Man is born to do great things. Quite often, while climbing the ladder of success he is bound to feel stuck. Awareness of his own self helps him realize his true potential and take control of the situation rather than giving in during such testing times. Besides, getting connected to one’s higher self through self-awareness helps in aligning his thoughts and actions toward his goal, no matter how unfavorable the circumstances may be. This article discusses how a manager can be successful by continuously focusing his mind on his higher self-awareness, and learning from day-to-day life experience.
Awareness and Success
Man’s consciousness and ego cannot go hand-in-hand. Eminent psychoanalyst Dr. Wayne W. Dyer says that living a day to day life without honoring one’s true conviction and thought pattern elevates one’s false self or ego (Dyer, 2012). Awareness promotes the true self to be the focal point of one’s life whereas living in oblivion to one’s true spirit leads to failure and frustration. When someone leads a life driven by a true spirit, devoid of egoistic feelings, he can realize his magnificence and true potential. Thus, it is imperative for a manager to live a life of conscious self-awareness to facilitate his personal and professional growth. Dyer quotes a Hindu devotee who advises that as the blossom disappears to give way to the fruit, so should a man’s ego-centeredness or lower self disappear to give way to divinity before achieving greatness in life.
We often associate our identity with our physical body and its needs. We wrongly assume that we are our physical body and our materialistic wealth; our ego promotes such assumptions. Ego is nothing but a state in which man edges god out of his life. We mistakenly believe that we are our body, our background, our educational qualification or our physical wealth, and try to lead a life to sustain such wrong beliefs. As a result, our life is filled with actions characterized with desire, greed, jealousness, anger, fear and many more life style habits that impede our growth and personal development. An ego-centric individual lives a life dictated by the needs of his physical self. In truth, we are an extension of our source or god; we are a soul, presently living in a human body. A basic awareness that we are a soul having a human experience by presently living in a body would entirely change our belief system that often leads us to unethical living styles dictated by the standards of this world. A life driven by the need to satisfy part of our self (our physical body) indeed does injustice to our eternal or unborn part of our self (our soul). Our inner soul is deathless and eternal, but our physical body is fragile and temporary. Yet, man is inspired to nurture the impermanent part of his self, which is the reason behind all the problems he faces in life. Awareness about one’s higher self would make one realize that the physical body and other associated paraphernalia, including his educational background, position, ethnicity etc., are nothing but the things he carries in his knapsack to complete his trekking on this earth. All our problems arise when, out of ignorance or unawareness of our true self, we try to satisfy all our bodily needs even at the expense of others.
Continuous Self Development
Besides, effective managers practice a proper work life balance. Establishing healthy relationships both at family and work place are essential for aspiring managers. Effective leaders always invest in creating new relationships. They maintain relationships through depositing in other’s emotional bank accounts (Covey, 1989). They always appreciate and encourage others to enrich emotional reserves of friends and colleagues. Even when they happen to reprimand others they make it a point to reconcile at the nearest opportunity. They always see the good in others and never judge, condemn or criticize others at workplace. Further, as part of continuous learning and self development effective managers always love what they do and reap happiness out of what they do.
References
Chopra, D., & Chopra, D. (1994). The seven spiritual laws of success: A practical guide to the fulfillment of your dreams. San Rafael, Calif.: Amber-Allen Pub.
Covey, S. (1989). The 7 habits of highly effective people. London:Simon & Schuster
Dyer, W. (2007). Change your thoughts, change your life: Living the wisdom of the Tao. Carlsbad, Calif.: Hay House.
Dyer, W. (2012). The golden Wayne W. Dyer collection. London: Hay House.
Maslow, A. H. (1970), Motivation and Personality, (2nd Edition), Harper & Row, New York.Tolle, E. (2006). A new earth: Awakening to your life's purpose. New York: Plume.
