Rays of Enlightenment

On September 25, 2020September 26, 2020 By Ranjan De SilvaIn belief, Ecology, energy, Environment, happiness, hope, learning, Life, Personal Excellence, Pictures that Speaks, psychology, purpose, success, Team ExcellenceLeave a comment

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.

The Courage To Fail – Path to Success

On September 22, 2020 By Ranjan De SilvaIn belief, Communications, energy, engagement., hope, Inspirational Speechs, Leadership, learning, Personal Excellence, psychology, success, ValuesLeave a comment

A Thought Provoking Talk by Les Brown

As you watch this video, reflect on your attitude towards failure, rejection and setbacks etc. What steps would you take to reinforce your attitude or change your attitude to enjoy success?

Inspiring Online – Opening Up New Possibilities.

On September 18, 2020September 18, 2020 By Ranjan De SilvaIn hope, learning, Life, Personal Excellence, Pictures that Speaks, psychology, purpose, success, Team ExcellenceLeave a comment

A screenshot captured by a participant of the ‘Mastery of Self – NLP online’ session.

It was a common occurrence to have participants take photos during in-room sessions and publish it widely on social media during my work before the pandemic. After having taken my work online over the past 6 months and conducting various organisational and personal transformation webshops for leaders, teams and individuals, I was pleasantly surprised to see this photo on LinkedIn.

A participant from r-pac Bangladesh, Rakibul Alam has posted this photo with the message: I am not the best but I can be better. Yes I can do it in a better way, no one can hold me down! Special thanks to my Guru Ranjan De Silva.

This type of gesture gives me confidence to do this work, even online. This comes at a time when I have started conducting in room sessions for companies in Sri Lanka, with the mindset that my type of work requires and in-room experience for best impact. However due to travel restrictions I don’t see myself flying for a while and this gesture gives me confidence to innovate newer methods to make online learning experiences to my overseas clients in a more enjoyable and effective manner.

Emotions that Motivate you

On September 15, 2020September 15, 2020 By Ranjan De SilvaIn belief, Communications, energy, engagement., hope, Inspirational Speechs, Leadership, learning, Personal Excellence, psychology, success, ValuesLeave a comment

A Power Packed Talk by Tony Robins

As you watch this video, reflect on your motivation (motive to take action). How does emotion (energy in motion) creates that motivation from within that helps us make a difference?

The Coin That Makes The Difference

On September 8, 2020September 8, 2020 By Ranjan De SilvaIn Business, Communications, Inspirational Speechs, Leadership, learning, Marketing, Personal Excellence, psychology, Relationships, Sales, service, success, Team Excellence, ValuesLeave a comment

What can a coin reveal about your service mindset? Listen to Ron Kaufman and discover.

As you watch this video by customer service guru Ron Kaufman, reflect on the ‘coin’ that is preventing you from reaching specialness. What will it take to pick up YOUR coin and get rid of it today?

Where Great Men Are Made

On September 4, 2020 By Ranjan De SilvaIn belief, Ecology, EQ, happiness, hope, IQ, learning, Life, Love, Personal Excellence, purpose, Spiritual, ValuesLeave a comment

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.

Say ‘No’ to Distraction and Say ‘Yes’ to ‘Mastery’

On September 1, 2020 By Ranjan De SilvaIn Business, Communications, EQ, happiness, Health Care, hope, Inspirational Speechs, IQ, Leadership, learning, Life, Personal Excellence, psychology, purpose, Relationships, Spiritual, success, Team ExcellenceLeave a comment

Robin Sharma – on the dangers of your devise and other non-value adding addictions on your success and how to gain monomaniacal focus, using practical and neurological information.

As you listen to this powerful speech by Robin Sharma, reflect on steps you can take to kill the distractions of your life, build purposeful habits and give life and energy to your special talent … to achieve mastery purposefully.

The Pandemic and the Environment

On August 19, 2020April 7, 2024 By Ranjan De SilvaIn Ecology, Environment, Health Care, Knowing, learning, Life, Personal Excellence, purpose, Purpose Quest, Values, World affairsLeave a comment

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.

Natures Wrath – When Will We Wake Up?

On August 14, 2020August 14, 2020 By Ranjan De SilvaIn Ecology, Environment, Knowing, learning, Life, Pictures that Speaks, purpose, Spiritual, Sri Lanka, World affairsLeave a comment

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.

The Pandemic & Money

On August 12, 2020August 13, 2020 By Ranjan De SilvaIn Business, Cash Flow, learning, Life, Personal Excellence, purpose, Purpose Quest, Releasing, Spiritual, Struggles, Team Excellence, Values, World affairsLeave a comment

In the last 5 blog posts in the ‘purpose quest series’, we explored how the pandemic impacted five important pillars for purposeful living; spiritual, mental, emotional, relational and health. Let’s explore the sixth pillar, the financial aspect in this blog post. The financial pillar consist of four aspects earnings, expenses, savings and investments. As in the past five blog posts let me describe my personal experience during the pandemic.

With the announcement of the pandemic, cases starting to rise and lockdowns getting implemented, many of my clients decided to postpone sessions that were scheduled. In addition some of the industries my clients were in, specially the apparel industry was having orders getting cancelled, resulting in impending reduction in their cashflows. In the past too, some companies first eliminated people development budgets when such challenges arose. All this made me realise that I need to focus on planning my finances. Continue reading “The Pandemic & Money” →

The Pandemic on Health

On August 5, 2020August 5, 2020 By Ranjan De SilvaIn family, Health Care, learning, Life, Personal Excellence, purposeLeave a comment

Image Credits: mdx.ac.uk

In the last 4 blog posts, we explored how the pandemic impacted four important pillars for purposeful living; spiritual, mental, emotional and relational. Let’s explore the fifth pillar, the ‘physical’ related to the health of people in this blog.The health pillar consist of three aspects exercise, nutrition and rest. As in the past four blog posts let me describe my experience during the pandemic.

After I got standard in dhaka, ehe time I spent converting delivery methods of our intellectual services online, engaging with the authorities about arranging passage home, conducting webinars, taking part in webinars organised by others, catching up on the covid updates, writing recommendations, and being in touch with my family took more time and energy than usual.

Let’s explore the ‘rest’ aspect first. While I used to sleep one our two hours before midnight before the pandemic, the new workload resulted in me sleeping after mid night and waking late most days. While I was conscious of how detrimental this was to my health, I was not able improve this. However after returning to Sri Lanka, this changed as my work load on getting back home was eliminated. I slept by 10 pm and was awake at 6 am the entire fortnight while undergoing quarantine at the Blue Waters Beach Resort. This trend continued after returning home for a while, but with the emerging demands the sleep timings became inconsistent. In addition to sleep timings it is important to take at least one free day a week and this was a big improvement area too, until I managed ot find the time to take the family down to a beach resort last weekend and take a proper free day.

The next aspect is exercises. I used to do yoga and meditation in the morning and exercises for at least 30 minutes a day before the pandemic. The length and quality of meditation and yoga varied based on the time I had in the morning before I headed off to work. After the pandemic began, my meditation and yoga sessions were longer and exercise were more intense. I ensured these practices every day even if I woke late when I was in Dhaka. It was easier and of better quality during quarantine and for a few weeks after returning home. However with my sleep patterns becoming inconsistent the quality of my morning meditation and yoga has also got adversely affected.

Nutrition is the aspect where I have been least consistent with, during the time in Dhaka and after returning home. Thankfully the quality and quantity of nutrition during quarantine was very good as we were provided well balanced meals planned by the medical experts.

The sense I make from this exploration is that the challenges of the pandemic has had an adverse effect on my health related practices although I am aware of what is required, have practiced such disciplines regularly in the past and have the intention get back to an ideal routine.

People I speak to lament about challenges in the various aspects. Many could not sleep on time or sleep well due to the information overload and the anxiety as as the lockdowns began in March. Many could not exercise as they were not allowed to leave home. However this should not be an excuses as I exercised indoors most of the days. Its only in the last 2 months that I started taking walks by the lake near my home in Sri Lanka. Some manage nutritious well, specially due to the compulsion of doing home gardening in the first two months with the fear of food shortages etc. This too is fading out and many find that managing the quality of food intake is also becoming challenging.

The quality of health related practices explored in this blog has a direct impact on our immunity, which has a direct impact on our ability to fight the virus. As such it is important for us to be very mindful about this aspect and I intend focusing on it more intensely and intently from now onwards.

I wish you purposeful living.

Fail Big – Leave Big

On August 4, 2020August 4, 2020 By Ranjan De SilvaIn Inspirational Speechs, learning, Life, Personal Excellence, psychology, Struggles, success, ValuesLeave a comment

As you listen to this amazing speech, reflect on what will you leave behind (not what you will take with you, because we don’t) and how will you gain what you will leave.

Childlike Learning – Is it a thing of the past?

On July 31, 2020August 2, 2020 By Ranjan De SilvaIn EQ, happiness, learning, Pictures that Speaks, psychology, Relationships, Team ExcellenceLeave a comment

This is a moment from an in-room learning experience pre-pandemic. This a photo taken after an activity related to the ‘Six Thinking Hats’, conducted for one of my clients in Dubai. It now 4 months of online learnings using ‘webshops’, a concept innovated by my team to attempt to create an experience close as possible to the fun and interactive in-room experience.

While some participants who have experienced our in-room and online learning experiences say that they got a similarly impactful experience, my fervent wish, for the sake of the quality of learnings, is that we move back to physical venues as soon as the situation starts permitting us to. Given that life in Sri Lanka is limping back to normal, we have already conducted 3 days of in-room sessions and many more are lined up. I cant tell the impact these have had not only on the participants experience, but also on the quality of our contribution.

Gems of Wisdom

On July 28, 2020 By Ranjan De SilvaIn happiness, hope, Leadership, learning, Life, Personal Excellence, Spiritual, success, ValuesLeave a comment

Compilation of speeches by A P J Abdul Kalam

Listen to the wisdom of A. P. J Abdul Kalam in a compilation of his speeches and interviews. Reflect on the message that matters most to you. The variety of insights are so diverse and insightful, each person listening to this will takeaway gems of wisdom most relevant to you. Reflect on a change in attitudes, behaviours and actions that you will make as a next step.

Walking Down Memory Lane

On July 17, 2020 By Ranjan De SilvaIn Environment, happiness, hope, learning, Life, Love, Pictures that SpeaksLeave a comment

This is the path that I must have walked a 5000 times for 10 years during my childhood. this is the path connecting to the rear entrance to my school, St Anthony’s college, Kandy. it was the last few steps in to school or the first few step returning home every morning or evening. It was the beginning or end of the two mile walk from or to home. This was the point where I started or ended another day or learning in the class room or on the sports field. If this picture can read my mind and talk, imagine the stories it will tell. This picture received yesterday from a friend in our school WhatsApp group created so much nostalgia. Thank you!

Did the Pandemic Stimulate you Intellectually?

On July 15, 2020July 16, 2020 By Ranjan De SilvaIn Ecology, EQ, Health Care, IQ, Knowing, learning, Life, Personal Excellence, psychology, purpose, Purpose Quest, Spiritual, Values, World affairsLeave a comment

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.

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 →

World’s Greatest from A Little Bit of Hope

On July 2, 2020July 3, 2020 By Ranjan De SilvaIn hope, learning, Life, Personal Excellence, purpose, Songs for Growth, ValuesLeave a comment

World’s Greatest – R.Kelly

As you listen to the beautiful lyrics of this song, with the energising music in the background and motivating visuals, reflect on you being the world’s greatest in the purposeful arena you are born to win. Start taking baby steps with that little bit of hope you have to energise you and see, hear & feel the journey getting more meaningful and exciting as you smell and taste those little wins that grow.

Songs for Growth

The Beautiful Paradox

On June 26, 2020June 26, 2020 By Ranjan De SilvaIn Business, Communications, hope, Leadership, learning, Personal Excellence, Pictures the Speak, psychology, purpose, Team Excellence, Values1 Comment

coaching pic

This is one of my favourite pictures that depicts the essence of learning. This is an executive coaching process underway for senior executives of the John Keells Holdings at the Cinnamon Citadel Hotel in Kandy, the Hill Capital of Sri Lanka. A peer coaching process where peers who participate in the coaching process, becomes a part of the coaching team together with the coach.

The beanbags and the dress code signify the informality of the process, the blend of colours signifies the diversity of the aspirations, hopes, concerns, issues, methods and solutions of the participants. The disorderly nature of the white chairs in the background with bags thrown around signifies the messiness that needs to be experienced in the learning and growth process. The flip charts signifies the formality of the work to be done. The sweets, water, snacks and tea provided shows the care taken to ensure the comfort of the participants. The intense listening and focus of the participants shows the seriousness, rigorous and the respect show to each other and the process.

Overall a beautiful blend of the soft and the hard, the messiness and the orderliness, the informality and formality, the soft and the hard touching hearts and minds for real, purposeful transformation.

Pictures that speak

Life is Worth Living

On June 11, 2020June 11, 2020 By Ranjan De SilvaIn family, Leadership, learning, Life, Personal Excellence, psychology, purpose, Songs for Growth, Spiritual, Team Excellence, ValuesLeave a comment

Life is worth Living – an inspirational song by Justin Bieber

As you listen to the song, reflect on the how you feel when you look at the long road ahead in your life, on who who gave you direction and help when you were confused, and on the mistakes you made and how you responded. Moving on reflect on how would you respond to such situations and how would you help others who are on the journey of life.

Songs for Growth

Danger or Oppportunity?

On June 7, 2020 By Ranjan De SilvaIn Business, Ecology, family, Health Care, Leadership, learning, Personal Excellence, psychology, purpose, Quoates for Reflection, Relationships, Spiritual, Team Excellence, ValuesLeave a comment

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.

Love and the Rose: A Poetic Definition

On May 22, 2020May 25, 2020 By Ranjan De SilvaIn Communications, family, learning, Personal Excellence, psychology, purpose, Relationships, Releasing, Spiritual, Team ExcellenceLeave a comment

Reflect what Love is to you. Is it River that drowns, a razor that leaves the soul to bleed or an endless hunger? Or is it nurturing – like a seed in to a flower.

Enjoy Bette Midler’s song recited in a poetic manner, defining ‘Love’ by Ranjan De Silva

Biggest Learning from your Mother

On May 10, 2020May 17, 2020 By Ranjan De SilvaIn family, Knowing, learning, Personal Excellence, psychology, purpose, Relationships, SpiritualLeave a comment

Today’s Quote for Reflection

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Reflection Guide:

As we celebrate mother’s day in Asia today, reflect on your biggest learning from your mother. Share it and learn from each others mother.

Quotes for Reflection

Disaster or Pimple-Level Problem

On May 4, 2020May 4, 2020 By Ranjan De SilvaIn Ecology, family, Health Care, learning, Personal Excellence, psychology, purpose, Releasing, Spiritual, World affairsLeave a comment

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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

Natural Abilities – Learning Video

On April 26, 2020April 28, 2020 By Ranjan De SilvaIn Business, Communications, Leadership, learning, Marketing, Personal Excellence, psychology, purpose, Relationships, Sales, Team ExcellenceLeave a comment

Free Online Videos

Today’s learning video – for Leaders at all levels:

Natural Abilities (10 mts) by Ranjan De Silva

Helps understand the four natural abilities and how getting your team members in to their natural ability areas helps you to achieve near optimum performance. Includes free self assessment to find out natural abilities.

I hope this could be useful in providing online learning to your team members, family, friends and self 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.

You can watch this alone or learn with others in-room or Online.

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

Step 1 – A moderator (an expert from your company) to open the session, explaining the importance of the session.

Step 2 – Show the video,

Step 3 – Have a Q&A session and a discussion

Step 4 – Agree on actions to be taken based on the video

Step 5 – Participants to say how the session was useful.

In addition, we can also arrange online sessions or executive coaching for your current and future business needs. Please inbox if you would like to discuss options.

Mindfulness Based Customer Service – Learning Video

On April 22, 2020April 22, 2020 By Ranjan De SilvaIn Business, Communications, Leadership, learning, Marketing, Personal Excellence, Relationships, Sales, Teams1 Comment

Today’s learning video is for Customer Service and Sales Professionals at all levels.

Mindfulness Based Customer Service by Tanzi Usoof

Learn how to provide better customer service by using mindfulness practices. This is a skill which is even more important during times of anxiety when your mind is full. Learn how to empty your mind of the anxiety, worry, clutter etc. so that you can fully focus on the customer with the intention of being of service to the customers.

How to get best value from the video:

Continue reading “Mindfulness Based Customer Service – Learning Video” →

Eliminating Covid From Your Life – Learning Video

On April 20, 2020April 20, 2020 By Ranjan De SilvaIn Communications, Environment, family, Health Care, Knowing, learning, Personal Excellence, psychology, purpose, Relationships, Releasing, Spiritual, Teams, World affairs1 Comment

Today’s learning video is for employees at all levels.

Fight Covid-19 – 7 Simple Steps (7.35 mts.)

A 7 minute video with 7 tips on how to deal with the present and gear for the future.

How to get best value from the video:

Continue reading “Eliminating Covid From Your Life – Learning Video” →

Leadership Complexities -Learning Video

On April 18, 2020April 19, 2020 By Ranjan De SilvaIn Business, Communications, Leadership, learning, Relationships, Team ExcellenceLeave a comment

Today’s learning video is for those in Senior Leadership Positions;

Leadership Complexities (10 mts) – Helps understand deep-seated leadership competencies and tips to deal with it. Includes free self assessment to find out own leadership complexity.

How to get best value from the video:

Continue reading “Leadership Complexities -Learning Video” →

How to Survive and Rise from the Pandemic

On April 16, 2020September 22, 2020 By Ranjan De SilvaIn Ecology, Environment, family, Health Care, Leadership, learning, Personal Excellence, psychology, purpose, Relationships, Releasing, Spiritual, World affairsLeave a comment

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

On April 14, 2020September 21, 2020 By Ranjan De SilvaIn Communications, Ecology, Environment, family, Health Care, Knowing, learning, Personal Excellence, psychology, purpose, Relationships, Spiritual, Sri Lanka, World affairsLeave a comment

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

On March 30, 2020June 1, 2020 By Ranjan De SilvaIn Ecology, Environment, family, Health Care, Knowing, Leadership, learning, Personal Excellence, psychology, purpose, Relationships, Spiritual, Team Excellence, World affairs3 Comments

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” →

Take a JUMP in to your purpose – Purpose of Living – Part 36

On March 1, 2020April 24, 2020 By Ranjan De SilvaIn Business, Communications, family, Knowing, Leadership, learning, Personal Excellence, psychology, purpose, Relationships, Releasing, Spiritual, Team Excellence, Teams2 Comments

Jump-blog I have learnt that we keep discovering our higher purpose as we live life once we discover the notion of purpose and is conscious of its existence. This had got me in to the habit of reflecting, reviewing, refreshing and re-writing my purpose every month.
The first part of my current purpose statement is;

Inspire others to live a purposeful life based on their own evolving beliefs, values and methods.

This is based on my discovery of how my beliefs, values and methods evolved during my first-person inquiry and my discovery of how different people have different beliefs, values and methods that evolve as they attempt to live purposefully, during my second-person inquiry. First- and second-person inquiry are methods of action research that I adopt in my doctoral research into the notion of ‘purposeful living’. Continue reading “Take a JUMP in to your purpose – Purpose of Living – Part 36” →

The Purpose of Family – Purpose of Living – Part 35

On January 30, 2020August 5, 2020 By Ranjan De SilvaIn Business, family, Knowing, learning, Personal Excellence, psychology, purpose, Relationships, SpiritualLeave a comment

purpose and family — Image credits: alagant-travel.com

It was not an easy decision to take 10 days off my busy schedule and travel to the other side of the planet to be with my sister for one of her milestone birthdays. It was not easy because I had to allocate time to respond to time demanded by my clients and team.

However, I made the decision, went through many challenges getting the visa because my busy travel schedule provided me only a small window to obtain the visa, worked long hours to clear as much work as possible so that I can be with the families of my sister and brothers during this time.

I am so glad that I made this decision to see the joy in my sisters face when I arrived at her door at 7am a few days ago, with my brother who picked me up from the Toronto Airport. I am so glad that I can spend time with the families of my brother and sister, catching up on their lives, sharing nostalgic moments, visiting interesting places, and spending quality time together.

Continue reading “The Purpose of Family – Purpose of Living – Part 35” →

What can we learn from the Inn Keeper? – Purpose of Living – Part 34

On December 25, 2019December 25, 2019 By Ranjan De SilvaIn Communications, Knowing, learning, Personal Excellence, purpose, SpiritualLeave a comment

nativity-scene
As I cherish the wonderful experiences on the day of love, peace, giving and forgiving, a profound message at the Christmas Mass last mid-night re-enters my mind. This message not only gave me a new perspective to the attitude and behaviour of the Inn keeper, it made me realise that peoples thinking and action can have a higher purpose that we may not understand, and therefore makes us misunderstand them.

We’ve grown up hearing the account that the “inn” in Bethlehem was full, with no “room” available, so Joseph and Mary ended up in a stable, with Jesus Christ born and laid in a manger there. This image has been used to promote the typical Christmas nativity scene for generations.

Continue reading “What can we learn from the Inn Keeper? – Purpose of Living – Part 34” →

How to use messages from our subconscious mind to live a purposeful life? – Purpose of Living – Part 33

On November 30, 2019December 30, 2019 By Ranjan De SilvaIn Health Care, Knowing, Leadership, learning, Personal Excellence, psychology, purpose, SpiritualLeave a comment

purpose and subconscious — Image credits: theconversation.com/

The question for today’s blog post is; How can we use messages from our sub-conscious mind to live more purposefully? We have been exploring the notion of purpose and purposeful living over the past 33 posts and hence I assume the notion is clear to you. Therefore, let’s directly move on to exploring the sub-conscious mind and how we can use it to live purposefully.

The idea of deeper levels of information processing was developed and extensively studied by famous Austrian psychologist Sigmund Freud (1856 – 1939). According to him, the mind could be divided into conscious, subconscious and unconscious levels. The Conscious Mind – defines all thoughts and actions within our awareness. For example, the beauty and pleasance of the smell of a red tulip. The Unconscious Mind– defines all past events and memories, inaccessible to us no matter how hard we try to remember to bring things up. For example, the first time you had ice cream, or how it felt to be able to speak for the first time. The Subconscious Mind defines all reactions and automatic actions we can become aware of if we think about them. For example, our ability to ride a bicycle: once we get skilled we stop thinking about balancing, when to pedal, when to break, when to speed up, when to slow down, when to bend etc., but when we think about it later, we become aware about all the action we took.

Continue reading “How to use messages from our subconscious mind to live a purposeful life? – Purpose of Living – Part 33” →

Purposeful Living through Releasing – Purpose of Living – Part 32

On October 29, 2019March 26, 2024 By Ranjan De SilvaIn Knowing, learning, Personal Excellence, psychology, purpose, Relationships, Releasing, Spiritual3 Comments

After having been a student and teacher of how to master ourselves by living a purposeful life and programming our own mind, for the past twenty five years and believing that this is one of the best methods available to help us live a happy and successful life, finding ‘Releasing’ (or did Releasing find me?) has opened possibilities I thought never existed.

Sometimes opportunities find us when we welcome them. And perhaps it was such serendipitous moments when the notion of Purposefulness found me about 25-years ago and the notion of Releasing found me 25-years later. Releasing, also presented under the rubric of The Sedona Method (same methodology with a different presenter), has been hailed by people like Jack Canfield and Mark Victor Hansen, was showcased in the best-selling The Secret, has been the subject of numerous testimonials from leading authorities like Dr. David Hawkins, Michael Singer and others in terms of being an exemplar of “inside out” breakthroughs. Continue reading “Purposeful Living through Releasing – Purpose of Living – Part 32” →

Is Selling a Purposeful Profession – Purpose of Living – Part 29

On July 31, 2019August 1, 2019 By Ranjan De SilvaIn Business, Communications, Knowing, Leadership, learning, Marketing, Personal Excellence, purpose, Relationships, Sales, Spiritual1 Comment

purposeful sales person 2 — Image credits: businessknowhow.com

I was at a cocktail party listening to an interesting conversation between two other guests who were in the same huddle as me.

Person A: What do you do?

Person B: I sell financial services.

Person A: What do you really want to do?

Person B: I want to be banker.

I asked A why he asked that question, and B why he responded that way. A said, “isn’t selling a profession that is not respected?” B said “yes”, it is so difficult to sell because customers look at him with suspicion. In my three decades of being in business and playing the roles of seller, buyer, leader, trainer, consultant and coach of sales professionals, I have encountered this attitude towards sales on many occasions.

However, my personal attitude towards sales is the opposite. As I reflect on the questions – how is it that people have developed this attitude towards sales, and what would be the best way to help people to look differently at sales? – the notion of purposefulness continues to come to my mind. Perhaps if I can find out if ‘sales’ is a purposeful profession, then it might help me to engage with people who have diverse viewpoints regarding this question.

Answering the above question requires understanding what is a purposeful profession. While I have attempted to answer this question in the earlier blog posts regarding purposefulness, there is no definite answer due to the complexity of this question. I believe that a purposeful profession needs to be of service to the flourishing of life and supported by noble values. Let’s examine these two aspects in relation to the sales profession. Continue reading “Is Selling a Purposeful Profession – Purpose of Living – Part 29” →

The Purpose of the Mens Cricket World Cup – Purpose of Living – Part 28

On June 30, 2019July 1, 2019 By Ranjan De SilvaIn Knowing, Leadership, learning, Personal Excellence, purpose, Sports, Sri Lanka, Team Excellence, World affairsLeave a comment

CWC-2019-Captains — Image Credits: http://www.cricketworldcup.com

Over a billion people have been engaged with the ongoing Men’s Cricket World Cup over the last month. It all started with everyone hoping the cricket teams of their respective countries will become the world champions. The fact remains that only one team will be the eventual world champions. This blog is not about trying to predict the eventual champs, it is to discuss the impact of such sports extravaganza has on the lives of people.

The International Cricket Council organizes the Men’s Cricket World Cup as well as other global competitions related to Cricket to propagate cricket as well as raise funds. I am not sure which comes first. Is it to raise funds to propagate cricket or propagate cricket to raises funds. Well it doesn’t matter, perhaps both ends feed each other. There could be other reasons, for example to raise the standards of the sport and of those who are involved in it such as the players, coaching staff, umpires, referees, cricket boards and administrators. These aims could have a higher purpose that impacts the lives of people and I would like to address such issues in this blog post.

My blog post of the last two months addressed the impact of violence, religion and politics on the lives of people in the aftermath of the Easter Sunday bomb attacks in Sri Lanka, one of the former world champions who are now at the bottom of the table, struggling for form. Yet the entire nation was hoping that they will become the champs again. Teams from other countries besieged by violence such as Pakistan and Afghanistan are also in contention. The founders of cricket, England, is amid perhaps their worst political crisis related to Brexit. They entered the tourney as one of the favourites. Countries such as South Africa, Bangladesh and the West Indies are besieged with their own political and economic crises. Continue reading “The Purpose of the Mens Cricket World Cup – Purpose of Living – Part 28” →

Impact of religion and politics on personal purpose? – Purpose of Living – Part 27

On May 30, 2019June 4, 2019 By Ranjan De SilvaIn Knowing, learning, Personal Excellence, psychology, purpose, Relationships, Spiritual, Sri Lanka, World affairs4 Comments

Impact of religion and politics of people 2

My blog post of last month addressed the notion of purpose of violence in the aftermath of the Easter Sunday bomb attacks in Sri Lanka. We saw the involvement of religion and politics in the aftermath of the incident, over the past month. The intention of this blog post is to help us to understand how religion and politics positively and negatively impacted the lives of people.

Since I am not an intelligence, theological or political science expert to make judgements about what happened, and who was responsible for what happened, I request you not to take the assumptions I make in this post as truth. I am far away from the inner circles to know the truth and I am basing this blog post on what I have heard from trusted personalities such as the Cardinal of Sri Lanka, the Commander of the Army, and a retired intelligence experts known to me personally.

Continue reading “Impact of religion and politics on personal purpose? – Purpose of Living – Part 27” →

Attacking the Innocent – What is the Purpose? – Purpose of Living – Part 26

On April 30, 2019June 4, 2019 By Ranjan De SilvaIn Knowing, Leadership, learning, psychology, purpose, Spiritual, Sri Lanka, World affairs9 Comments

easter attacks - condole april 19 — Image Credits: fairmail.info

It was Easter Sunday (21 April 2019). I was in my flat in Dhaka, attending to some important business matters when I got a message that a bomb had gone off at St Anthony’s Church in Kochchikade, Colombo. Having not heard of bombings and terrorist violence for the past ten years, since the end of the civil war in Sri Lanka, I hoped it was a hand grenade thrown by a business rival involved in unscrupulous business, with no injuries; these were the rare occurrences we heard of over the past ten years. Then the news started pouring in with photos and videos of simultaneous bomb attacks in two other churches and luxury hotels as well. My immediate concern was for my family who would have been at an Easter Mass at the same time. After calling and ensuring they were safe, my thoughts went out to the victims. I started hearing news of people known to me or families of people known to me having lost their lives or being injured, among the 253 souls that departed and 500 plus injured. I had visited St Anthony’s Church many times and I could picture the carnage as if I was there. It is considered a miraculous church and people from all religions visit to reflect on their challenges and ask help from St Anthony to resolve them.

Continue reading “Attacking the Innocent – What is the Purpose? – Purpose of Living – Part 26” →

When purposes clash at the workplace – Purpose of Living – Part 25

On March 31, 2019May 10, 2019 By Ranjan De SilvaIn Business, Communications, Knowing, Leadership, learning, Personal Excellence, psychology, purpose, Relationships, Team Excellence, TeamsLeave a comment

collegue purpose conflits — Image credits: http://www.insperity.com

Have you ever faced a situation where you have a purpose that clashes with the purpose of a colleague, such as your boss, peer or a direct report? Has this situation led to misunderstandings, arguments, anger, click formation, politicking and even violence that starts affecting the business of the organisation? How did you handle the situation? Has it made you become disgruntled about the notion of ‘purposeful living’ and even resulted in discouraging team members in living purposefully. I will try to address this issue in this blog post from the experience I have had in dealing with such situations as a team member from within the organisation or as a consultant and coach from outside the organisation. Continue reading “When purposes clash at the workplace – Purpose of Living – Part 25” →

Finding Purpose in giving – Purpose of Living – Part 23

On January 31, 2019February 1, 2019 By Ranjan De SilvaIn Communications, Leadership, learning, Personal Excellence, psychology, purpose, Relationships, Spiritual2 Comments

purpose in giving - jan 19 — Image credit: http://www.stapostle.org

It’s interesting that the month of January 2019 was a month where I did as much free work as paid work. The first free assignment was to provide a keynote address at the new year celebration of a leading organisation in the insurance industry to inspire the staff of over 1000, who were gathered for the celebration, on the 1st of January. The second free assignment was to continue to help the administrators, parents and past pupils of my alma mater, St Anthony’s Collage, to take forward the strategic plan that I facilitated in formulating one year ago. The third free assignment was to help an important arm of the government of Sri Lanka to develop the leadership of a very important category of officials in becoming better leaders and making a better contribution for the development of the country. Continue reading “Finding Purpose in giving – Purpose of Living – Part 23” →

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

On November 30, 2018April 7, 2024 By Ranjan De SilvaIn Business, Communications, Ecology, Health Care, Knowing, Leadership, learning, Personal Excellence, psychology, purpose, Relationships, Spiritual, Team ExcellenceLeave a comment

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 20: Learning & Growing as we Struggle to be Purposeful

On October 30, 2018April 7, 2024 By Ranjan De SilvaIn Business, Communications, Health Care, Knowing, Leadership, learning, Personal Excellence, purpose, Relationships, Spiritual, Teams2 Comments

struggle-has-purpose — Image Credits: Grouphigh.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 nine blog posts. I invite you to now reflect on the eighth aspect in the model of purposeful living– Learning & Growing; the bronze colour circle in the model. While this is the eighth circle, in real life it can happen anywhere in the nine circle process, it’s not necessarily chronological. Learning and growth that occurs due to an experience could make us feel fully alive and of service to the world and this can make us reflect and find purpose. Continue reading “Purpose of Living – Part 20: Learning & Growing as we Struggle to be Purposeful” →

Purpose of Living – Part 19: Responding to the Universe

On September 29, 2018April 7, 2024 By Ranjan De SilvaIn Business, Communications, Ecology, Environment, Health Care, Knowing, Leadership, learning, Personal Excellence, psychology, purpose, Relationships, Spiritual, TeamsLeave a comment

universe responding to purpsoe — http://www.breathethinkwriterelease.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 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 18: Rituals for our Purpose

On August 26, 2018August 26, 2018 By Ranjan De SilvaIn Knowing, Leadership, learning, Personal Excellence, purpose, SpiritualLeave a comment

Care Of New Life - Watering Young Plant — Image credits: https://imerys-filtration.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 seven blog posts. I invite you to now reflect on the sixth aspect in the model of purposeful living– Rituals; the red colour circle in the model. While this is the sixth circle, in real life it can happen anywhere in the nine steps, it’s not necessarily chronological.

This blog-post deals with rituals for our purpose that we have now started to glimpse, based on the processes suggested in the last few blog posts. Rituals helps us to internalise the purpose, remind ourselves that we are in this world for a bigger reason, helps us decide to take some baby steps during the day towards living a purposeful life, energizes us, makes us feel more valuable, helps us to make decisions, solve problems etc.

Continue reading “Purpose of Living – Part 18: Rituals for our Purpose” →

Purpose of Living – Part 17: A Representation for the Purpose

On July 30, 2018July 31, 2018 By Ranjan De SilvaIn Knowing, Leadership, learning, Personal Excellence, psychology, purpose, SpiritualLeave a comment

Purpose artefact cropped — An artefact representing my life-purpose – read the post for an explanation of how it represents my life-purpose

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 6 blog posts. I invite you now to reflect on the fifth aspect in the model of purposeful living – Representation, the light beige colour circle in the model. While this is the fifth circle, in real life it can happen anywhere in the nine steps, it’s not necessarily chronological.

This blog post deals with creating a representation for our purpose that we have now started to glimpse, based on the processes suggested in the last few blog posts. A representation when seen regularly helps us to internalise the purpose, remind ourselves that we are in this world for a bigger reason, helps us decide to take some baby steps during the day towards living a purposeful life, energizes us, makes us feel more valuable, helps us to make decisions, solve problems etc.

Continue reading “Purpose of Living – Part 17: A Representation for the Purpose” →

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

On June 29, 2018April 7, 2024 By Ranjan De SilvaIn Business, Communications, Ecology, Environment, Health Care, Knowing, Leadership, learning, Personal Excellence, psychology, purpose, Relationships, Spiritual5 Comments

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 15: Purposeful Choices

On May 31, 2018April 7, 2024 By Ranjan De SilvaIn Business, Health Care, Knowing, Leadership, learning, Personal Excellence, purpose, Relationships, Spiritual, Team Excellence2 Comments

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 four blog post. I invite you to now reflect on the third aspect in the model of purposeful living– The choices (the orange colour circle in the model). While this is the third circle, in real life it can happen anywhere in the nine steps; it’s not chronological in real life.

This aspect deals with making choices once we have a glimpse for the beginning of what our purpose might be. When I had a glimpse of my purpose 22 years ago, I made choices such as finding opportunities to improve my knowledge regarding personal development through Neuro Linguistic Programming and organisational development through continuous improvement by reading and conducting training for my team at Keells Super, and attempting to apply this knowledge in my work and personal life. I started spending more time with my family because helping them grow and see them grow gave me joy. They are the oxygen that energized my flame. These choices were relevant to my purpose, which was about helping myself grow to my fullest potential by helping others to grow to their fullest potential. I started going to the gym regularly as I wanted to keep my body in shape so that I am fit to do purposeful work. I started to pray and meditate regularly and felt peace of mind. I also started to be more helpful to others thereby building high quality relationships. I knew all these were in some way connected to my purpose as I really felt good doing it. Continue reading “Purpose of Living – Part 15: Purposeful Choices” →

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

On April 30, 2018February 25, 2021 By Ranjan De SilvaIn Ecology, Environment, Health Care, Knowing, learning, Personal Excellence, purpose, Spiritual13 Comments

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 12: Making Sense of our purpose – the space

On February 28, 2018April 7, 2024 By Ranjan De SilvaIn Business, Communications, Ecology, Environment, Health Care, Knowing, Leadership, learning, Personal Excellence, psychology, purpose, Relationships, SpiritualLeave a comment

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 11: Making Sense of our purpose – the overview

On January 31, 2018January 31, 2018 By Ranjan De SilvaIn Knowing, Leadership, learning, Personal Excellence, purpose, Spiritual13 Comments

planetary model of purposefulness — Ranjan’s Model of Purposefulness

We explored the notion of purpose from various viewpoints in the past ten blog posts in this series. I believe it is now time to explore how we can make sense of our purpose. One reason I believe the time is right is because my professional practice over the past 20 years, and my Phd inquiry so far over the past three years has informed me of possible ways of making sense of our purpose. I believe some of the readers have already explored their purpose given various experiences and learnings in their life, and from the suggestions in the ten blog posts in this series so far.

Over the last three years the model of purposefulness has changed from having four components to nine components and from linear to loosely related. This change has happened based on an action inquiry process that took place as I tried to make sense of the notion of purpose by attempting to live a purposeful life in an inquiring manner. Inquiring into the notion in my family life, work life, social life, academic life, reflecting in to my experiences, taking new actions based on the reflection, reflecting based on action, and continuing the action-inquiry process. The model of purposefulness has evolved in this process and I believe it will continue to evolve.

The model as it stands now is presented in this blog post and I will explore the components and their relationships in depth in the blog posts to follow. I believe our purpose is something universal, related to making a positive impact on the process of life. The process of life consists of living beings, both human and other than human, the environment we live in, the resources we need to live such as food, water, fresh air, clothing etc., the infrastructure we need to live such as healthcare, education, transportation, communication, housing, and processes that ensure peace, harmony, joy and morality such as worship, entertainment, sports and marriage. Therefore, each living being has a role to play, based on their talent and passion to make a positive contribution to the process of life and I believe that would help us find our purpose.

Continue reading “Purpose of Living – Part 11: Making Sense of our purpose – the overview” →

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

On December 28, 2017December 29, 2017 By Ranjan De SilvaIn Business, Communications, Ecology, Environment, Knowing, Leadership, learning, Personal Excellence, purpose, Spiritual, Team Excellence8 Comments

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 9: The Action Logics (pre-conventional) Viewpoint

On November 29, 2017November 30, 2017 By Ranjan De SilvaIn Business, Communications, Leadership, learning, Personal Excellence, purpose, Relationships, Teams, Uncategorized2 Comments

action logics -pre con copy — Pre-conventional Action Logics

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

Let’s first try to understand the notion of ‘Action Logics’. It tries to explain the ‘logic’ behind the ‘action’ we take. Most action is based on decisions unless it is spontaneous. If decisions are well thought out and rational, they could be based on an intention, reason or purpose. This shows that actions can be based on a reason or purpose.

Therefore, the logic behind decisions we make that determine actions we take, could have an impact on the quality of the decision and the resultant action. The notion of action logics[1] has some potential in understanding this phenomenon.

The developers of the ‘Action Logics’ model proposes two broad categories of Action Logics: pre-conventional and post conventional. According to a research study in the USA of 4300 plus adults, it was found that 85% belong to the pre-conventional group. While it is difficult to define pre-conventional, to me it seems like those who are more materialistic, achievement oriented, less mature, younger and competitive would fall in to this group. Let me try to make sense of the four pre-conventional ‘Action-Logics’ in relation to purposeful living. Continue reading “Purpose of Living – Part 9: The Action Logics (pre-conventional) Viewpoint” →

Purpose of Living – Part 7: The Psychological Viewpoint

On September 29, 2017April 7, 2024 By Ranjan De SilvaIn Business, Communications, Knowing, Leadership, learning, Personal Excellence, psychology, purpose, Relationships, Spiritual2 Comments

psychology of purpose — http://www.webpt.com

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

Although having been appointed to boards of two of the companies of John Keells Holdings, at the age of 27, after having been appointed Marketing Manager of that company at the age of 24, largely due to the gold medal I won at the final examination of the UK based Chartered Institute of Marketing examination, and many corporate successes, I had a sense of emptiness and meaninglessness in my life during my early thirties. The various solutions applied to deal with this emptiness were related to attempting to think and act positively after having attended the ‘Mastery of Self’ playshop during that period. I also find many of the participants attending workshops I facilitate grappling with such emptiness.

Positive psychology – A science of positive subjective experience, positive individual traits, and positive institutions promises to improve quality of life and prevent the pathologies that arise when life is barren and meaningless – addresses this feeling of emptiness, described with the word ‘barren’. The exclusive focus on pathology that has dominated so much of our discipline results in a model of the human beings lacking the positive features that makes life worth living. Hope, wisdom, creativity, future mindedness, courage, spirituality, responsibility, and perseverance are ignored or explained as transformations of more authentic negative impulses (Seligman, Csikszentmihalyi, 2014, p.5).

Continue reading “Purpose of Living – Part 7: The Psychological Viewpoint” →

Purpose of Living – Part 6: The Philosophical Viewpoint

On August 30, 2017November 4, 2021 By Ranjan De SilvaIn Communications, Knowing, learning, Personal Excellence, purpose, Relationships, SpiritualLeave a comment

purpose-of-philosophy — Image Credits: http://www.lifepersona.com

We explored the notion of purpose from the viewpoint from Abrahamic Religions, Eastern Philosophies, early sciences and modern sciences in the last few blog posts in this series. Let’s now have a look at this notion from some of the Philosophical viewpoints.

An early proponent of the concept of purpose was Aristotle. His thinking of purpose tends to summarise the viewpoints of this diverse group of people. He suggests that the most basic meaning of quality of life refers to the ability of humans to formulate and implement purpose. Adoption of a good lifestyle that includes good health, social wellbeing and environmental safety or their promotion is purposeful activity (Jonsen,1976). While concepts of health, social wellbeing and environment is alluded by Aristotle, he does not talk about skills, knowledge and vocation, as echoed in some of the conversations I have had, and from my first-person knowing.

Continue reading “Purpose of Living – Part 6: The Philosophical Viewpoint” →

Purposeful Living – Part 2 – The Importance of Living Purposefully?

On April 29, 2017May 30, 2017 By Ranjan De SilvaIn Health Care, Knowing, Leadership, learning, Personal Excellence, Relationships, Spiritual2 Comments

million dollars on the mountain — Image Credits: Elevated Christian Network

Let’s examine the question; why is it important to find our purpose? Some would say; we have lived all these years without a clear purpose or we know what it is in our mind and our life is moving on well, so why do we need a purpose? I have come across a very small percentage of people who have a clearly articulate purpose, but most of them would say; I think this is my purpose, but I am not sure if it is the right purpose. The following interactive story, titled the million dollars on the mountain, helps audiences of my workshop to start understanding the importance of a purpose;

Ranjan: Imagine a cheque for a million dollars drawn in your name on top o a mountain. Would you like to go get it?
Continue reading “Purposeful Living – Part 2 – The Importance of Living Purposefully?” →

Purposeful Living – Part 1 – What is the difference between a purpose and a goal?

On March 31, 2017March 31, 2017 By Ranjan De SilvaIn Knowing, Leadership, learning, Personal Excellence, Spiritual5 Comments

The notion of ‘purpose’ has fascinated me, since I discovered it more than 20 years ago. I have attempted to live a purposeful life and help others to do so during my practice of helping individuals and teams live their potential. A concept in the centre of this endeavour is to help those who I am fortunate enough to interact with, discover ‘purpose’ and ‘live purposefully’. I have also chose to inquire in to the notion of purpose in my doctoral studies that I am pursuing at the moment. I invite you to read and reflect on this series of blog posts, take action that you are driven to take after reading them, reflect again on the action you take and take further action based on such reflection. I find this cycle useful and I hope it serves you too. It will also help my inquiry if you are willing to write to me about your experience.

The first of this series of blog posts is to explore the difference between a purpose and a goal? Let me take you to the second half of the first day in the ‘Mastery of Self – Through Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP)’ playshop, where we attempt to understand the concept of purpose. We start this section by trying to clarify the difference between ‘purpose’ and ‘goal’. While there is a discussion on this question, an answer that generally comes out is; purpose is the bigger reason why we pursue various goals in our life. It is the big ‘why’ of our choices. For example, if you are attempting to get a qualification, ask your self ‘why? If you keep repeating the question ‘why’ until there is no answer remaining, that might help you understand the difference between ‘purpose’ and ‘goal’ and perhaps give a hint of your higher purpose. So lets try to find the reason for pursuing the qualification;

Continue reading “Purposeful Living – Part 1 – What is the difference between a purpose and a goal?” →

How to change your habits with Action Inquiry

On February 28, 2017September 20, 2020 By Ranjan De SilvaIn Business, Communications, Health Care, Knowing, Leadership, learning, Personal Excellence, Relationships, Spiritual, Team ExcellenceLeave a comment

ranjans-reflective-model — Ranjan De Silva’s Reflective Process

Joseph tends to get angry when his wife Judy asks him too many questions? He notices this tendency and realizes that his response hurts Judy. But this thought does not come to his mind when he is angry. He feels this is not helpful for their relationship, which has been deteriorating gradually.

You may have faced similar situations with family, friends, colleagues or anyone else you have regular interactions or you may know others who are facing similar challenges. Have you ever wondered why it has been sometimes very difficult to change a habit?

While I have been using techniques of Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP) and Transactional Analysis (TA) to help myself and those who come for my guidance, to change habits, I was fascinated by the power and potential of Action Inquiry in achieving real and lasting change.

Continue reading “How to change your habits with Action Inquiry” →

Universal Energy Sync – For Success and Happiness

On January 31, 2017May 31, 2017 By Ranjan De SilvaIn Health Care, Knowing, Leadership, learning, Personal Excellence, Relationships, SpiritualLeave a comment

15977518_1179940798741493_283492035923755847_n — Image captured by me at the Ashridge Business School in January 2017

This image is the sunrise at the ‘Ashridge Business School’ captured earlier this month during my quarterly stay there. I consider this my spiritual home that nourishes my soul as I pursue my doctoral studies. This is a place that helps me grow towards my fullest potential, giving me real inner happiness during the process.

Perhaps you are one of those people who is always tasting success and living happily. Perhaps you are one who observes others in this way of living. Perhaps you are one who is searching for the ‘how’ to achieve such a state of life. This blog is designed to discuss how such a state of life can be achieved.

While there could be millions of ways of making sense of success and happiness, my personal belief is that success comes from improving in areas that are purposeful to me. I am refereeing to action that is driven by a higher purpose as I keep on my quest to make sense of what that higher purpose is. Happiness is what I experience when I am in the process of improving in areas important to me.

What is important to me is my purpose that helps me to be of service to the world and thereby helping me to provide a comfortable and purposeful life for my family and me. This requires me to improve my spirituality that gives me peace of mind, and improves my brain, which helps me learn and teach, improve my body, which helps me act effectively and efficiently, improve my relationships, which provides the love to live purposefully, improve my emotions to be in joy, improve my finances to help fund my purpose and improve the use of my time choosing to do purposeful work.
Continue reading “Universal Energy Sync – For Success and Happiness” →

Understanding and Dealing with Misunderstandings

On December 1, 2016December 6, 2016 By Natasha (De Silva) PalansuriyaIn Business, Communications, Knowing, Leadership, learning, Personal Excellence, Relationships, SpiritualLeave a comment

blog Let me use the words of the ‘Cookie Thief’ poem by Valerie Cox, I recite at trainings and the ‘ladder of inference’ developed by Coghlan & Brannick (2014, p.31) to attempt to figure out why we have misunderstandings. I will interrupt the poem and use the seven steps of the ‘ladder of inference’ model during the interludes in this attempt.

A woman was waiting at an airport one night, with several long hours before her flight. She hunted for a book in the airport shops, bought a bag of cookies and found a place to drop.

She was engrossed in her book but happened to see, that the man sitting beside her, as bold as could be. . .grabbed a cookie or two from the bag in between, which she tried to ignore to avoid a scene. Continue reading “Understanding and Dealing with Misunderstandings” →

Intelligence: Is it a Window into our Purpose?

On October 26, 2016September 20, 2020 By Ranjan De SilvaIn Business, Communications, Leadership, learning, Personal Excellence, Relationships, SpiritualLeave a comment

multiple_intelligence_wheel — Image Credits: http://www.rotation.org

My previous blog titled ‘why try to be a banana when you are a peach’ attempted to discuss the idea that we are unique and for me living purposefully is trying to discover if I am a Peach or a banana or something else and trying to live as one. I also feel that having a glimpse of what might be purpose would help make choices on how to live and we can get confirmation if those are congruent with purpose through bodily signals. I believe it is a life long search, and that living our life inquiring what our purpose might be, could help us find happiness… what ever that might mean to each of us.

In this blog post I would like to discuss if an exploration in to multiple intelligences could help us in the pursuit of finding purpose in our life. Howard Gardner introduces the concept of multiple intelligences and suggests that each one of us may have some predominant intelligence in us. The list of intelligences he suggests are; bodily physical, verbal/linguistic, mathematical/logical, visual/spatial, musical, inter-personal and intra-personal. The following description might be helpful in starting to think about our predominant intelligence.

Continue reading “Intelligence: Is it a Window into our Purpose?” →

Why try to be a Banana, when you are a Peach?

On September 30, 2016April 7, 2024 By Ranjan De SilvaIn Business, Communications, Knowing, Leadership, learning, Personal Excellence, Relationships, SpiritualLeave a comment

peaches-bananas — Image Credits: http://www.keywordhut.com

I could be the most delectable, the most delicious, the most wondrous peach in the world, and I could offer it to everybody. But there are people who are allergic to peaches. Then they may want me to be a banana.” And so often we become a banana for other people who want peaches. What a messy fruit salad. Isn’t it all right to say to them, “I am so sorry I cannot be a banana? I would love to be a banana if I could for you, but I’m a peach.” And you know what? If you wait long enough, you’ll find a peach lover. And then you can live your life as a peach, and you don’t have to live your life as a banana. All the lost energy it takes to be a banana, when you’re a peach!

This is a part of a poem I love, written by the author of ‘Love’ Leo Buscaglia. It had an amazing impact on my life and the choices I make. This has helped me to continue to search for my God-given gift by asking the questions; what do I love to do? What am I good at? What is important to me? These reflections have led me to find a sense of my ‘purpose’ and I continue to ask myself questions to inquire if that is my purpose. Such inquiry has also changed the questions and I ask and the third question above has now changed to; for what or who am I in service of?

Continue reading “Why try to be a Banana, when you are a Peach?” →

How do we know what we know?

On August 31, 2016September 17, 2020 By Ranjan De SilvaIn Communications, Knowing, learning, Personal Excellence, Relationships, Spiritual1 Comment

ways of knowing Have you ever thought about how you know what you know? When this question was first asked from me, the answers that came to my mind was; from books, from parents, from teachers, from the learned. But when confronted with the next question, so do you believe that all that you know was true, I felt yes, it must be true, if not these will not be thought to me by those who I respect as learned, honest and well-meaning. But when I thought deeper, I felt that what is true to them, does not have to be true to me, because they come from different backgrounds, eras, conditions, cultures, religion, and would be driven by different purposes etc. Therefore for us to claim that we know what we know requires a kind of self-validation. John Heron provides a theoretical framework that helps make sense of the way we know. He names it extended epistemology, which has four interwoven ways of knowing (Heron 1992, 1999): Continue reading “How do we know what we know?” →

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