas, 

Imaginations,

Interpretations, 

Inferences,

Intuitions,

Intellectualization, 

Injecting emotions,

Information overload,

Inheritance of innumerable rituals, cultures, beliefs, traditions,

Inspirational thoughts,

Internalization with conscious awareness, 

Indifference and impervious attitudes,

Innocent curiosity based inquiry into many things,

Inquisitiveness to learn new things,

Incubation of humanitarian concerns to end confrontations and conflicts;

Impulsive behavior patterns, 

Instinctive responses,

Indecisiveness in making choices,

Inability to be humble and introspect,

Inadequate knowledge and understanding in many aspects.

This 'I', if we investigate and look into it in-depth will actually need many 'I's.

They need to

Intimate at least intermittently to

Imbibe a few time tested humanitarian values;

Inculcate scientific temperament;

Instill the importance of rational approach, thinking and outlook;

Increase the frames of references to perceive with contextual relevance;

Interpret and evaluate issues with perspectives based on inherent merits;

Increase synergy among micro and macro aspects.

This 'I', if we investigate and look into it in-depth will resorts to these 'I's.

In spite of all these

Inflated ego of this 'I' 

Impregnates immense importance to itself 

Invigorates all external influences including inviting institutional ideologies,

Imparts illusionary importance to things and giving importance to illusions;

Ignores its own ignorance but

Indicates that of others; 

Insulates or intrudes itself and

Idolizes itself narcissistically as an indispensable and independent

Individual without realizing that everything and everyone are

Interrelated,

Interconnected,

Interdependent and all are

Inhabiting one among the many

Interconnected planets for an

Interim period- which no one knows how long?

Issues, incidents and internal conflicts are woven in and around the reactions or Inherent imbalances of this 'I';

Inner perception of these inevitable facts must inspire us to

Include everyone's welfare as part of life as a whole without inhibition.

Immunize against intimidation by incessant comparisons.

Inner realization may involve some of these aspects but I can't say for sure.