Choice

I have started receiving complaints from people that my blogs are very serious (unlike the person I am) and that reading them often gives rise to ‘foolish philosophy’ in their head. They have demanded lighter essays. I have not written for a long time not because I was bogged down by them but because I have been in a whirlwind of work. In one of my blogs in Dec-Jan I had said about the mounting work pressure and they took some toll on me. But I have made sure I keep posting some thing or the other just to ensure that I am still in the habit of blogging. But finally I decided to put my foot down. I had to choose between my spirit and my mind. I choose my spirit. And now I have decided to follow it for sometime.
Making choices have always been a tough thing in life. There have been lots of thoughts and energy spend on choices. And its said that choices decide who we are. I would like to throw open the Pandora’s box of thoughts and choices. How would you react in the following situation?
(Concept taken from The 8th Habit).
1. Firstly you are not treated fairly. That is there is lots of politics at play in your organization, there is nepotism. The pay system doesn’t seem to be fair and just. Your own pay doesn’t accurately reflect your level of contribution to the organization. What would be your choice?
2. Lets say you are treated fairly in terms of your pay but is not treated kindly, that is you are not respected, your treatment is inconsistent, arbitrary, capricious, perhaps largely dictated by the mood of your boss. What would you do?
3. Let’s say you are paid well and treated fairly but when your opinion is wanted it is given to you. In other ways your body and heart is valued and not your mind. What would your choice be?
4. Now let’s say you are paid well, treated kindly, involved creatively but you are asked to dig a hole and fill it up again, or to fill out reports that no one sees or uses. In other words your work is meaningless. What would your choice be?
5. Now let’s say you are treated well, paid fairly and involved creatively but there is lots of unethical work going on around you. The people around you are not trustable or they cheat you and each other. What would you do?
(Concept taken from The 8th Habit)Mind, Heart, Body, Spirit are the four aspects of humans that require equal attention. I had been a firm believer that being logical and analytical answers all questions of human life. Slowly I have realized that life has its wings spread beyond the realms of Logic and Analysis. I will agree that all these four aspects of human beings need to be addressed. The choices to the above said problems can be any one of the following.
a) Rebel/Quit
b) Malicious Obedience
c) Willing Compliance
d) Cheerful Co-operation
e) Heartfelt Commitment
f) Creative Excitement
Yes the four aspects of Human needs to be addressed with equal importance. When I look around I can see people with misbalanced aspects. Want to know the biggest example. It’s me, myself. From the above examples I had faced situation 1 in the previous job and my choice was option a. The very fact that my mind, heart, body, spirit revolted prompted me to rebel and quit. Yes it was one of the great learning experiences for me.
Now the question comes what drives our choices. Most people says its our aim/vision/future goals that drives our choices. This is true yet they are not so true. It’s because many a time we ‘take the road less taken by’ so we don’t have clear vision of our goal but yet we make our choices.
Another interesting concept is that between Cause and Effect (Concept taken from 8th Habit) we have a time to make our choices. STIMULUS >Freedom to Choose> RESPONSE
Now this window in between varies from people to people. Some people make choices immediately on being given the stimulus and some take time to make them. The difference lies there. This window transforms our lives. The difference between success and failure is governed by this window.
Many people have argued ‘I take decisions instinctively’! My question is define instinct? How can you define intuitiveness or instinct? Its one of the most puzzling processes in our brain. The brain takes all the parameters required to process a decision and in a fraction of a second does the processing. We think it’s intuitive but it’s the fastest output of a calculative process. Thus our instinctive decisions are the one for which this window between Stimulus and Response is the smallest.
I won’t go into the domain where we can discuss the consequence of choices. That’s a completely different domain but here I would concentrate more on choices we make. So going back to the classification of choices I think the best choice is Creative Excitement. The things that we do should involve a creative excitement associated with it. Be it relationship/Job/ day to day life, if there is a creative excitement then things will be more enjoyable. This is how the concept of ‘Work’ and ‘Play’ was defined in ‘Tom Sawyer’. So the best decisions are which evokes creative excitement among us. This is my point of view about choices we make. But then again we are not always in a position to make choices, in those cases make the best use of the choices and resources given to you. Invoke creative excitement among yourself. Not all choices will be popular but if that choice invokes creative excitement and you have the self-belief then go ahead with it.