Beware, you will become an Anteater – A HR message

You are the product of what you do, want and wish to be and nothing else. In another word, what you think and what you do only determines your identity and personality. What you are is largely controlled and shaped by what you have been continuously doing and how you think.

When one falls into trap of doing the same thing repeatedly and over and over again, then the thinking and doing become mechanical, automatic, rhythmic, synergistic and involuntary and as a result of that, one becomes the mere product of one's own doing.

The thinking and doing become tantamount to each other and also they compliment and support the existence of each other and also own existence. Therefore one has to question own thinking and doing style courageously and must change if desires to become something different.

Nature has left an important example for the corporate people to learn. Look at the animal – anteater. Anteater is 6 feet long, huge and heavy animal but its mouth is only an inch wide. It eats ants, termites and other small insects as its exclusive food. To eat such tiny insects, it does not need a big mouth or powerful jaw and hence nature has created it as big as 6 feet long may be because it eats a lot but with a very small mouth as it eats only ants, termites, and small insects.

Knowingly or unknowingly our thinking and actions are supported by the nature to become a product of what we do and how we think and not what we want or wish to become.

To become what we want, we must understand and question what we do & how do we think and must do the necessary corrections if required. But most people seldom do such introspection and assume that what they are doing is right & correct and hence will continue to do what they have been doing. But ironically they often complain & yell about the world, people around them and ask why things don’t change etc. But they never bother to audit or introspects their own actions, its consequences and their contributions to their present state of being.

The key dimension of quality leaders demands such introspection. Please check what you do whether it matches with what you want. If you keep doing things just to meet the present demand/needs, you will always end up in meeting only what you need at present and will not be doing anything towards what you really wants to become in future. If you really want to change the future course of action, you need to change your style of doing things, right now.

Look at the beauty of nature. When the 6 feet long animal settle with ants and termites as its food, nature has made its mouth just to the suite to its need. Evolution will do based on what one does and how one thinks and hence one must clearly understand what really one wants to become and according must do what one should do, instead what one is doing.

Dr. S Ranganathan