Straight from the Common Man’s Heart

Disclaimer- The thoughts, expressed here are mine and do not promote, endorse or reflect any political agenda. Any similarity is completely coincidental and fictional.

For those less informed, well before Arvind Kejriwal chose the name “AAM Admi” for his political party, my blog was named the common man’s blog, inspired by the great cartoonist of our times, Shri RK Laxman. The smiling mascot of the common man adorned the website for some time, before it got replaced by a human identity (had to change it, as the site was becoming popular and there could have been copyright issuesJ).

There is a little bit of history related to the christening of the blog site as the common man, and I envisaged one before christening it. The common man has humorical satire of presenting his ideas. Laxman’s cartoons provoke the masses, to do something different even during the grimmest situations in life. Thus was born the Common Man’s Blog.

For the uninitiated here is a video that quickly shows a glimpse of his cartoons.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M-q0yM6vuww

So, remembering the common man on the last day of the year, here is the tale that I am going to narrate, which can inspire you to do something distinctly in the year to come. Trust me; the words carry a little bit of weight, as I can predict to some extent, the shape of things to come.

Speak out and stand out - The time has now arrived to come out and speak, with the rise of the AAM admi, let your decibels rise for what is good. Be heard if you are correct, and you have the temerity as well as the audacity to stand by your words. For more than a decade the voice of the common was suppressed, whether it was get a simple license issued, or if it was to get a license issued for a new plant. From a pin to plane, everything single thing demanded vitamin M (money as usually termed by me). The times have arrived, and the common man has now the voice to speak against injustice, uncouth behaviour, corruption and any other malice in the society. So go ahead and shout and your voices will be heard.

Strive for a corruption free society – The country has been struggling and fighting against the burden of this disease since independence, and it has spread its tentacles across spheres. Every minor thing that needs to be accomplished, is achieved under the shades of corruption, not any more. Kejriwal and his men have shown, that in the dawn of the 21^st century, corrupts will not be tolerated, the power hungry buffoon politician’s will be toppled and the society will rout this evil called corruption. Let us move toghether and in unison to achieve a corruption free society. The first step has been taken, lets walk an extra mile to achieve the goal of a corruption free society.

Encourage changes in the sphere of your work and dwelling – Kejriwal rightly points out that, he does not have a magic wand and I strongly second that. Governments, administrators do not have silver bullets to change economies, cities overnight, and nothing can be achieved without the support of the people. It is integral that the beginning has been made and it is crucial to take make the next move. It’s our responsibility, let’s start small, by stopping to litter around, by respecting traffic lights, by ceasing to spit at public places, by not honking at public places, by raising our voices against eve teasing. I believe change is possible, and it only needs courage and conviction.

Support, strive and sacrifice – It has never been easy to achieve the ideal conditions for living. We need to support the people at the helm, strive to inject the desired changes that we envisage in our society and sacrifice our comfort so that our future generations can see a new dawn and live in a society better society.

Happy New year and lets strive for a change starting today.

Drawing Parallels from the Marathon Sessions

I have been a runner for quite sometime, but this time I intended to do something distinctly, and that was to challenge myself to run a marathon. I was aware about the benefits of running, but i simultaneously also intended to run for the pursuit of a goal, and there began a saga. A saga, which I intend to communicate to the world, that what lessons can be drawn, in our professional lives by staying fit, and how does one excel at work.  The lessons when implemented, in our professional lives can yield fantastic results, and can prove fruitful to our units, verticals and the organisation as a whole. The messages are reflected in an alliterative sense, which are easy to remember and yet implementable.

Prior preparation prevents poor performance - One of the integral practices that you intend to follow before running a marathon is preparation. It is imperative, that when you intend to run long races in life, both in professional as well as personal spheres, you intend to prepare. You need to check, whether you can carry the burden of the responsibility on your shoulders. Ditto, is the case in our professional lives, when we head towards an important confluence, or when we are elevated to a particular position, we need to analyse ourselves  and try answering some simple, yet vital questions.

Are we prepared to take the role ? Are we prepared to respond to the client ? Is there any information that is missing ? Have we done our homework properly ? What is that, which makes us capable of leading a team ? Do I posses the desired skills to lead ?

If one is able to find responses, to the above indicative yet simple questions, it can be inferred that the individual is prepared. Running a marathon needs preparation, but so does running a vertical, unit or an organsiation.

Dedication determination and discipline - the words are not unheard, and neither are they being spoken for the first time, but what is important is that, they are being reflected, and reflections are based on facts. In our professional lives, many a times we may not succeed in achieving, customer delight, project executions prior to deadlines, satisfactory client engagements and many other tasks, and I feel all this can be achieved, by the '3D" principle,  i.e. Dedication, Determination and Discipline. The pursuit of goals should be done in a dedicated manner, the determination shoud be 'rock strong' and the discipline should not be compromised. One needs to dedicate onself to a task, with a strong determination and a rigorous discipline, and I see no reason, that any task can becomes non-achievable. 

Gun for a goal and garner the gains- Simply execution of tasks will not lead you anywhere, you have to keep the goal in mind. The goal should be unequivocal, practical and time bound. Goal setting is important, when I initiated my runs, I completed a km (kilometere) in 7mins and 15 secs and I set a goal to myself to lower it, and with practice, i lowered it to 6 mins a kilometer. I had a goal in my mind, that if I am able to run a 6 mins a kilometer, I would be to achieve the goal of completing the marathon, under 150 mins, and which I was able to do so. The moral, 'gun for the gain and gain it" and nothing seems impossible.

Deliver on the dedicated day - All said and done, you have prepared, you are determined, and the goal is clear. Now, what is left is delivery, on the day of delivery, be calm and relaxed. You have done what was intended out of you, go with the flow, enjoy the day and keep the focus on the goal. While executing, don't cease, there would be times when you would feel tired, your body may give up, you may feel you are running alone, which is quite parallel, when we are executing and delivering results to our clients and stake holders, but then drawn strength from your mental stamina and see the difference. The task becomes minuscule, the energy flows in and the desire to achieve the goal becomes stronger and stronger. The mind empowers the body and the goal which seemed to be a goliath, now seems venerable, and you as David will conquer Goliath.

The morals are simple, yet effective and the parallels drawn are strong enough to achieve any task, goal or mission and that we intend to achieve in our life. The message, is simple, prepare, dedicate, set a goal and deliver. Keep running and stay motivated.