Title
How integrity helps in reaching the ultimate life goals
by Dr. N. Sai Bhaskar Reddy
1st eBook Edition, released 2018
This is an ‘Open Knowledge’ book as declared by the author. saibhaskarnakka@gmail.com | http://saibhaskar.com
For ‘The Earth’
Introduction
A goal is an idea of the future or desired result that a person or a group of people envisions, plans and commits to achieve. So, goal is always ahead of time and not in the present. Integrity is the quality of being honest and having strong moral principles.
There is no guarantee that one one would live so many years. When, future is not predictable, so how one could plan a goal with certainty.
The goal is the ultimate means to achieve greater change. Peace, Love, Happiness, and Freedom are the fundamental building blocks which comprise goals. Spirit is the basic innate energy which should always be active in one’s life to achieve the goal. Spirit is a precursor to goal. Life without a goal is less meaningful.
Intention and initiative are necessary to realise one’s goal. Maximum performance is needed to achieve challenging goals. Goal is not something which is easily achievable. On the way of achieving goal, one would reach somewhere.
Working for oneself is not the goal. Like brushing teeth or combing hair or taking bath. These are mean things that one would do to exist on the earth.
Understanding the purpose of life at an early age makes life more valuable. Children being young may not comprehend ‘goal for the life,' they can have short-run goals. Goals can change over time and space for children, but after reaching a certain age, say between the age group 12 years and 18 years, they should understand and decide a goal and endeavour to achieve it.
The goal is like trying to reach the top of a peak. The time spent in reaching the peak is more than time spent at the peak. Achieving the goal implies all the processes are followed. An ant is never seen sleeping under a tree in spite of securing its food. An ant’s goal in life is to the well-being and prosperity of the community. A goal is ultimate and there is no loss in striving, one achieves it or will end up somewhere on the way.
The profession chosen need not be the goal, but the purpose and values around the result describe the Goal.
There are various quotes from scriptures, the process of achieving a goal and the relationship with the results or goal, are understood in different ways.
If achieving goal is one of the results, one should be conscious of the anticipated goal. As result is in the future and one could only focus on the present, which is a process or causing and achieving a series of smaller results. That is why in Bhagavadh Gita it is said, do your duty using the best of your abilities and don't think about the results. Every result should lead to achieving common goal that is the goal which benefits the society at large. Goal is not about the result, it is about the journey in ones life towards achieving the result. Therefore, goal is mostly in the subconscious mind and during contemplation it surfaces in the conscious mind.
There are various paths in achieving once goal. The path of hardships is less travelled and any person working in those areas and achieving results is visible.
As one's lifespan is anticipated but uncertain, having Goals based on time period are okay. Goals can be long-term, intermediate, or short-term. The primary difference is the time required to achieve them. A number of short-term goals could feed into achieving the medium-term and long-term goals. Long-term achievements rely on short-term achievements. Emotional control over the small moments of the single day makes a big difference in the long term.
Goals by source are like common goal, organisation goal, group goal and personal goal. The personal goals might be private, whereas the common goals are related to the society at large.
How to define one's goal?
Achieving complex and difficult goals requires focus, long-term diligence and effort (see Goal pursuit). Success in any field requires forgoing excuses and justifications for poor performance or lack of adequate planning; in short, success requires emotional maturity. The measure of belief that people have in their ability to achieve a personal goal also affects that achievement.
There has been a lot of research conducted looking at the link between achieving desired goals, changes to self-efficacy and integrity and ultimately changes to subjective well-being. Goal efficacy refers to how likely an individual is to succeed in achieving their goal. Goal integrity refers to how consistent one's goals are with core aspects of the self. Research has shown that a focus on goal efficacy is associated with well-being factor happiness (subjective well-being) and goal integrity is associated with the well-being factor meaning (psychology). Multiple studies have shown the link between achieving long-term goals and changes in subjective well-being; most research shows that achieving goals that hold personal meaning to an individual increases feelings of subjective well-being.
Every person has goals: there could be well defined goals; some goals are declared and explicit; some people are still planning and are on the path of declaring a larger goal based on the results achieved from smaller goals, etc.
Goal is like in an an Indian Rangoli - the grid of dots are same, but each person creates their designs by drawing the lines. This is based on each person's ability and interest. Life is like a maze appears very complex, but one could find the way to reach the goal.
Goal setting and planning ("goal work") promotes long-term vision, intermediate mission and short-term motivation. It focuses intention, desire, acquisition of knowledge, and helps to organise resources.
Goals are variable in time and space. If young people set their goals at an early age, they would have more time and capacity to change the world. But it is not possible to set goals early and the goals are often amended or new goals are set with time. The beauty of life is the goal that guides and drives every action of a person. Young children consider that their teachers are knowledgeable and wise, so they respect them. Many children say that they want to be a 'Teacher' when they grow up. If teachers are asked - What is their Goal in life? Many of them don’t have a straight answer. If teachers don’t have a life goal, how can they inspire the children towards a goal? Teachers bereft of a goal would never be able to teach a child what a ‘Goal’ is?
Learning is part of reaching goal
Being sensitive is a great boon for realising one’s goal and to lead in any facet of life. Awareness makes a person sensitive, sensitive person acquires knowledge and skills by all means also will do convergence and networking, sets the goals and achieves them. Learning is a continuous process and learning must meet the purpose. The purpose of learning should support one in achieving the personal and common goals. People eliminate a person for a job based on the qualification, skills, knowledge, etc. Instead of saying I don't know and loosing an opportunity, accept the challenge, learn and do the work.
Every work is part of common Goal
One cannot work for oneself. Every person's work is part of the whole. The whole is part of the goal. The common goals to be achieved is not someone’s job. Therefore, a leader inspires and in the space of “everyone a great leader”, strives for the achievement of common goals. For accomplishing a task a group of people coming together with strengths and diversity makes a team.
If one is confused to select a goal on their own, they could choose from the common goals as declared by UN. They could choose the work contributing to achieve some of the goals. The common challenges and sustainable development goals are explained below.
The United Nations Climate Change Conference, COP 21 or CMP 11 was held in Paris, France, from 30 November to 12 December 2015. A historic agreement to combat climate change and unleash actions and investment towards a low carbon, resilient and sustainable future was agreed by 195 nations. The universal agreement’s primary aim is to keep a global temperature rise this century well below 2 degrees Celsius and to drive efforts to limit the temperature increase even further to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels.
At the United Nations Sustainable Development Summit on 25 September 2015, world leaders adopted the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, which includes a set of 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to end poverty, fight inequality and injustice, and tackle climate change by 2030. The 17 Sustainable Development Goals and 169 targets, demonstrate the scale and ambition of this new Global Agenda. They seek to build on the Millennium Development Goals and complete what these did not achieve. They try to realise the human rights of all and to achieve gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls. They are integrated and indivisible and balance the three dimensions of sustainable development: the economic, social and environmental.
GOAL 1: No Poverty
GOAL 2: Zero Hunger
GOAL 3: Good Health and Well-being
GOAL 4: Quality Education
GOAL 5: Gender Equality
GOAL 6: Clean Water and Sanitation
GOAL 7: Affordable and Clean Energy
GOAL 8: Decent Work and Economic Growth
GOAL 9: Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure
GOAL 10: Reduced Inequality
GOAL 11: Sustainable Cities and Communities
GOAL 12: Responsible Consumption and Production
GOAL 13: Climate Action
GOAL 14: Life Below Water
GOAL 15: Life on Land
GOAL 16: Peace and Justice Strong Institutions
GOAL 17: Partnerships to achieve the Goal
The above two decisions are most important in the present context of global uncertainties. Frequent droughts affecting the underdeveloped and developing countries; depleting freshwater water sources; land degradation; loss of biodiversity; increased inequities and poverty; and increased forced migrants, asylum seekers and refugees as a result of some of the above reasons. The 2 degrees’ rise is a compromise by nations. At 2 degrees’ rise, all the SDGs would become more vulnerable to address. 2015 was the hottest year, records of the hottest years are broken now. Submergence of islands and coastal areas; frequent droughts and storms leading to floods are some of the impacts to be experienced in the future too.
Global economies are highly volatile. The consumer based economy is a vicious cycle. Unemployment rate is very high in many countries even up to 40%. The Chinese economy, one of the largest global economies is in doldrums. Therefore, the dependent countries’ economies are also in poor condition. The good sign is that there is less demand for oil. As a result, the oil price has come down drastically, after so many years. Less usage of fossil fuels reduces the global CO2 emissions. Now it is the right time for countries to switch to alternative renewable energy sources. International Solar Energy Alliance formed at COP21 is a good initiative.
The governments taking sustainable development seriously should stop sacrificing the environment for economic benefits. The immediate targets under SDGs are massive, how do we source funds and establish systems to achieve them. The grassroots civil society organisations are disappearing. The international funding is discouraged. The corporate social responsibility funds are the primary sources of funds. In the areas of education and health, the sources of financing would be better. The polluting industries would rarely support the organisations working on environment and ecology. Finding civil society movements for the environment and ecological issues are rare. The movements and revolutions would be more common for livelihoods. The natural resources sustainability is of utmost importance to all life on earth. Food security is an important concern, for which the farmers and the farming system should be sustainable. Farmers are highly vulnerable and soon there would be a shortage of ‘farmers’. Each person should emerge as an earth leader for whom “ecosystem matters”. We want institutes for earth leaders for harmony and good governance. The collective global leadership is rare to find. Several governments are taking the role of corporates and also civil society. The current leaders are too political and mean, not even able to represent their own people. Inflation is very high even in the ‘rich’ countries. Ways to strengthen the economies of countries through petrol, military might, consortiums and through interference in the policies of other countries are least healthy. The virtual currencies based economies would not last longer. The super-rich people would find themselves poorer than Bushman in Kalahari. New models and relationships between countries are emerging on the principles of “survival of the opportunist”. In these systems, there are not many values and it is very dangerous. The whole world is already beyond the carrying capacity, becoming less ‘human’. This earth is virtually divided into many ‘earth’s’, with increasing borders and stringent laws preventing peoples’ movement.
Each and every individual should strive for small ecological footprints. The way of living also matters, what we eat and how much we waste; per capita usage of water and energy; etc. To begin with, 2016 is a crucial watershed year in the history of Human Beings, for making right decisions and strive for the common good.
Contemplate and retreat to redefine one's goal
In every school, a space should be created for sometime to the children where they are taken to a natural environment for a few days to be mindful of the natural surroundings and also for them to contemplate on the common goals of their interest.
We are thinking human beings, and life is not a granted thing as we also spend so much time and efforts to make a child a person by imparting education, skills and knowledge. Which is one-third to one-fifth of a person’s lifespan. Giving a chance for everyone to set goals, live the way one loves to be and make a meaningful and complete life.
Geo Spirit Meets for declaring goals
I have been conducting humbly Geo Spirit Meets for the emergence of earth leadership. These meetings included people from all walks of life and sometimes exclusively conducted for children. During these meets, some activities were done which makes the participants mindful, focussed, sensitive, contemplative and determined.
The Geo Spirit meets are conducted mostly in the natural surroundings, where there is very less communication and they could have space for themselves. Especially the whole night discussions by sitting around the fire camp , in some serene natural surroundings. At the end they become more determined and committed to their common goals.
During Geo Spirit meets, the earth conscious people come together to experience earth, discuss, learn, and declare their goals and action plans. The declaration made by respective participants at the end of each Geo Spirit Meet is a self-declaration and voluntary. One’s declaration is the most powerful thing. The facilitator only encourages and inspires for taking up the bigger challenge. The individual declarations are not recorded, nor meant to be monitored for the progress or results. The achievements and the results speak for themselves.
Declaring “GEO Spirit centers” and “Mother Trees” is one of the means to conserve biodiversity and most importantly the soil microbes.
The Geo Spirit meets can be organised everywhere, which inspires and motivates one to work for the determined cause. Such as, in the lush green forest areas, in the mountains, in a desert, at water bodies, in the slum areas, in the middle of the city, etc. Every part and place should inspire us as we love each and every part of the earth.
As avenue to conduct the Geo Spirit meet, any place on the earth could be selected. Preferably a place where there is less disturbance. For those interested in the environment and ecological challenges a natural area is preferred. Someone among the participants should declare a date and venue for the Geo Spirit Meet. The number of participants ideally could be around 30 people. To participate in a meet, the group size could be 5 to 50 people. The participants in the meets could be men, women, youth and children (above 12 years’ age). It would be convenient to conduct meets for people with similar interests and age groups together, then a diverse and broad spectrum of individuals.
For all those willing to participate in the Geo Spirit meet, the commencement begins from the moment one has confirmed to join. Geo spirit is a continuous process and for lifelong.
Geo Spirit meets are not commercial. The participants should bear the cost of coming to the venue on their own. The local organisation or coordinator declares the date and venue of Geo spirit meet. They take care of the food and local logistics. In the case of not being in a position to take care of logistics, the participants should share the cost. The Geo Spirit meets should be conducted with least expenditure and in a manner as simple as possible. The participation is more of commitment to the earth, rather an entertainment tour or adventure trip to the participants. All the participants should participate voluntarily and give a self-declaration for their life during participation.
Food and beverages served should preferably be same as closer to local traditions and customs. The stay would be mostly in the open and with least resources. A typical Geo Spirit meet, lasts about 24 hours.
Individuals should wear any comfortable dress with accessories such as jackets or sweaters or shawls or caps etc. to protect themselves from the weather. Should preferably wear shoes. Should have a small tent if possible. A blanket or a sleeping bag is optional based on the need. Should not bring books, music players, laptops, playing gadgets, etc. Before coming for the Geo Spirit meet should read some good books or watch videos relevant to their goals. A few experiences from the Geo Spirit meets conducted by the author are shared below.
For encouraging students to be the future leaders, students are exposed to several case studies including the personalities who have accomplished in life. a) A person from a rural area, studied in a government school, with great hardships did Ph.D., and now working in a multinational company. He is now earning well, and having a comfortable life b) A person from a village background, who was poor, once upon a time. Went abroad for a better income and now CEO of several companies. c) A person from a middle-class family, who struggled and studied well from reputed colleges. Although had the potential to get a ‘decent’ job, to the surprise of everyone, one day decided to work for the rural communities and on environmental issues. d) A person from village never went to school, but practicing sustainable agriculture. A source of inspiration for many farmers; never made wealth but living happily. e) A person struggled hard and achieved a government job as Agriculture Officer, automatic promotion and salary hike is ensured. Holidays, leaves and health insurance are taken care. Responsibility is least for the failure of the crops, farmers falling into the debt trap for increased inputs, and even farmers committing suicide for losing everything.
Each person is great in their own way, a child should not follow others’ lives, but should choose on their own. The choice is the fundamental source of freedom.
Work
Work should be enjoyable, productive and lead to more work. Some people say they have done the work but with no results irritates many. Some people seem to be very hectic and doing lots of work, but the results are not meaningful for the efforts invested. All the species on earth work with their maximum efficiencies. Some people think they deserve the honorarium for attending the job. The majority of species do not exploit their own species as much as the humans do. Work is worship is to be preached to people who are lazy or in search of secure jobs. The day one has done productive work, one would share happily with someone they love.
We have to do something in life, so just do what you love. But real love manifests in doing not for you and not about you. If one has to live on earth, the resources and environment are helping us to live. And one has to work for all.
Job is a subset of work. One can be jobless, nevertheless should be without any kind of work. The job is described as the principal activity in one’s life that one does to earn money. If earning money is one's ultimate goal in life, then one’s job is very hard. Money is a myth between real and unreal values. Money should be one's demand and command, one should not become the slave of money. Loving money does not mean that money loves you.
Earth will not be abundant if one earns. The richer the people, poorer the earth.
One would love the job, if ones interests and goals are also achieved. Love your job not a day of work. Many people want to have any kind of job. One of the principal reasons is security and money.
The social force that binds one to the courses of action demanded by that force is duty. The duty of a person is invaluable, it is altogether having a different value system, beyond monetary concerns. Duties are declared under the job, but most often they are not mandatory and only act as guidelines. Sometimes duties extend beyond time and space. Job and rights are always together. Sometimes, the rights of a job clash with duties. Many people in Government services are doing simple jobs. The responsibility of Government employee most often ends up with the right to a job and the privileges of that job. Sometimes the costliest services delivered are the government services, because of inefficiency. For the failures, it is rare to find a Government employee taking responsibility on their own and resigning from a job.
The government systems globally are becoming more and more inefficient, that is one more reason for increased expenditure budgets every year. Creating government jobs is not important unless we reduce inefficiencies.
Art, Science and Technology all are important. Say, an engineer designs a car with good engine and structure, but an artist finalises the design of body with good shape and colours. A car designed only by engineers may not be appealing to the common public by looks. One might find more jobs and highly paid, by not studying arts. All the subjects are important in leading a life of completeness. Beauty of existence is an amalgamation of art, science and technology.
The people should come out of the comfort zone. Living in a comfort zone might make one loose goal. Only sensitive people can come out of the comfort zone. Education need not make a person more sensitive and humane. It is incidental, accidental or by choice, that the great leaders on the earth were not in a comfort zone. They subjected to the challenges of the world, struggled and have got sensitised through exposure in the process their empathy, compassion and response also increased with time.
Deviations in reaching the goal
Don’t accept everything on the path of reaching one's goal. For a living one might chose a profession, but should strive to chose the right profession relevant to ones goal.
We find people saying something like ‘I have this much of assets, or this many people behind me, or this is my support …’, this is a kind of a state of human being which tries to satisfy human needs guides one’s actions and provides meaning of one’s being. These ideas in fact are mostly his greed. This is what is driving some of the humans in their rat race for materialistic goals which in reality is only a matter which is never a part of the inner being of a human. So this realisation should exist among all humans. Once they start realising these basic things then I hope the whole world and all the humanity will be more concerned and will be working for the common good.
Parents trying to reach the goal through children is a form of selfish genes promotion. What they could not achieve in their lifetime they want to achieve through the children.
For instance, every parent tries to envision the future of one’s child with regard to child’s education where a child invests at least twenty years in learning. It takes into account the possible new economic scenarios, likely job market, possible skills and courses one must study to accomplish the goals. It means our educationists and leaders must foresee the changes in economy and society and frame the syllabus and lessons taught in schools are in line with the development visions that take into account the future economy, industry, demography, society and several other related sectors are likely to be say at least 20 to 50 years from now on. Only then the aspirations of a child are met. Of course the technologies and the requirements of the society are fast changing. To keep in phase, the midterm corrections are necessary, that is amending the syllabus or letting the student attend new courses. Learning is a continuous process and learning must meet the purpose. The purpose of learning should support one in achieving the personal and common goals.
As part of the current education system, Human beings spend about one-third to one-fourth of their lifetime to get educated. Parents don’t know in which areas their child is most interested. Children are too small to understand their interest, so they are forced to learn everything till 10th standard. But every child knows their interest in time and space. Their interest might vary with time as they grow. But the teachers and parents believe that the children are too young and they don’t know what they want to be in life. And force them to choose areas, which they believe would guarantee secured livelihood. There is no system to encourage a child, have the freedom to set their own goal and strive to achieve, as they grow.
The beauty of life is the progeny. There is no continuity or existence without progeny. The ultimate goal is to secure the life of this offspring, for which we put all our energy and efforts. All life on this earth exists for the same purpose.
Prioritisation and importance given to planning and implementationPrioritisation and importance given to planning and implementation also matters at any given time and in space. Lack of timely importance and prioritisation given to the current challenges might lead to lose the long term vision and goals.
Goals of entities
One’s goal need not be the same as the goal of the organisation where someone is working. If the interest of a person and the interest of the organisation are similar than it is the right job. The organisations are like the launching platforms for one to shoot and do greater things and reach the stars.
People continue to do jobs, even when they are in the wrong place. Over a period, people would suffer in doing such a job and their performance comes down. Selecting right candidate for the job is one of the challenges that the organisations face.
Organisation goals and getting the right people
Sometimes people learn anticipated interview questions and try to answer everything convincingly and pass the interview. They could deceive by the looks, dress, and the ready-made answers.
Education or qualifications are one of the criteria usually adopted for short listing the candidates. But interview plays an important role, on how well the candidate fits into the system and adaptable with the teams. The candidate’s looks, communication skills, spontaneous response to the questions, geography, age, sex, and everything matters. Cultural values of the society that they represent and the baggage of individual’s own experiences matters a lot.
I had different approaches to interview the candidates. Attitude of the people is important than the qualifications. To test the attitude, once I gave the task of cooking to a person attending the interview, as the job was for facilitation of good stoves. The way he prepared with all humbleness and served the cooked food, he was selected for the job.
Select the right candidates for the organisation
Methods to identify the candidates suitable to meet the goals of an organisation.
I have devised some other methods of selection. Once three candidates came for the interview to work with me on facilitating stoves. I took them to the GEO Research Center, it was about 10 a.m. in the morning. After brief introductions, I asked them who knows cooking. One person said he can cook. I asked him to go to the kitchen and cook the lunch for all of us. I started interviewing the two other candidates. He cooked the food very nicely, and the way he served impressed me. At the end, he asked me that I did not interview him. I said he has passed the interview. The dedication and commitment of a person could also be seen in small acts.
In another instance, I had to choose candidates for the field coordination. Asked the candidates, to sit on the ground in different positions. The first question was, how they would invite and convince a farmer to come and attend a meeting. Asked them to do role play considering one of the candidate as reluctant farmer. Made the observations. Told them about the hardships in the field and before making their decision to join, asked them to consult their parents. To my satisfaction, the selected two candidates have played an important role in doing capacity building for about 50,000 people in 15 months' time period.
Once there appeared eight candidates for an interview. The job was in the field area, which requires lots of travel with least facilities. Only one girl was there among the eight candidates. Because of the late hours to travel and the difficulties in the field, it was more suitable for the male candidate in that field area. Meanwhile, halfway through the interview during the lunch break, four candidates left considering the challenges of the job. Ms. Nagamani said that she is ready to do the job in all types of hardships. She proved her worthiness and was the right candidate. Sometimes by telling the challenges one could assess the interest of the candidates who really want to contribute in all kinds of situations. People always want a comfort zone.
Recommendation from someone supporting the candidature for a job, is not bad if the right person is recommended. I have taken one person based on recommendation, he was okay in his job. Whenever he took leave for three days to visit his native village, never returned to the job after the leave period. He also kept his phone switched off or did not respond to the phone calls even when it is ringing. Nor informed that he required more days of leave. In my organisation, I never deducted the salaries of the people even if they are absent beyond the leave period.
In a team one should not force individual opinions on others. The collaboration, cooperation, patience and sharing is required in a team. Team spirit is taking the responsibility as a team and not to blame the individuals. Once it happened that one of my team mates while making the final presentation was questioning me. One of the participants asked her why she was asking now, as a team member she could have discussed within the group before final presentation. She was part of four member team and did not participate as a team member.
Innovation and learning inspires
Innovation and learning inspires people in their work. Redundancy creeps in where there is routine. Every organisation and people must evolve with time and adapt to change, as leaders striving for change is a continuous process. One cannot stick to the traditions as the demands and possibilities change in time. Change is for present and future.
Freedom to do what one aspires is the highest value to an individual. Freedom with responsibility in one’s actions is as one lives in an environment. The environments impacted by every action are: social, physical, natural and spiritual.
One of my team members said that he wanted to leave the job and would like to try for a position in the government. Considering his priority, I said that, this is your organisation, go and attend the interview. If you get the job, well and good. If not selected there, consider this as your own organisation, come and join back. He left and tried, but could not qualify. After returning his attitude has changed. He was not much focussed on the work. He thought that he was indispensable and I cannot do anything without him. It is like when someone said bye but not leaving, the host feels embarrassed. I was in that situation. After a few months another team member was leaving the organisation for higher education. The same person without any reason, also wanted to leave at the same time. This time I said yes please and did not offer him to come back, if he failed to find a job of his choice. I felt the freedom by letting him go. Within few days, I could find a more committed team to work. When one is seeking freedom, give complete freedom. Never tag with something to return back. An earmarked goat can never gain complete freedom in life.
Some people wanted to do all the personal things in the office hours only. Consider it as their birth right such as: Studying the share market and investing in the shares; Writing poetry or books; Making phone calls to friends; Social networking on the sites; Bank transactions; Online purchases; Watching sports; Eating breakfast in the office; watching serials, news or movies; doing exercises and going for long walks; and doing gossip and talking bad about boss and other colleague's day long. There is another category, by not doing anything they feel very happy.
Some people misrepresent or create hype in their CVs. Someone said that he was refining his CV. He sent me a copy of his CV to suggest improvements. He has written his designation, and below which written all the projects the company is doing. It appeared that he is involved in every project and doing everything. It is deceiving people. Some of the organisations bidding for consultancy projects modify the CV of the resource persons. Some of the job seekers have become clever and are doing the same.
There are some people, who donate their CV to a friend who has similar qualifications but not having much experience. By changing the basic details, such as name, age, address, they submit the CV with friend’s experiences. Sometimes they also get the job with such ‘creative’ experiences. Both the friends are happy. People who try to cheat others by false claims of experience don’t keep their CV in the public domain nor share their CV with others. Because they know that they could be caught.
Sometimes jobs are given due to recommendation or favour. In the sanctioning of a project, one person has done a favour, so it became an obligation for the company to hire a person recommended by them. This person comes to office, was given a perfect place to sit. Regularly takes breakfast, lunch, tea, and snacks on time. He was given a computer, so he is happy using social media. Leaves early to attend spoken English classes. He smiles a lot and is happy always. He knows there is not much work for him to do. Still, his confidence is high because the boss is known to him and was recommended. Some of them are given smaller roles or jobs even when they have higher qualifications. Often, highly educated officials work as secretaries for an illiterate, least performing and corrupt politician.
A Human resources manager is employed in an organisation as it grows. It is a tough job to manage human resources towards achieving the organisations goals. Education is a system of conditioning the people to serve the purpose of the industries and organisations goals. Through education system one will get engaged in learning many unrelated things and does not question why one is forced to learn such things. So a person in education system is so engaged and one day emerges with a mean goal that is finding a job.
Each person in an organisation are connected together as a community. The roles and responsibilities of each one could be different but ultimately should work for the common goal, like all the ants belonging to an ant hill do.
The integrity of an engine would fail over a period if some of the parts are not functioning. Sometimes, it is easy to manage machines and use them with maximum efficiency, as they don't have emotions like human beings.
Like a rotten fruit which spoils other fruits in a basket, some people in an organisation would spoil the organisation over a period by influencing others. In this regard action should be taken. Therefore, the Human Resources manager role is important.
HR manager is employed by the head of the organisation for various reasons. Being a disciplinarian and for demanding performance, it is rare that people love their HR manager or the team lead. Very rarely people in organisations show humanness and empathy towards the employees and those who do they are loved and respected.
If a person moves out of an organisation there are few reasons. They get a better opportunity, does not like the pay or work environment, dismissed or demoted from the present position, etc. The organisation should be happy if an empolyee gets a better opportunity and moves away, because being in their organisation they could learn and progress in life. The brand of the organisation also grows. A farewell should be organised and appreciate the contributions of the person in that organisation. I have seen that in one organisation a person contributed for more than 30 years and on his last day from the organisation not even a thanks or appreciation letter for given as a gesture. If a person is jobless or did not get a better job after moving from an organisation, it also means this organisation could not utilise the services of the person, and provide opportunities to improve the skills and knowledge progressively. It is a shame to the organisation too. Sometimes, the person will curse and spread bad propaganda about the organisation.
The HR policies and strict implementation is very much relevant in large organisations. They are much relevant in the production sector.
Good deeds of a person are rarely remembered as compared to the bad deeds of a person. For bad deeds one is named and punished also.
How much income a person deserves from the job? This a highly variable question. People sometimes demand more because the organisation is able to pay. Sometimes the honorarium taken has nothing to do with the performance in a day or in a month. Sometimes, people demand money because they need that much money not proportionate to the work or effort. For the work done in a day, people taking honorarium daily are more sensitive than those taking the pay at the month end.
Government staff gets dearness allowance from time to time. When the prices plummet, the dearness allowance is not taken back. In my lectures to sensitise the officials on the plight of the farmers, I used to say that the employees should be paid based on the percentage of the average rainfall received in a particular month. Then they would understand and be sensitive to how uncertain the life of farmers is like. Then everyone would pray for good rains and would take initiatives such as planting trees and reduce carbon emissions. To this proposition no one is ready. They say it was precisely to avoid such uncertainties they have studied hard and chosen a job which is secure and with an assured income.
Anytime is right time for good work
Government employees are good people. For good people, they have convenient timings. They also have holidays and enjoy all kinds of leaves. There are often more than the required number of people and the overall efficiency is low. Some people never listen to anyone because they are government employees and permanent. They are also part of the employee’s associations or unions, and some are leaders. The good people through Good Governance are committed to development.
For the good people the time is less, and sometimes they do good things during the auspicious hours. Although for doing good, anytime is good and no time is bad.
Whereas there are some people who believe they must work for the results and do justice for honorarium they receive. They don’t require supervision and monitoring for ensuring the organisations functioning. They are obviously odd and are seen as anti-social elements or bad people. They rarely take leave and strive for the results. They risk their lives while performing their duties. To fight bad and pervade goodness, the good people must be working harder than the bad people. The comforts created for good people are not helping them to get motivated as much as the bad people. So the world is turning bad, with very less good people emerging with commitment.
It is easy to identify some of the most corrupt government officials, some of them perform their duties mostly well beyond the office hours. One could easily see the lights shining in such corrupt departments, till late night hours.
Once someone with his experience from India, said that don’t believe the honesty of an accountant in a company, who is very punctual to the office, wears mostly white colour cloths, never takes leaves, works beyond office hours and also sometimes too religious or spiritual.
The most corrupt politicians even try to create their charisma through their dress and ‘looking good’ factor. A politician’s looks are cunning; their jokes are at the cost of insulting someone. When they meet others, their interest is to know what are you doing, how much you are earning, how much amount he could demand from you. To do any work they think What is my gain? If this personal gain factor is less than the whole world would have been different.
Say, some doctors may not be praying be saying that, all the patients treated by me should be healthy and never again return to me. But many doctors request the patient to come back and see after two or four days. They are practicing with the patient’s life and not assuring the diagnosis as experts even after so many years of experience. We need doctors not just for the treatment of physical ailments. They save invaluable lives so, they should have much more integrity.
Most of the people are corrupt by thoughts, some are corrupt by deeds. Only some are caught and branded as corrupt. Even a product exorbitantly priced compared to the manufacturing price is also a form of corruption.
There is a line between corruption and honesty. Everyone crosses the line knowingly or unknowingly in their lifetime. In this world, some are more corrupt, and some are less corrupt and very few are nearly honest.
A true leader or earth leadership is not affected or deterred by the problem of greedy and selfish people around. In fact, the problem around is the reason for one to strive for a better world.
Civil services in the Government is considered as one of the highest job, for serving the people and the nation.
Causing results to reach goal
In an organisation, each person is an asset and important. There is no job of less worth and more worth, all works are required to make the final outcome of the group.
Each person should create value for herself/himself in a day by being resourceful. Only the person who could create value for oneself could be valuable to the organisation and the society.
I remember a small story of creating value to one’s job. It is said that there were two people. One of them the priest in a temple and a person who attends to cleaning the temple premises. The priest everyday recites the prayer and always felt elevated as even the devotees gave him lots of respect as a communicator between the devotees and the god. The person cleaned the whole place including the items used in the prayer. Both of them spent their lifetime in their respective services. Both the persons died. The priest was surprised to see the cleaner had gone to heaven and was given more prominent position by God. The priest also went to heaven but was offered a smaller position. The priest asked the God, although he prayed him every day, how come he deserves a smaller position as compared to the cleaner. The God clarified, by saying that while cleaning the person has dedicated entirely and has looked into every detail. He has performed the task with love and commitment. The cleanliness of the place and the items used in the prayer were very clean. But while the priest recited the prayers, sometimes his mind was wandering around with other thoughts too. The priest was not so much focused and dedicated as the cleaner. Therefore, he is more pleased with the cleaner of the temple rather the priest.
The earning of a person always seems to be less as the needs grow. A person dissatisfied with the earning, should not disgruntle and show less performance in the organisation. Only a fool would sit on the branch of the tree and cut it.
Making a day useful in one’s life is also valuable to the organisation and the society
Each person’s being is the relationship with the environment. Usefulness and scale are the two important decisive factors for causing an impact. Geo Spirit is the only way of being on this earth. Spirit is a constant question of asking oneself the purpose of being.
Create value and results everyday
In a job, I asked the candidates to keep record of what they have done every day. Always gave a dairy and insisted them to write at least one page on the results accomplished on that day and discouraged writing just the process at length.
For the people who work with me, I give them a dairy on the first day with a request to note the results and achievements that they have caused at the end of each day. Sometimes they write the process. For me process was less important as compared to achieving the results.
Everyone is valuable. One can create value only through good work which causes results. Everyday is worth and valuable. The number of days one lives, everyday is valuable. Create value in one’s life. A valuable person can only create value for the organisation and society. That is the reason, I wanted them to introspect and write down the dairy as self-evaluation. Rarely, I see their dairies.
My principal to achieve results in a given situation is simple, I follow the principle of “Nail in the Wall”. To cause a result start hitting a nail in the wall. If it happens it is fine, you are successful. Sometimes the wall is hard or nail is weak, one is unable to hit it into the wall. The nail might bend or one might get hurt in the process or bleed or the wall is damaged. In this situation we will try to straighten the nail and try for once again to cause the result. If it is done fine or else one would change the position and hit the nail near by or change the nail to a different size and strength. If still one is not successful than change the decision that is use a different technology to achieve the result or give up the decision of trying to hit the nail in the wall.
Hitting a nail in the wall is an action for causing a result. In every situation one comes across this kind of a challenge that is “Change or Change”. The first change is that the life is about bringing a Change for good by all means. Still if one is not able to cause any change (results) in spite of all efforts, one’s decision on that action should Change, this is the second change.
That is one of the reasons why some people try to change their jobs. Some of them having no motivation for any change, just enjoy the monetary and physical benefits and continue to remain as waste.
Earth Leadership for achieving goals
Living a number of years is not important unless there is a purpose. Mere living on this earth would not help oneself nor anything else. A doctor should help a person think positively, do good and be content. On the whole, a doctor should make a person able to understand the purpose of a meaningful life, that is the best medicine a doctor could give for having a worthy life. Everyone is mentally ill sometime or the other. We do have psychiatrists who treat the extreme patients. Majority of people find solace for the mental illness from the religion, gurus, some other means of entertainment for deviation or diverting the attention. The physical suffering is mean as compared to mental suffering of many people and often mental suffering is the cause for physical suffering.
Some government employees justify themselves and say we are being paid less so we are corrupt. I have seen some people, choosing a post with high potential for bribes rather going for a job which is more dignified and where they could serve many people.
True leaders have the freedom and strive for the freedom of one and all. A leader’s personal goal is always within the common goal. A great leader sets the high goals, which are not so easy to achieve in one’s lifetime. A great leader inspires everyone around and becomes a source for the emergence of great leaders. A leader is not the one who considers the people as sheep to follow him or her blindly. There is no master and slave relationship in real leadership. Followers believe the values that the leader is representing and if necessary do challenge the same leader when fails to espouse that cause. Earth leadership provides the space for everyone to be a leader and not just one or few.
The common goals to be achieved is not someone’s job. Therefore, a leader inspires and in the space of “everyone a great leader”, strives for the achievement of common goals.
A leader is the one who inspires the team and makes them work with dreams to be converted into reality. Who knows everything or at least something of everything can make anybody a good team leader. The learning curve of a leader should be sharp. A leadership must adapt to changes and be able to take risk. A leader should be the first one to take responsibility for failures. Mannerism and character are the two basic traits of a great leader.
There is nothing good nor bad, everything is a situation and will change for a leader in the journey towards a higher goal.
Open Knowledge accelerates achieving goal
Open Knowledge is a source of freedom and integrity. The whole world is expanding at a rapid phase in all aspects of knowledge and technologies, the requirements of better and efficient technologies are also growing. The ecology is unable to sustain the needs of the people. People are not intelligent enough to copy and replicate nature in spite of so much science and technological progress. The natural creations are the ultimate sources of sustenance for life on earth. The very few technological innovations created by humans are also not accessible to all because of the following two main reasons. a) Self-interest or selfishness for social, economic, etc., considerations b) Investment made for the innovation.
If the knowledge is kept as a patent by someone, there are three options a) Use of knowledge by the source person b) Share the knowledge with others c) Sleep over the knowledge thinking that someday, I will use it. The majority of the times the last is in practice, for which there is no action of any kind against the person who is doing that.
Selfish people lag the progress
People who knew how to make the world a better place, patent the knowledge or make the knowledge exclusive and selectively releases the knowledge for a price. These people never have a purpose to make this world a better place. The people who don’t serve when it is hot and fresh are the less useful people on the earth. A corrupt, selfish and fearful mind will never make a person healthy and happy.
Universal Basic Income and Goals
People are leading lives without any significant goals and are also unable to contemplate the purpose of their life. That is because majority of the people are engaged in earning money for meeting the basic needs. With great difficulty and risk very few people are able to pursue their interests. In the near future, there are going to be more challenges for the people. As majority would be jobless and have very little work to do. Technologies, bigdata, artificial intelligence and robots are replacing many jobs which traditionally existed and provided job opportunities.
The jobs are declining and at the same-time companies are growing and making huge profits by using the more efficient technologies and artificial intelligence. Presently the unemployment rate is increasing at a faster rate. This is an alarming situation for many governments and the present and future generations.
For example in parts of India, in the past the self-reliant systems existed in the villages. Say to provide continuous work opportunities for potters there were some traditions. A new pot was required to be used for all kinds of events and festivals in a village. Even though people could have used old pots existing with them, but this traditions continued. No one questioned these practices and as human beings understood that there is a need for providing work to a potter throughout the year.
The fundamental thing is can a person live on earth without any source of income. A person need to pay for food, water, shelter, energy, transportation, taxes, etc. That is one should make a living. The birth of a person does not entitle one having an equal right on the wealth of a nation. The life of human beings is difficult as compared to any other life on earth. All other life on earth say a bird can live and create its nest without money. A domesticated animal like donkey can live without money by working for the person owning it. The conversation of earning money has no meaning for both the bird and the donkey. The basic needs of poultry chicken are taken care more diligently than the poor people. Here government systems consider them chicken as a useful resource. Whereas the poor people are considered as wasteful and burden. Human beings need the money for all the reasons to live.
The technologies, artificial intelligence systems, automation, fewer jobs and lower wages is the situation, which are making for a person to find a livelihood difficult on earth. In time and space, the education, qualifications, skills, experience and social status, has a variable and overall diminishing value. There is less meaning to the future policies of creating jobs through economic development. In this scenario, a country could prosper economically but may not generate jobs.
People are loosing identities very fast and trying to establish themselves as a new human resource. In this situation there is less scope for anyone to define oneself and make a living.
Here is an example of how jobs are being replaced over a period of time. The people who could use a computer has replaced the jobs of many typesetters in the printing presses. Many people who assisted in printing, cutting and binding are also no more existing, as all those jobs were replaced by the single automatic printing machines. Presently very few people are employed in such jobs. Over years, the cost of the following are decreasing, they are computers, sensors, memory devices and processors. As a result the access and processing of information into knowledge and for decision making, dissemination and sharing of knowledge is becoming very cheap.
People are less competing with people, they are competing with machines. The video games are some of the examples. In the near future there would be championships between people and computers or Robos. The day will come when peoples capabilities to win over them becomes difficult.
Google assistant, Amazon Alexa, Mac Siri and other artificial intelligent software systems connected to devises are making peoples life easy. Say automated call centers have replaced many people's jobs involved in the call centers.
Renaissance
The people got great freedom during the renaissance period, that is in the European history, covering the span between the 14th and 17th centuries. The Renaissance saw revolutions in many intellectual pursuits, as well as social and political upheaval, it is perhaps best known for its artistic developments. its influence was felt in literature, philosophy, art, music, politics, science, religion, and other aspects of intellectual inquiry. Renaissance scholars employed the humanist method in study, and searched for realism and human emotion in art. After this renaissance movement the industrial revolution started, which focussed on the education system for the steady supply of human resources to meet the industrial production needs. Especially in the last decade very few students are encouraged to study arts. The universities are also closing the arts subjects and governments are not giving priority as there are least jobs in those sectors. There are limitations to a persons goals and interests.
What is Universal Basic Income
Because people cannot live without money. Money is virtual still a powerful liquid asset. Through access to basic income, the decision making and emancipation of each and every individual will increase helping them to live a happy and complete life. As per the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) which is a milestone document in the history of human rights. Drafted by representatives with different legal and cultural backgrounds from all regions of the world, the Declaration was proclaimed by the United Nations General Assembly in Paris on 10 December 1948 (General Assembly resolution 217 A) as a common standard of achievements for all peoples and all nations. It sets out, for the first time, fundamental human rights to be universally protected)
United Nations: Article 25 (1) Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services, and the right to security in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age or other lack of livelihood in circumstances beyond his control.
The wealth of a nation is the sum product of the value enhanced and created by our ancestors. Although, wealth of a nation is a contextual thing in space and time, at anytime it has some value. Each citizen of a country has the right to be a share holder of a countries wealth, it is as much as the debt of a country distributed by per person. The social dividend from the wealth of a nation, is to be shared with each person is the universal basic income or unconditional basic income. UBI is also like a dividend sharing which are the accomplishments paid from the progress of human beings. UBI is a hybrid system developed from the principles of both capitalism and socialism. Unconditional basic income or universal basic income or free money is the right of the citizens of a country. Everyone in a country under UBI is entitled for monthly payment.
The people paying taxes have little affection towards the poor and government systems. They think, why they should pay taxes and support the poor, destitute, inefficient government system and also the corrupt people. The whole process of transferring every rupee from top to bottom i.e, from the government to the stakeholder is a costly thing. In this trickling down of money there is very little benefit that the people are actually getting. In this context transferring money directly into each individual is one of the most efficient way. The corruption would comedown as money is transferred into the bank account of the primary stakeholder.
In many countries, the governments are forced to declare schemes and policies which are making people dependent on the government systems. The governments are in no position to facilitate the people live a dignified life with their own goals. With UBI implementation, now a person has the right to chose the work of choice. One need not struggle for a job to meet the basic needs, could pursue the personal and common goals. Jobs lead to human bondage, kills once ambition. The personal and common goals lead one towards having a happy life. People are no more bonded to their jobs and need not work under pressure. The people could resign a job and chose a work which is convenient and of interest.
Innumerable human beings have become a challenge to be supported in many countries. UBI motivates one to chose what really one wants to do. As there is assurance of basic income, there is not much to worry. Having a steady income is a stress, now the health and happiness of people would improve. Some people could also be less aspired to do something great, as there is assured basic income.
An experiment was conducted in India each person was given 4$ (USD) per month for two years (2011-2013). That is 40% of the subsistence. In which about 6000 people participated from habitations in Madhya Pradesh. Improved food sufficiency and nutrition, increase in livestock, no increase in Alcohol consumption, reduced illness, improved school attendance, people were found more enterprising. On experimental basis in more than 20 countries UBI schemes were implemented and the results are very good as anticipated.
The automation, big data and artificial intelligence is replacing many jobs. The role of majority of human beings is becoming less resourceful. If the cost of production is cheaper by not engaging human beings, that is the cause for replacement of human beings.
In the near future, the wealth of a nation is from the taxes collected from the profit making machines and artificial intelligence devices in operation. For example, it is said that the facebook's, WhatsApp is managed by just over 50 employees and the Instagram had just 13 employees and few investors when it was bought. The value of both the services and their earnings is worth billions of dollars.
Schemes similar to UBI
Already some schemes are under implementation in many countries similar to UBI. Especially the pension, minimum wage, doles for the unemployed youth, health, scholarships for education, etc. They were mostly implemented by excluding some people and including the eligible by criteria. The bias was intentional to address the equity and development of the deprived communities. So, they facilitated such schemes to the people chosen based on the category of poverty, gender, age, caste, race, religion, disabilities, refugee status, minority and other government popular policies designed for winning the next elections.
Under Rythu Bandhu scheme, the Telangana government is giving every beneficiary farmer Rs 4,000 per acre as an “investment support” before every crop season. The objective is to help the farmer meet a major part of his expenses on seed, fertiliser, pesticide, and field preparation. The scheme would cover 1.42 crore acres in the 31 districts of the state, and every farmer owning land is eligible. Telangana’s Rythu Bandhu policy is considered as a quasi-universal basic income. It is one of the potential future agricultural policy to continue and expand to other states in India. In the QUBI scheme the money is transferred to everyone who meets an easily identifiable criterion. That is, they are universal within a clearly identifiable category.
Index based crop insurance for agriculture against climate risks is another such scheme. Probably in the future in addition to the Universal Basic Income people might also get additional allowance for extremes of wether events and pollution condition in a living area.
UBI offered an opportunity to eliminate poverty in one stroke. Many people think that government is paying them and never realise that one is paid from the common pool of wealth of a nation, where the respective government is a custodian. The realisation of each individual that they are part of the government will be stronger. During protests the people will not dare to damage the common assets and infrastructure.
Quotes related to integrity and goals
A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step - Lao Tzu
Arise! Awake! and stop not until the goal is reached. - Swami Vivekananda
Freedom is the only worthy goal in life. It is won by disregarding things that lie beyond our control.- Epictetus
My feet have taken me to places unimagined, in day and night, in the thorns and grass, in the hills and plains. Feet are trigger happy with the thought of the brain to take any risk to achieve the goal. - Sai Bhaskar Reddy Nakka
Real integrity is doing the right thing, knowing that nobody’s going to know whether you did it or not. - Oprah Winfrey
Ultimately, leadership is not about glorious crowning acts. It's about keeping your team focused on a goal and motivated to do their best to achieve it, especially when the stakes are high and the consequences really matter. It is about laying the groundwork for others' success, and then standing back and letting them shine. - Chris Hadfield
You are never too old to set another goal or to dream a new dream. - Les Brown
You can’t cross the sea merely by standing and staring at the water. - Rabindranath Tagore
References
https://youtu.be/aIL_Y9g7Tg0
Impressum
Tag der Veröffentlichung: 28.07.2018
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This book is dedicated for 'The Earth'