Developing Purposeful Self-Leadership (Purposeful Leadership – Part 4)

We explored the notion of Purposeful Self-leadership in the last post, part 3 of this series titled ‘Start with the Self’. Today we explore how to develop Purposeful Self-Leadership and in the next post, we can explore the complexities of such an aspiration. In the first two articles of this series, we explored the two key concepts of purposeful leadership: purposefulness and leadership, and the three branches of purposeful leadership: self, people, and organisations.

Developing Purposeful Self-Leadership starts with articulating a purpose statement depicting our sense of purpose at the current stage of life. The first version of the purpose statement is only a glimpse of our purpose as finding purpose is a lifelong journey. However, having a sense of purpose begins the quest and gives us the drive and desire to be purposeful. Being purposeful improves our clarity about our life purposes and helps us fine-tune our purpose statement, leading to us being more purposeful. This cyclical process not only improves our sense of purpose and purposefulness but also attracts abundance to succeed in vocations aligned with our life purpose, gives us happiness and peace of mind (De Silva, 2024).

Continue reading “Developing Purposeful Self-Leadership (Purposeful Leadership – Part 4)”

A New Year or a New Day?

A photo captured by me on the 18th of December at Yala National Park – Sri Lanka

My new year’s message last year was ‘I wish you serenity this new year’. I hope you find the serenity to accept the new reality as you went through the second year of the pandemic, with all the confusion surroundings vaccines, booters, masks, lockdowns and travel restrictions. Perhaps the best approach would have been to find serenity and love it all as a way of releasing the tension and finding meaning.

I enjoyed taking one day at a time as it was pointless trying to predict or control the future. Whiles short-term plans were made with a long-term aspiration, I was willing to change them based on the reality of every new day. This helped me to be in the present (now) and enjoy the present (gift) of ‘peace of mind’ I received in the process. Interestingly when I released the want for the control of outcomes and made peace with not having them, almost all such aspirations manifested. 

Continue reading “A New Year or a New Day?”

Saying ‘Yes’ to Beingness

An original poem by Ranjan De Silva

Image credits: goodmorninggratitude.com




Beingness invites us to ‘be’

But we attempt to ‘become’

Are we human beings or human becoming’s?

What would it mean to just be?

Continue reading “Saying ‘Yes’ to Beingness”

Slowing Down – Living life (a poem by Ranjan)

A photos taken at the Udawattakele rain forest in Kandy Sri Lanka – reminding us to let the sunshine through the clutter of life.

Frenzy of activity when the world went into pandemic mode,

Figuring out ways to be safe, sustain income, reduce cost, and stay afloat.

New ways of working from home, office or hybrid mode,

Going online to communicate, learn, teach, shop, work and stay aboard 

Months flew through birthdays, weddings, anniversaries, funerals and more,

Spiritual celebrations, special days and public holidays galore.

Learning a new way to be, sharing home space and more,

Balancing time between family and work, finding ways to be.

Governments, hospitals, law enforcement and all,

Had their plates full trying to keep us safe and well. 

Quarantine, testing, tracing, lockdowns enforced,

Masks, glows, sanitizers were used when forced.

While lockdowns and vaccines were invented for avoiding death,

Continue reading “Slowing Down – Living life (a poem by Ranjan)”

Loving Intentions

This years Christmas present from my eldest daughter – a symbol of abundance & purpose

My new year’s message last year was ‘I wish you a new year and new decade overflowing with abundance & purposefulness’. Having gone through perhaps the most ‘interesting’ year of our life, I wonder if this wish had an impact or not. I suppose it depends on how we look at 2020. While many of us had challenges in our jobs, businesses, finances, relationships and health, it is important to reflect on and find the hidden gifts. 

Continue reading “Loving Intentions”

Taking a Break – Is it Purposeful Behaviour?

Image Credits: Humanperformancepsychology.com

I decided to take a break from social media, blogging, tweeting and newsletter writing during October. This is partly to allow my mind to settle down and rest after the extensive online work done in the past 6 months from April to September. It is also due to my calendar getting filled with corporate sessions for clients in UAE, Africa, Solomon Islands. Bangladesh and Sri Lanka.  

On the personal side, it was my second daughter’s wedding which gave us a lot of joy and I needed to release myself from work for this important life event.  We also had two other wedding anniversaries and four birthdays in the family during the month. It looks like October (my birth month) is becoming a month of family celebrations and this perhaps would be the month I take time off from work in the years to come. 

Continue reading “Taking a Break – Is it Purposeful Behaviour?”

Rays of Enlightenment

A photo taken at a rain forest in Kandy, the hill capital of Sri Lanka.

This is a photo taken during a nature walk with my team. I remember sitting down on this bench to take in the energy of the beautiful rain forest. As I reflected I felt the paradox of the place; the sounds of nature and the voices of people, the trees and the cement bench, the forest and the road, the cool wind and the warm sun rays. One of my colleagues had taken this photo at that time and I was fascinated with the rays of sunlight coming towards me, as if the universe was sending me rays of enlightenment.

How Is The Pandemic Serving Us?

Image Credits: Wired.com

In the one before the last blog post (two Wednesdays ago) in the ‘Purpose Quest’ series, I attempted to list down questions that came up during my various interactions with various audience over the last 6 months of the pandemic. I started attempting to write about how I responded to those question and the insights I had regarding the first two questions related to goals, in last Wednesdays blog post. Let me attempt to respond to the third questions;

What is the purpose of the pandemic? How is it serving us?

Continue reading “How Is The Pandemic Serving Us?”

Goals! What Goals?

Image Credits: Saba.com

In the last blog post in the ‘Purpose Quest’ series, I attempted to list down questions that came up during my various interactions with various audience over the last 6 months of the pandemic. I will attempt to write about how I responded to those question and the insights I had, in the next few blog posts. So let’s begin with the first two questions. Both of them are related to goals;

My goals have become irrelevant due to the pandemic? What do I do now?

Why do I need to have goals when they can become irrelevant due to uncontrollable situation?

Continue reading “Goals! What Goals?”

Questions about Purpose

Image Credits: thamarathorpe.com

The last six month opened up amazing opportunities for me to reflect on the notion of purpose. These opportunities arose during conversations with family, team and clients in trying to make sense of the pandemic. These opportunities arose during webinars conducted to help people with their concerns, anxieties, stress and other psychological challenges. These opportunities arose from the 150 plus participants from 15 countries taking part in the four ‘Mastery of Self’ through NLP, online certificate courses over the past few months.

In this blog post I will attempt to list down the questions that came up. Some of these questions were already asked earlier, some of these are modifications to the old questions and some of these are new questions.

My goals have become irrelevant due to the pandemic? What do I do now?

Why do I need to have goals when they can become irrelevant due to uncontrollable situation?

What is the purpose of the pandemic? How is it serving us?

Is our purpose changed due to changing realities?

I am struggling more due to the pandemic. Is it helping me to find purpose?

Am I struggling more during the pandemic because I try to live purposefully?

Do our values change with situations? Arn’t they supposed to be fixed?

Isn’t values an important component of our purpose?

My purpose is clashing with the purpose of some of my family. It is prominent now because I spend a lot of time with them. How do it deal with them?

Are religious people more purposeful than non-religious people?

Does spirituality become more important than religion for purposeful people?

Does the notion of Purposeful living taken a new meaning with the pandemic?

Are world leaders being purposeful in the way they are handling the pandemic?

I will reframe from answering these questions to provide you the opportunity to reflect and answer these questions. I am not sure what that process will do. I will be delighted to hear from you the answers that came up and how these questions and answers served you.

I wish you purposeful living.

Where Great Men Are Made

The place which developed thousands of boys to be men of stature for over 165 year, the place I had the good fortune of being nurtured, St Anthony’s Collage in Kandy, the hill capital of Sri Lanka. The picture speaks of the nurturing location on the banks of the Mahaweli river, the space provided for sports signifying the importance of the development of the body in addition to the mind. To write about the great men produced by St Anthony’s will take a few books. All I have is gratitude for my alma mater.

The Pandemic and Temporal Aspect of Purposefulness

Image Credit: Nationalpost.com

In the last 8 blog posts in the ‘purpose quest series’, we explored how the pandemic impacted eight important pillars for purposeful living; spiritual, mental, emotional, relational, physical (health), financial, environmental and societal. Let’s explore the ninth pillar, the ‘temporal’ aspect in this blog post. As in the past eight blog posts let me attempt to describe my personal experience during the pandemic. 

The word ‘Temporal’ has two broad applications; relating to worldly as opposed to spiritual affairs (secular) and relating to time. I use the word in relation to the use of time. The temporal aspect of purposeful relates to the use of limited time. The purposeful person attempts to utilise most of the time for purposeful activity, which requires letting go of non-purposeful activity.

The last eight weekly blog posts in the ‘purposeful quest’ series illustrated how my time was allocated to purposeful activity in spiritual, mental, emotional, relational, physical (health), financial, ecological and temporal areas. These activities took most of my waking time and there was rarely any time remaining for non-purposeful activity during the approximately 16 hours of waking time.

The sense I make from this reflection is that the pandemic gave me so much opportunities to be purposeful, that it left me with almost no time for non-purposeful activities. This way of life has kept me occupied in meaningful and energising activity, giving me inner success, happiness and peace. My purpose is to inspire others to live a purposeful life and I hope this series of blog posts will inspire you too to live a purposeful life and find Success happiness and peace.

The Pandemic and Societal Aspect of Purposefulness

Image Credits: shethe people.tv

In the last 7 blog posts in the ‘purpose quest series’, we explored how the pandemic impacted six important pillars for purposeful living; spiritual, mental, emotional, relational, physical (health), financial and environmental. Let’s explore the eight pillar, the societal aspect in this blog post. As in the past seven blog posts let me attempt to describe my personal experience during the pandemic. 

With lockdowns being imposed, offices closed, and people starting to work from home, my clients either took the assigned transformational work online or postponed them. This gave me the illusion that there will be a lot of free time. Since I was in Dhaka, while engaging with the foreign ministry and the high commission to arrange repatriation flights, I joined my friend I was staying with to distribute dry rations to people who were financially affected due to lockdowns. In addition I arranged some help for some relatives and friends who were looking for financial assistance and guidance.

To help with the psychological challenges faced by many, my team in Dhaka helped me to produce some videos with mental tips to deal with challenges and anxiety releasing meditation. While using social media to get these to people who needed it we started conducting free webinars to help people deal with the present and gear up for the future. After returning to Sri Lanka I had the opportunity to join my team to conduct psychological first aid for the medical staff of the Infectious Diseases Hospital (IDH), the command center fighting the pandemic in Sri Lanka.

I believe most of the above opportunities were provided to me to help be purposeful during the pandemic. My purpose to inspire others to live a purposeful life and these opportunities helped me share the idea of ‘purposefulness’ and show how it can help to make sense of the pandemic, deal with anxiety & stress and adjust their way of life to respond positively. While all these were related to giving, my time without any financial benefit, I enjoyed the happiness of giving, learning & building relationships in the process. I feel purposeful.

It’s a Possibility, with Your Heart the Hunter, to find Peace and Happiness

It’s a possibility – John Denver

As you listen to this beautiful song reflect on how you can use your heart, the hunter to fight off hatred and help find peace and happiness in your little world, thereby creating ripples to make this world a better place.

Lyrics

For all of the times that you’ve wondered why
The world turned out this way
And all of the times that you’ve asked yourself
About the games that people play.

About the politics of hunger
And the politics of need,
How the politics of power
Seem to be the politics of greed.

For all of the times that you’ve struggled in an effort
To work your way back up stream,
And all of the times you’ve held on to it,
When most of us had lost the dream.

And for all of the ones who have walked with you,
By your side or way back home,
Maybe much more than any of us
You know that no one is really alone.

Because the heart is still a hunter,
It’s like a beacon in the night.
Though the heart is just a lover,
It’s never afraid to fight.

We are fighting for more than survival,
We are…

The Pandemic and the Environment

Image Credit: business west.co.uk

In the last 6 blog posts in the ‘purpose quest series’, we explored how the pandemic impacted six important pillars for purposeful living; spiritual, mental, emotional, relational, health and money. Let’s explore the seventh pillar, the ecological aspect in this blog post. As in the past six blog posts let me attempt to describe my personal experience during the pandemic. 

With lockdowns being imposed, offices closed, and people starting to work from home vehicles movement reduced drastically. With airports restricting flights there were less flights in the sky. With demand for non-essential products reducing factories were operating at lower capacity reducing environmental damage. All this made the air cleaner, water cleaner, skies bluer and grass greener.

Unlike in the earlier six aspects, there was not much for me to do, the earth was healing itself. I had to only participate by using the freshness for my well being and helping others to use this Knowladge to make sense of the positive aspects of the pandemic. Therefore I used the webinars I was conducting and conversations I was having with people to show these benefits and to use this opportunity to adjust lifestyles, so that even after the pandemic, we live in a manner that is beneficial to the environment.

With life coming back to normal in Sri Lanka, I am concerned to see that the amount vehicles on the road have gone back to pre-pandemic levels. Our airways are still clean as the flights are still restricted, but with the envisaged opening up of the skies end of this month, the air pollution levels are likely to start increasing again. Work from home is getting lesser, and in person activities are increasing. I am attempting to keep at least half of my learning experience delivered online even when things are back to normal. I need the other half to interact with people as we cant be totally devoid of human interactions to help them in their learning, growth and transformation.

So lets continue to communicate and role model to help people at least adjust to a mid-way level between total lockdowns and total free movement with their free will so that we can bring this planet to liveable conditions. If not nature will hit back with a bigger pandemic and will keep doing it more regularly to save the planet.

Romance or Riches?

Reflection Guide

As you read on these words of wisdom by Theodore Roosevelt, reflect on the natural wonders, history and the romance of our heritage. Reflect on steps you can take to save these wonders from the selfish and the greedy.

Natures Wrath – When Will We Wake Up?

mahogany landslide may 2017
 Landslide of a Mahogany Plantation

It’s May 2017. I got a call from the account manager from the company that manages my Mahogany plantation in the Ratnapura district of Sri Lanka. I have some bad news to share with you. What is it? I ask. One of your Mahogany plantations in Munihinkanda has got affected by the recent landslides. We have not been able to access the plantation yet as the authorities have restricted access to the plantations until they are able to confirm that it is secure. What is the extent of the damage? I ask. About ten acres of the plantation has slid down to the river below and we feel it includes one of your plots too.

As I digested this news my mind went to the time that a rubber plantation of a larger extent belonging to my father was destroyed due to a cyclone about 40 years ago. I remembered my involvement in the process of transporting the fallen trees to help my father recover at least a part of the losses. My mind wonders to the hundreds of lives lost due to this storm and thousands who have lost their livelihood as a result. I have watched with dismay so many natural disasters such as hurricanes, tsunami’s, floods, landslides, forest fires and now a pandemic.

The question is, when will we humans learn to stop destroying nature? How many more disasters are needed before we stop damaging Mother Nature so that we can live in harmony with nature.

How are Great People & Trees Made?

Good Timber by Douglas Malloch – Read by Mark O’Keeffe

As you listen to this poem (words below), reflect on what your challenges and struggles have done for you?

The tree that never had to fight
     For sun and sky and air and light,
But stood out in the open plain
     And always got its share of rain,
Never became a forest king
     But lived and died a scrubby thing.

The man who never had to toil
     To gain and farm his patch of soil,
Who never had to win his share
     Of sun and sky and light and air,
Never became a manly man
     But lived and died as he began.

Good timber does not grow with ease,
     The stronger wind, the stronger trees,
The further sky, the greater length,
     The more the storm, the more the strength.
By sun and cold, by rain and snow,
     In trees and men good timbers grow.

Where thickest lies the forest growth
     We find the patriarchs of both.
And they hold counsel with the stars
     Whose broken branches show the scars
Of many winds and much of strife.
     This is the common law of life.

Time We Must Unite – To Heal the World

As you watch and listen to this authentic, passionate, and united performance, reflect on the baby steps you can take to create unity in your little world to heal this planet of not only the medical disease.

Did the Pandemic Stimulate you Intellectually?

When the world started changing due to the pandemic it had a big impact on my focus on my intellectual development process. This blog post tells my story and I hope this will help you to reflect on how the pandemic affected your intellectual development.

Image Credit: medspace.com

Let’s start with the question, what is the meaning of intellectual? While different people may make sense of the word ‘intellectual’ in different ways, based on their thinking, to me intellectual is the quality of my thinking and understanding aspects I am concerned with. The stronger my intellectuality becomes,  I tend to understand aspects I am concerned with and the related complexities in a deeper manner. The shift in priorities brought about by the pandemics resulted in some interesting changes to my intellectual development processes.

Continue reading “Did the Pandemic Stimulate you Intellectually?”

Loving is Purposeful Growth

Image Credits: Dreamtime.com

The notion of Love is perhaps one of the most complex.

I like to define ‘love’ as the act of helping someone to grow to their fullest potential, even if it is inconvenient to me. Growing to our fullest potential starts with baby steps.

The potential of a seed is the fruit. The seed needs watering before it turn in to a plant. The plant needs water, air, sunlight and fertiliser to become the tree. The tree needs continuous nurturing to become the fruit. Converting the seed to a fruit requires help that is inconvenient to the nurturer. Continue reading “Loving is Purposeful Growth”

Danger or Oppportunity?

Reflection Guide

Yes the pandemic has many dangers in the medical, economic, social and psychological fronts. While recognising and reflecting on it, do reflect on the opportunities you have already recognised and yet to recognise.

Dynamic Life

These are a set of pictures taken by me in Bangladesh during a leadership retreat for a client. The contrast of the four pictures provided me a great sense making opportunity.

Photograph 1 was at dusk, photograph 2 was at dawn and photograph 3 was at noon. After taking photograph 3, I realise the angle of photograph 1 was not the same as photograph 2 and 3. So I go back at dusk next day and try to re-capture photograph 1 and end up taking photograph 4. So what sense do I make from this?

The sense I make is that same way the tree looks different in different conditions but is not affected by the conditions, I may look different to different people given their conditions. Seeing the tree at dusk differently the second time informs me that I could look different to people as live evolves. The fact that the tree continues to grow in all conditions irrespective of ecological condition that supports and destructs and people who care for it and harm it. The people who consume from it are not necessarily those who nurture it and experience it. This shows me that life is dynamic and I need to choose my from the feedback I receive and respond appropriately to allow myself to grow in sync with the universal energy system.

I invite you to reflect on these pictures and make sense of it with regard to the dynamic nature of your life, the feedback you need to take and how to respond to the call of the universe to grow in a synchronic manner.

Is Your Purpose Searching for You?

purpose quest-1

This series of ‘Purpose Quest’ will be illustrated with narratives of how we search for purpose. The question is, Are we searching for ‘purpose’ or is ‘purpose’ searching for us?

On the 14th of March, when I boarded the Sri Lankan airlines flight UL 189 to Dhaka I did not realise that I will have to stay in Dhaka for 10 weeks due to flight restrictions. The WHO had declared Covid-19 as a pandemic a few days ago. My mother was encouraging me to stay back without going as I had just recovered from a cough. I was hearing how passengers coming in to Sri Lanka from Europe were being taken to quarantine centres.  Was the universe trying to inform me and help me make a purposeful choice?

Continue reading “Is Your Purpose Searching for You?”

Variety is the Spice of Life

Soul Nourishing Poems

Over the past two months I switched to a daily blog from the monthly blog I used to write. This was prompted by the pandemic and lockdowns that provided me the opportunity to spend more time indoors and online.

Learnings that Matter

I initially started with online learning videos and soul nourishing poems to share my life work for those needed to learn and those looking for inspiration while being at home.

Quotes for Reflection

Thereafter I introduced quotes for reflection and yesterday I added motivational speeches. Some of this work is from others who have inspired me, some from my colleagues and some my own presentations.

Inspirational Speeches

As I was reflecting on the purposefulness of my life yesterday, my mind went on to the online work I am doing. Something from within prompted me to expand my contribution to have one type of blog everyday of the week.

Songs for Growth

That prompted me to think of other types of work that inspired. Music and Art were two other areas that came to my mind and therefore I decided to experiment with ‘Songs for Growth’ and ‘Pictures the Speak’.

Pictures that speak

I needed one more. What is the seventh category? And then, ‘Purpose’ which is the core philosophy of my life, that I have been writing for the past 4 years, but have not focused too much on over the past 2 months popped in to my mind. Yes I miss writing those ‘purposeful living’ blogs. So the seventh category became ‘Purpose’ Quest’.

purpose quest-1

I invite you to join me in exploring the wonders of life through these seven categories. I welcome comments, feedback , life experiences, ideas and questions from you so that we can create ripples that makes this world a better place.

This Too Shall Pass – A Soul Nourishing Poem

The Too Shall Pass – A Should Nourishing Poem – Helen Steiner Rice

Mediate on the challenges you went through in the past and how it passed, as you listen to this poem. Then reflect on the challenges you and your family and friends are facing in relation to the pandemic. Then reflect on how this too shall pass leaving us stronger and with a better world. Reflect on what you need to do today to prepare for the new reality.

Soul Nourishing Poems

 

Need or Greed

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Reflection Guide

Reflect what you need in the minimum for sustain yourself and meet your commitments till the next assured cash inflow. Reflect on what you need and what you can give, how you can give and when you will give.

Quotes for Reflection

Man – The Most Insane Species

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Reflection Guide:

Reflect on how you knowingly or unknowingly destroy nature. Reflect on how it is directly or indirectly an act of destroying God’s creation and disrespecting God grand plan to help all living being live in peace and harmony.

The Road Not Taken – Soul Nourishing Poem

The Road Not Taken – by Robert Frost

Has the pandemic given you the opportunity to take a road not taken? Imagine the positive difference it can make for you and your little world. What baby steps would you take today in identifying that road and the baby steps you need to take today.

Blurring of the Boarders

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Reflection Guide:

Reflect on the divisions in your life such as interests, beliefs, geographic boarders, status, economics etc. that has become irrelevant in your life due to the Pandemic. Reflect on how such blurring of the boarders are affecting you positively and negatively, in the short term and the long term.  Reflect on baby steps you can take to power-up the positives and negate the negative.

 A Mental Vacation

Free Online Videos

 

 

 

 

 

A Mental Vacation through Alpha Meditation (35 mts) – by Ranjan De Silva

 A simple explanation of the benefits of meditation and a guided meditation session to help you take your brain to the alpha brainwave frequency, that provides you a deep mental relaxation at a conscious state. Take your mind away from the turbulence of the current world, improve health & well being , quality of sleep, focus, creativity, relationships, peace of mind and purposefulness. 

I hope this could be useful in providing online learning to your team during the current down time so that they would be kept positive, motivated and sharp so that all of you would be geared to perform with excellence during the crisis and after.

The following process can help you get good value from this video:

Continue reading ” A Mental Vacation”

Is the medical crisis curing the ecological crisis and causing an economic crisis?

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Reflection Guide:

Reflect on what we have done to create the medical crisis that is curing the ecological crisis and causing an economic crisis. Reflect on the change in consciousness we need. Reflect on one simple step we can take to make this world a better place, medically, ecologically and economically.

Quotes for Reflection

Disaster or Pimple-Level Problem

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Reflection guide:

Reflect on how you rate the impact of the pandemic in your life. Would it seem a lesser problem if you look at it from a broader view point. How would this help you to respond with less anxiety and more effectiveness?

Quotes for Reflection

 

From Up There – Soul Nourishing Poem

Soul Nourishing Poems

 

 

 

 

 

From Up There by Jon Jorgenson

A poem that helps change the perspective of life. Experience how different our perspective of life is when you look at it from up there. 

I hope this could be useful in nourishing your soul with hope, aspiration, positivity and confidence to deal with the present and gear up for the future.

Please feel free to share this poem with others who can benefit and communicate with me if you would like to share your thoughts.

How to Survive and Rise from the Pandemic

I hope you, your family and team are safe and in the event you or a loved one is affected by the virus, I wish you strength in dealing with the situation.

We are all in some way affected by the Covid-19. Many of the conversations are about the impact on health, economy, jobs, livelihood, etc. This is real and we need to first accept it and respond to the immediate realities. Once some of these immediate realities are responded to, it is important to reflect on how to rise and move in to the post-coved future. These 7 steps will help you in the process. Watch, reflect, customise, use, discuss and Share.

A 7 minute video with 7 tips on how to deal with the present & gear for the Future.

New Year during the Pandemic – A Reflection

NewYear 2020
Image Credits: Tripadvisor.com

Wish you all a happy new year, Subho nababarsho [Bengali], Sawatdii pimaï [Thai], Hnit thit ku mingalar pa [Burmese], Naya Barsa Ko Hardik Shuvakamana [Nepali], Nav varsh ki subhkamna [Hindi], Iniya puthandu nal Vazhthukkal [Tamil], Suba nava vasarak wewa [Sinhalese]

This is an amazing time every year for many countries in South Asia and Southeast Asia when most of us celebrate the traditional New Year. The New Year is celebrated between 13 to the 15 of April in India, Nepal, Myanmar [Burma], Laos, Thailand, Cambodia, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka.

However, this New Year is perhaps the most significant in our life time as we celebrate it during the pandemic which most of us are experiencing for the first time. Let’s explore the significance of the New Year this year from that context.

Continue reading “New Year during the Pandemic – A Reflection”

The Purpose of the Pandemic – Purpose of Living – Part 37

Animals and people near pond
Image Credits: Vectorstock.com

We are all in some way affected by the Covid-19 virus and wondering how it is going to affect our lives. Many of the conversations I read are about the materialistic impact such as health, economy, jobs, livelihood, etc. This is real and we need to first accept the reality and respond to it. The response needs to be at different levels; global bodies like the World bank and World Health Organisation, governments, business organisations, NGO’s, social groups, communities and individuals. It is heartening to see this happening at different levels, although much more still needs to be done. Once some of these immediate realities are responded to it could help to reflect on the bigger purpose of the pandemic.

Continue reading “The Purpose of the Pandemic – Purpose of Living – Part 37”

Purpose of Living – Part 21: Inspiring others to live a purposeful life

inspire
Image credits: http://icorecoach.com

We explored the notion of purpose from various viewpoints in the first ten blog posts in this series. We then started making sense of our purpose in the next ten blog posts. I invite you now to reflect on the ninth aspect in the model of purposeful living– inspiring (the dark blue colour circle in the model). While this is the ninth and final circle, in real life it can happen anywhere in the nine circles, it’s not necessarily chronological. There could be also other circles that are yet to be discovered. Once we gather momentum in living purposefully, we start inspiring others to live purposefully as well.

This blog-post deals with our responsibility to inspire others to live a purposeful life. We can inspire others by design or by accident. On one hand, others can get inspired when they see the improvement of our quality of life as we attempt to live a purposeful life.  Living a purposeful life includes; living with a set of positive values, engaging in spiritual activities, looking after our health, building quality relationships, building financial stability, developing intellect and allocating time for purposeful activities. On the other hand, we could use our roles in life to inspire others. These roles include being a parent, sibling, relative, teacher, leader, colleague, author, speaker, and social figure such as a sportsman, entertainer, business leader, religious leader and social leader etc. Continue reading “Purpose of Living – Part 21: Inspiring others to live a purposeful life”

Purpose of Living – Part 19: Responding to the Universe

universe responding to purpsoe
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We explored the notion of purpose from various viewpoints in the first ten blog posts in this series. We then started making sense of our purpose in the next eight blog posts. I invite you to now reflect on the seventh aspect in the model of purposeful living– Responding (the dark green colour circle in the model). While this is the seventh circle, in real life it can happen anywhere in the nine circles, it’s not necessarily chronological. An opportunity received could make someone feel fully alive and of service to the world and this can make him/her reflect and find purpose.

This blog-post deals with responding to the opportunities provided to us from the universe. I use the word universe to describe the energy system, a higher power that makes this planet tick. Those who are religious would make sense of this higher power as God, Allah or the Almighty. Whatever we call this power, I feel we are not intelligent enough to understand this higher power and it requires faith or a brilliant scientific mind. I believe the opportunities can come our way or we can go looking for the opportunities. Continue reading “Purpose of Living – Part 19: Responding to the Universe”

Purpose of Living – Part 16: Building Self to be Fit for Purpose

Building ourselves to live purposefully

We explored the notion of purpose from various viewpoints in the first ten blog posts in this series. We then started making sense of our purpose in the last five blog post. I invite you to now reflect on the fourth aspect in the model of purposeful living– Building – the light blue colour circle in the model. While this is the fourth circle, in real life it can happen anywhere in the nine steps; it’s not necessarily chronological.

This blog-post deals with building ourselves to be fit for purpose. I believe that God almighty or the universal energy system, or whatever way you make sense of the energy that makes life tick, would send us the opportunities to make our contribution to life. It could be a calling, a vocation, an opportunity to serve or an opportunity to further develop ourselves.

When I had a glimpse of my purpose 22 years ago, I decided to build myself by developing my spirituality through regular prayer and meditation, my health through regular visits to the gym, my relationships through spending more quality time with my family and team members, and my knowledge through re-introducing the reading habit to my life. These are four areas where we need to build ourselves; spiritual, physical, relational and mental. I started improving in these four areas and I felt successful and happy as a result, giving me peace of mind resulting in the improvement of the fifth aspect; emotional. I found I was getting less angry and was less frustrated when things did not go according to my plans. Continue reading “Purpose of Living – Part 16: Building Self to be Fit for Purpose”

Purpose of Living – Part 14: A Glimpse of our Purpose

purpose - part 14 - glimpse copy

We explored the notion of purpose from various viewpoints in the first ten blog posts in this series. We then started making sense of our purpose in the last three blog post. I invite you to now reflect on the second aspect in the model of purposeful living– The glimpse, the light green circle in the model.

This aspect deals with how we start seeing a glimpse or the beginning of what our purpose might be. The reason I sound so tentative is because I feel that we may have a specific role in this world and a purpose to live by, based on the higher powers that created us, be it God or the Universal energy system or however we chose to make sense of our existence. I discovered the beginning of my purpose about 22 years ago and the more I attempt to live by the sense of my purpose at any given time, the more I become clearer about it. Therefore, my clarity of my purpose has evolved with me and I believe it will continue to evolve during the rest of my life, although I may still not know what my purpose is completely, even when I transcend. Continue reading “Purpose of Living – Part 14: A Glimpse of our Purpose”

Purpose of Living – Part 13: Awareness about the Notion of Purpose

Purposeful Life - mar 2018
Image credits: Centre for disability and development – Texas A&M University a caption

We explored the notion of purpose from various viewpoints in the first ten blog posts in this series. We then started making sense of our purpose in the last two blog post. I invite you to now reflect on the first aspect in the model of purposeful living – Awareness, the grey circle.

This aspect deals with how we become aware of the notion of purpose, and realise the importance of living purposefully. There are some who are aware of the notion of purpose, but do not realise the importance of living a purposeful life. There are others who are aware of the notion of purpose and its importance as well. I believe both aspects are needed to motivate us to start seeing the glimpse of our own purpose, the second aspect of the model of purposeful living.  Let’s explore these two aspects in the next two paragraphs.

Continue reading “Purpose of Living – Part 13: Awareness about the Notion of Purpose”

Purpose of Living – Part 12: Making Sense of our purpose – the space

psychic energy
Image credits: http://getcontent.wordpress.com

We explored the notion of purpose from various viewpoints in the first ten blog posts in this series. We then started making sense of our purpose in the last blog post, the eleventh in the series. I invited you to explore a model of purposefulness that has been developed over the past three years of my doctoral studies. This is still work in progress and will continue to evolve in this year of writing my thesis and beyond.  However, I believe it has potential to help us make sense of our purpose because my professional practice over the past 20 years and my doctoral inquiry so far over the past three years has informed me of possible ways of making sense of our purpose.

The model as it stands now, presented in the previous (eleventh) blog post is based on the notion that our sense of purpose, that may evolve with life, is related to making a positive impact on the process of life using the talent, passion and compassion of each living being. I used the metaphor of the sun that provides us energy and inspiration, to explain purpose and the nine planets as the various aspects related to living purposefully. These aspects are related to each other through the space it resides in and I have a hunch that the space is the real thing. Continue reading “Purpose of Living – Part 12: Making Sense of our purpose – the space”

Purpose of Living – Part 10: The Action Logics (Post – Conventional) Viewpoint

Action logics - post con copy
Post – Conventional Action logics & Life Purpose

We explored the notion of purpose from the viewpoints of Abrahamic Religions, Eastern Philosophies, Early Sciences, Modern Sciences, Philosophy, Psychology, Ecology and Action Logics (pre-conventional) viewpoints in the past blog posts in this series. Let’s now have a look at this notion from an ‘Action Logics (post-conventional)’ viewpoint.

I started the previous blog post with an attempt to understand the notion of ‘Action Logics’, which tries to explain the ‘logic’ behind the ‘action’ we take. Most unspontaneous actions are based on decisions, which are rational, and therefore they could be based on an intention, reason or purpose. The four pre-conventional action logics; opportunist, diplomat, expert and achiever, explored in the last blog post was based on the degree of mutuality and expertise.

Let’s attempt to explore post-conventional action logics in this blog post based on the proposition by Greuter Cooke (2002). According to a research study in the USA of about 4300  adults, it was found that 18.2% belong to the post-conventional group. While it is difficult to define post-conventional, to me it seems like those who are more mature, wiser, selfless, seeking happiness through harmony, simplicity, generosity and spirituality, would fall into this group. Continue reading “Purpose of Living – Part 10: The Action Logics (Post – Conventional) Viewpoint”

Purpose of Living – Part 8: The Ecological Viewpoint

mahogany landslide may 2017
Natures Wrath: Landslide of a Mahogany Plantation

We explored the notion of purpose from the viewpoints of Abrahamic Religions, Eastern Philosophies, Early Sciences, Modern Sciences, Philosophy and Psychology in the last few blog posts in this series. Let’s now have a look at this notion from some of the Ecological viewpoints.

It’s May 2017. I got a call from the account manager from the company that manages my Mahogany plantation in the Ratnapura district of Sri Lanka. I have some bad news to share with you. What is it? I ask. One of your Mahogany plantations in Munihinkanda has got affected by the recent landslides. We have not been able to access the plantation yet as the authorities have restricted access to the plantations until they are able to confirm that it is secure. What is the extent of the damage? I ask. About ten acres of the plantation has slid down to the river below and we feel it includes one of your plots too. Interestingly I was calm as I heard this news, although the financial loss was going to be quite severe. As I digested this news my mind went to the time that a rubber plantation of a larger extent belonging to my father was destroyed due to a cyclone about 40 years ago. I remembered my involvement in the process of transporting the fallen trees to help my father recover at least a part of the losses. My mind wonders to the hundreds of lives lost due to this storm and thousands who have lost their livelihood as a result. Perhaps the reason for me to be emotionally unmoved by my financial loss could be because these are more severe than the personal financial loss I have incurred. I have watched with dismay so many natural disasters such as hurricanes, tsunami’s, floods, landslides, forest fires etc. happening in various parts of the world. It seems like it is getting more and more intense.

Continue reading “Purpose of Living – Part 8: The Ecological Viewpoint”