All through my life I have been involved in doing so many things that my plate has always been full. Focus was there but complacency and realistic goal setting was missing. There is an incessant desire and insatiable hunger to master every thing I engage into. This has impacted my health, friends and family relationship at times.
For example, in my Computer Science days during college, I aspired to learn as many languages as possible. I would set huge targets of learning and mastery for myself. For example, making a operating system during operating systems class or becoming a god of computer science by learning or knowing every trick of the trade. If I finished reading one technical book then before reaching the end of first book, I tend to start thinking about the next one. May be the mix of competition, ambition and perfection drove me to limits of craziness.
In psychological terms, I was a type B personality. People who wish to do more and more in less time, who are always in "catching with the work" mode. Type B are considered anxious soul who tries to be perfectionist or put large loaf in their mouth than what they can actually chew. These people never rise beyond middle level management. Some times they are hook in the ass of their employee. However, Type B people are the strength of the organization because they are the go-getter and real implementer of things.
With the preparation of Civil Services Examination, I struggled with this habit. The syllabus was endless literally spanning everything under the sun and even beyond it whatever possible. I learned the skill to sideline unimportant things, prioritize my work. I became multi-tasker though I still prefer to do one thing at at time. Ambition and Competition factor remained but perfection was diluted slightly.
Couple of failure helped me in introspection. My subject of Psychology helped me in looking at myself and my daily activities from a neutral stand point. One thing I learned that if I waste my 10 minutes at this point then I do not need to become restless. The day and night progresses in cyclic fashion. In long term, such small interruptions are equalized and would not count as long as you remain focused.
It turned me into hardy personality. This personality type is defined by 3 C's of behavior namely commitment, control and challenge. They have very resilience attitude. The stress at work has a motivating and efficiency inducing effect on them. The insatiable hunger and incessant desire has even increased given my scholarly engagement with Psychology, Political Science and affectionate subject of Computer Science. The domain of reading and interest subjects has increased manifold. I hardly cover even 25% of material available at any point of time. This information overload has very fear-inducing paralytic effect.
Now I understand that I need to put Competition*Ambition*Perfection into the framework of time, relations, and abilities. I do not need to master every single thing. Rather I need to master the essential and spot the people who know the rest. Connect with them or at least know them. It is better to be master of one than Jack of all. Being a Jack has its own advantage and given the experience of civil services, that advantage is going to remain in some core form. But now time has come when I develop masterful skills in one particular domain.
I wish I get into Civils as IAS so that I would be able to put all my skills to productive use in one job. If that does not happen then teaching and entrepreneurship are two alternate activities where I can do justice with my talent and hard work that I have put in. Anyway Let us see which way the wind will blow. The results of Mains are awaited and would be released soon. Let us see what happens then.
Well the transformation from Type B to Hardy personality does not mean that Type B traits are all gone. There are times when I get rest-less. I look at amount of work and activities I need to finish and suddenly I get tensed about poor work management. Though it is momentary but it does happen once in a while. The good thing is I have found an easy way out. Either watch a movie and resume the work after some time or spot the most important task and forget about every single thing on the earth, Just get on the job, finish it and have a sense of accomplishment. It is easier said than done but it works. Another strategy is to write some thing or talk to some one and share your tension. I am doing the same here. Had I been at home, I would have beaten the teddy bear of my sister badly. That would have helped me in cathartic release.
Before ending, Let me tell you Type A as well. They are cool-headed guys, just like Dhoni. They stay calm. They are efficient and good at delegating the work. Thus they are good high end managers like CEO or CMD etc. This does not mean that Type A is better than Type B. They have their own drawbacks like crippling down in the event of too much work.
So the best confluence of Type A and Type B is the HARDY PERSONALITY but the tilt in the mix should be towards Type A. They are the best in the business, true entrepreneurs and energetic creative gutsy individuals. In my case tilt is towards Type B. May be when I get married, the shift may occur. Right now, lot of my work activities are like getting passport renewed or register for Kailash Mansarovar or get UGC certificate or get a bank draft. I wish I had a PA who could have taken care of this overhead. I would have concentrated better on my central activities. Anyway, enough for now. I will start a fresh day tomorrow and focus on only one thing, my entrepreneurship idea. Let the rest of the world **** in the gutter.
One thing I have noted, My titles does not reflect the true essence of my posts. May be because I tend to express myself in honest manner thus loose the track in the course. I should be more careful about this. And don't term me narcissistic for excessive use of I. Ultimately Its my blog.
For example, in my Computer Science days during college, I aspired to learn as many languages as possible. I would set huge targets of learning and mastery for myself. For example, making a operating system during operating systems class or becoming a god of computer science by learning or knowing every trick of the trade. If I finished reading one technical book then before reaching the end of first book, I tend to start thinking about the next one. May be the mix of competition, ambition and perfection drove me to limits of craziness.
In psychological terms, I was a type B personality. People who wish to do more and more in less time, who are always in "catching with the work" mode. Type B are considered anxious soul who tries to be perfectionist or put large loaf in their mouth than what they can actually chew. These people never rise beyond middle level management. Some times they are hook in the ass of their employee. However, Type B people are the strength of the organization because they are the go-getter and real implementer of things.
With the preparation of Civil Services Examination, I struggled with this habit. The syllabus was endless literally spanning everything under the sun and even beyond it whatever possible. I learned the skill to sideline unimportant things, prioritize my work. I became multi-tasker though I still prefer to do one thing at at time. Ambition and Competition factor remained but perfection was diluted slightly.
Couple of failure helped me in introspection. My subject of Psychology helped me in looking at myself and my daily activities from a neutral stand point. One thing I learned that if I waste my 10 minutes at this point then I do not need to become restless. The day and night progresses in cyclic fashion. In long term, such small interruptions are equalized and would not count as long as you remain focused.
It turned me into hardy personality. This personality type is defined by 3 C's of behavior namely commitment, control and challenge. They have very resilience attitude. The stress at work has a motivating and efficiency inducing effect on them. The insatiable hunger and incessant desire has even increased given my scholarly engagement with Psychology, Political Science and affectionate subject of Computer Science. The domain of reading and interest subjects has increased manifold. I hardly cover even 25% of material available at any point of time. This information overload has very fear-inducing paralytic effect.
Now I understand that I need to put Competition*Ambition*Perfection into the framework of time, relations, and abilities. I do not need to master every single thing. Rather I need to master the essential and spot the people who know the rest. Connect with them or at least know them. It is better to be master of one than Jack of all. Being a Jack has its own advantage and given the experience of civil services, that advantage is going to remain in some core form. But now time has come when I develop masterful skills in one particular domain.
I wish I get into Civils as IAS so that I would be able to put all my skills to productive use in one job. If that does not happen then teaching and entrepreneurship are two alternate activities where I can do justice with my talent and hard work that I have put in. Anyway Let us see which way the wind will blow. The results of Mains are awaited and would be released soon. Let us see what happens then.
Well the transformation from Type B to Hardy personality does not mean that Type B traits are all gone. There are times when I get rest-less. I look at amount of work and activities I need to finish and suddenly I get tensed about poor work management. Though it is momentary but it does happen once in a while. The good thing is I have found an easy way out. Either watch a movie and resume the work after some time or spot the most important task and forget about every single thing on the earth, Just get on the job, finish it and have a sense of accomplishment. It is easier said than done but it works. Another strategy is to write some thing or talk to some one and share your tension. I am doing the same here. Had I been at home, I would have beaten the teddy bear of my sister badly. That would have helped me in cathartic release.
Before ending, Let me tell you Type A as well. They are cool-headed guys, just like Dhoni. They stay calm. They are efficient and good at delegating the work. Thus they are good high end managers like CEO or CMD etc. This does not mean that Type A is better than Type B. They have their own drawbacks like crippling down in the event of too much work.
So the best confluence of Type A and Type B is the HARDY PERSONALITY but the tilt in the mix should be towards Type A. They are the best in the business, true entrepreneurs and energetic creative gutsy individuals. In my case tilt is towards Type B. May be when I get married, the shift may occur. Right now, lot of my work activities are like getting passport renewed or register for Kailash Mansarovar or get UGC certificate or get a bank draft. I wish I had a PA who could have taken care of this overhead. I would have concentrated better on my central activities. Anyway, enough for now. I will start a fresh day tomorrow and focus on only one thing, my entrepreneurship idea. Let the rest of the world **** in the gutter.
One thing I have noted, My titles does not reflect the true essence of my posts. May be because I tend to express myself in honest manner thus loose the track in the course. I should be more careful about this. And don't term me narcissistic for excessive use of I. Ultimately Its my blog.
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