Found this little card in my desk drawer recently. It’s something I received at the end of a workshop led by Jagdish Parikh (author of “Managing Your Self: Management by Detached Involvement”) few years ago. At the end of the workshop each participant made a commitment to him/herself, which we wrote on the back of the card (see image at the end of the post). On the front side there were outlined five essential techniques presented by Mr. Parikh and used for leading oneself towards increasing personal and professional effectiveness (see the other image at the end of the post).
When I saw the card today I found quite a lot of connection between the points outlined on it to what I have learnt throughout my studies with the Institute for the Study of Man and at the various courses run by its founder and director of the institude, Mrs. Elizabeth Schnugh. I paraphrased the five points and the meaning of my personal commitment from Mr. Parikh's workshop below through the lenses of my personal experience and the ISM teachings...
- No amount of information has any value until it's applied practically in life and by that turned into real knowledge through the experience involved
- We are not our bodies, thoughts or emotions, but those are a great tools we have been given and we can greatly benefit in life by using them intelligently
- Inner balance, calmness and focus are always within a reach. It's our own choice how do we response to any situation. It's us who chooses to re-act, or be response-able
- Self-awareness is a question of practice. The more self-aware in any give moment we are, the more response-able we become
- When we are self-aware, we can practice not-doing our habits, which is a powerful technique. Shift the focus by always wondering how can I dismantle my habits by taking a different approach rather than re-enacting my usual folly
- Emotions are not to be fought or suppressed. Instead they could be a powerful ally when used correctly. Each type of emotion has a specific energy which when used intelligently could give us the power to transmute the emotion into something positive, rather than to empower the view of of the world we have gotten stuck in
