Saturday, September 01, 2007

be inspired

Focus groups, colleague rants, song lyrics on my mp3 player, workshops, meetings, empty can of diet coke in the trash, all doors opening outside, or the pack of tissues in your top drawer – no matter what you are doing, where you are, who is staring at you and no matter what you are feeling - just be inspired, always. It is this spark that keeps the creator inside all of us fired up!
Sometimes I feel that the world around me has so much to offer, show, share, tell that I do not have hands, eyes or grasp to soak it all up..
The last 60 days of being in Beijing have been quite patterned. Other than the fact that I am in a new place – nothing is new. Wake up; dress up, hail a cab, ‘ni hao’ to the cabbie, xie xie to the security guard at office for opening the door, elevator to 9th floor, good morning to colleagues, work, work, workshops, researches, meetings, presentations, work more...raving the hits and ranting the misses everyday, shut down, wrap up, swipe the access card head home, swipe into home again, freshen up, eat (and miss Indian food), restart, connect with parents and all other mails that could not be read and written at work…but with all this serious monotony around why do I still feel inspired? How do I still have fresh insights and ideas waiting to be deployed?
I am sure all this is not because of the mental disequilibrium caused by the strange smell that stays with you hours after you have stepped away from the fresh food section of all hypermarkets in this city!
I believe it is more to do with what is cooking between my ears than what is happening around me though I would never discount the importance of the latter.
The world around me is just the firewood but sadly or otherwise the firewood does not always come with a spark.

Here is what I am beginning to understand - no matter where one is no matter what one is doing, the single most important thing is to be always inspired, be bullish, be natural, connect with the air you are breathing, listen intently – even if you do not understand the language – soak up everything that comes your way and keep thinking (questioning) and feeling all of it that you see, hear, touch, smell, taste, do, imagine and everything else, believe me sparks will fly. It is simply amazing there is so much one can learn all the time even or especially when one is not actively trying to learn something.
Also, the best things we know and feel are never documented – my favourite one on this that the real wisdom is the operating system of our behaviour and most of the time it is not documented. I suppose it is the subconscious or perhaps something that we never bother to think about. But this is it – this is the most critical link between our understanding of self and the world around us. It is not fixed but that should not stop us from capturing it. If we try and keep documenting it every time we get an opportunity – we might end up discovering a gold mine in our own backyard. Needles to say this is not the only goldmine known to mankind but none the less it seems the most accessible one.
Here’s perhaps one way of doing it – just replay your daily movie. I mean just play the whole day in front of your eyes and you'll see sparks flying.
There's something more on this that can be said here but I guess this has already become too big for a bite, so perhaps more on this in the days to some i.e. if it stays as exciting as it is now.
I sincerely hope I have been able to express myself accurately and wish that you can also experience what I am experiencing– because it is truly amazing and very-very satisfying!

3 comments:

Deepak Purchanda said...

So rightly said Saurabh, I agree to you its all about keeping excitement alive.

Is it bout being a learner on the toes all the time ? But if we are learning all the time 24x7 then when will we experience the learning which is not meant for conscious learning. Why do we fall in subconsious learning ?

Can you teach me how to switch between these two learning environments ? Saurabh how do u keep this actionable attitude alive all day long ? What do u do to come out of intuitive/personal sphere and starts thinking bout structures processess ?

All these & many more questions hit my mind after reading your blog. Looking for some direction ....

Saurabh Sharma said...

Hi Deepak! Hope you are doing well. I hope I am not sounding pedantic here..I just felt like sharing what is going on inside me these days..as you'd imagine this place is virtually blocked out for me for I do not understand the common language..but this has been a blessing in disguise - I am almost an insider who is standing outside. I am in the middle of all the action and yet I look at things from a child's point of view - piece thoughts together rather innocently for I do not know most of the things.
The reason I am connecting with the subconscious is also linked with this. Since the conscious is difficult to understand without a language and cultural interpreter, I end up tapping into the subconscious. For a change my imagination and thoughts are not being shouted out by my context/environment – its rather peaceful when everything that is being said around you ends up just being a ‘sound’ instead of a string of words or phrases.

You do not need to put effort to do anything - I guess it happens automatically. That is the nature of intuition. It is intuition will tell you when to pick up the pen and form up a structure for your thoughts that you have been harbouring/ refining in your head and it is intuition again that will tell you to write on that paper tissue in front of you, the thought that just crossed your mind.
It is almost like the operating system of individual performance in our business (and perhaps many other business too.)
And these words capture the meaning and relevance of intuition (and perhaps insights too) rather beautifully:
Intuition is really a sudden immersion of the soul into the universal current of life. Where the histories of all the people are connected and we are able to know everything. Because it is all written there..
happy creating!

Deepak Purchanda said...

oh my god... Saurabh fantastic definition of intuition. I hardly read literature but i have never read such a beautiful composition.

Such beautiful thoughts you carry in your mind wow man ...no doubt u shouldn't have won Atticus.

I feel like calling Sir to you.

Keep us updated on your cherishing experience in China. All the best Sir...