Way to Success – Change is a way of life, change is the only constant...

Caterpillar to Butterfly

We have all come across this amazing phenomenon of change when a caterpillar turns itself into a butterfly.   But few of us know the process the caterpillar undergoes to transform into a beautiful creature. It is a long process where the larva feast over leaves till it is stuffed, while it sheds its skin over a series of days. Once it turns plumper and longer, it hangs upside down from a twig or leaf and spins itself into a cocoon. Within the cocoon, numerous changes are going on, like releasing of enzymes, dissolving of tissues, and developing new cells in the cocoon, until it breaks it open and emerges out as a butterfly. 

Life of an Eagle

For years a story of the life of an eagle has been going around on the internet. Although it is more fiction, that fact, it is an inspiring one. The eagle has a lifespan of about 30 years. It is one of the finest hunter birds in its species. But after about half of its life, the eagle has to make certain hard decisions like breaking its beak and its talons which he uses to catch prey. These grow back gradually. Also through the gradual process, the eagle losses its feathers throughout his life and new ones grow.  

Even mother earth has changed in times of COVID 19, the water bodies purified, the air has become drastically better than before, and the atmosphere is cleaner. Change is the norm, the only constant in life. 

Change Is The Only Constant

Over the millenniums of evolution, humans have also changed and adapted to their surroundings for survival. The brain has matured over time from solving simple problems to handling complex ones.

 So we see how change is accepted by different entities and they rise to become better and stronger.

Although it is highly unpredictable what the future holds, wouldn’t it be rather good to be prepared for the unforeseen? We could at least do it to a certain extent.

So we humans have to accept that COVID 19 has forced us to change so many aspects of our lives. Most of us are still working from home and not from the office. There are so many offices who have permanently issued a work from home to their employees. We are cautious of what we touch when we go outside home; where we stand and whether the distance is appropriately maintained, and whether we and others around us are wearing masks. I think we should take this time to be mindful of the change taking place. With the world going work from home and digital, we must predict the skills we need to equip ourselves with and use this time to learn them. The internet has ample resources and mediums to help us with that. But it is you who is responsible to take a step towards your self-development.  

Pre-COVID life, I am sure, was quite different for all of us. While in the office we could just walk up to a colleague and get help on a data you are working on, or on a project, or a work conflict. Now that we are either working from home or even in offices maintaining social distancing, we need to look at this with a completely different eye. It is not that we will no more approach anyone for help, or reach out to any colleague for his expertise. It is also not possible for anybody to be an expert in everything. But for sure, we can learn skills which are necessary for our day to day functioning without any glitch.   

Woodcutter's Axe

While writing this, I recall a fable I had read a few years ago. The story goes, there were      2 woodcutters. They decided to have a competition between them on who could cut more wood in a given time. One day, they decided to go to the forest and check who wins by cutting more wood at the end of the day. So they started chopping the wood with their best possible speed and efficiency. While woodcutter A was engaged in his work, he suddenly realised that he no longer heard the chopping noise from the other end where woodcutter B was cutting wood. He thought to himself that woodcutter B must have become tired and must have lost his motivation to cut longer, so he could be resting. After a few minutes, he again heard the chopping sound from woodcutter B’s end. Soon woodcutter A realised that every few hours, he heard no chopping noise for about 10-15 minutes. He thought to himself that woodcutter B got tired and slept a while before resuming work. At this rate, woodcutter A was sure of winning this competition as he kept cutting the barks of the trees without stopping, the whole day. At the end of the day, each one of them gathered the wood and laid it in front of each other. Surprisingly, woodcutter B had a huge pile of wood as compared to woodcutter A.  Woodcutter A was disappointed, but astonished and asked ‘How did you manage to cut so much wood, even though you took a break every few hours?’ To this, woodcutter B answered, ‘Every few hours I would stop cutting wood and sharpen my axe so that when I resume woodcutting I can do it faster and more efficiently.’4

So do I need to explain the moral of the story? We need to sharpen our axe in this downtime. Few tips I would share for the same:

Take The Next Step

    1.      Learn something new each day. Learn anything new, it could be a new skill, something which is of your interest.

    2.      Inculcate the habit of reading. You do not necessarily need to read a book. It could be a piece of knowledge or information which is available online or in paper form around you.

3.      Enrol for a course which is online or in person. There are innumerable learning platforms available for this. You can even audit certain courses for free and gain knowledge.

4.      Teach others and share your knowledge. Teaching is a great way of rehearsing and strengthening the knowledge synapses in your brain.

5.      Connect with people of shared interest via social media groups. This too helps in getting to know what is going on in your field of expertise.

You may be out of action physically (as you are mostly at home) and mentally (as many of us have a slowdown of business and work) but cope with it by upgrading yourself and stimulating your mind with new knowledge.