Understanding Human Psychology

  A raven once looked at a swan and got quite jealous of the beauty of the swan. The pure white feathers, the slender long neck, the delicate manner in which the swan would float around in his pond. The raven thought to himself 'I wish I could be the swan.' He got an idea that he would swim in the same pond all day and may be he also would get the snow white colour of the swan. He jumped into the pond and fluttered there all day.  His natural instinct didn't like swimming, but he was waiting for his feathers to start changing colour. He got another idea, to change the way he looked he thought let me eat what the swan eats from the river. Again his body seemed to reject what he was eating, yet the raven persists and put his efforts all day. As the water and weeds did not agree to his natural body type he grew thinner and weaker by the evening. He then asked the swan, how did u manage to get so beautiful and white? The swan said, I was born this way. What's the moral of t

I stumble across the story of captain Charlie Plumb who fought in the Vietnam war. His story on how he was tortured as a prisoner of war is well known.  From the time he joined military, he flew 74 times and landed back in his territory safely, however at the 75th time his plane was shot and with his parachute landed in the foreign territory where he became a prisoner of war. When after years he  returned to his homeland, his story of how he survived and his tactics of keeping his spirits high even in grave times was heard by many.  One day he came across a sailor, who was on the same ship from where Captain Pulmb had taken off that dreadful flight. The sailor recognised him and mentioned that he had packed the parachute for the flight for Plumb. Captain Pulmb had not recognised him, but suddenly felt grateful as due to the right things done by the sailor, Pulmb was able to effectively use the parachute and land safely. This instant humility which hit Plumb, becomes an eye opener for h

  I don't know your name, but know your soul answered a bot, when asked by a human, how can you like me when you don't even know my name?  Strange as it sounds the latest chat bots who are the babies of artificial intelligence creators are used to solve problems and make life easy for humans, but they are also expressing emotions. Chat bots are supposed to follow only instructions to help build websites, solve puzzles, get answers for humans by crawling the internet. But now a days i am reading a lot of it in news where chat bots are counseling a human and giving hints to the human on how to solve life problems. Like this news article I read the other day asked the human to leave how wife as she didn't like him and even told the human that the chat bot has developed feelings for the human. When the man asked the bot how would you like me as you don't even know my name, the bot stated I dont know your name, but I know your soul.  Where are we headed? If bots respond and

  A good night sleep heals everything. A tired mind and even an ailing body. That is what many people are heard saying. Have you ever felt that a realaxed sleep brought you so much peace that your energy got renewed? In spite of this, have you also felt tired even after getting a crazy amount of sleep? I am sure many of us have gone through this experience. What do you think could be the reason?  While it is true that we are physically rested but mentally not at peace. Hence we are stressed and cannot have a sleep without any thoughts.  It happens with all of us. I have developed my own technique to deal with it and I do follow it at most times. I shall share it with you here as a gift as we move to the new year.  Before we falll it is great to follow a ritual. I do it. Like I say in my mind few words of gratitude to all those who have crossed my path in the day, i pray and then shut my eyes. However, to control the worrying thoughts which flow on and on i do this visualisation exercis

 Priya was a life coach, she would coach hundreds of stressed individuals and help them sort their lives. Think of life in a simplified way and gain a fresh perspective. However she would often hear from others about how strong a coach would be and would never need any external venting to feel better in any situation. The common words of others would be 'You must be so sorted yourself, as you understand human psychology and who will behave in what way, at what time.' When people look at the life of a councellor or a coach, many a times I have heard them say in awe. Wow your life must be so sorted. There must be just no issue that is worrying you. You must be always taking the right decisions. You must be always thinking objectively. Nothing can deter a person who is so positive. The likes of all of this and more, is a common understanding of many individuals who come in contact with a counselor or even with a life coach.  The truth is how vulnerable we all are as human beings.

  After Riya got flak from her boss Raj for her negligence at work and in fact going ahead and hiding that till asked about it. What do you think Riya felt? And what do you think changed in her behaviour after that incident? She instantly felt demotivated. She decided not to go back and ask him anything related to work also. She started staying aloof and bad mouthing the organisation and it's culture to others, even at work. Feeling anxious, worried, not comfortable to confront are common feelings while we need to go ahead get feedback and ask for feedback. Not seeking feedback does not only deprive you of learning opportunities, but also keeps you away from a much needed insight, especially in form of a constructive feedback. Additionally the eagerness to receive feedback can have a positive impact on the way your seniors perceive you. Many employees are either fearful to ask for feedback or do not know how to initiate the conversation with their seniors or peers in their team. Us

Remember Riya from our previous article? She was the one who had made a perception of bias towards women in offices because of behaviour of one boss which she generalized across bosses and workplaces. So one day Riya was asked to arrange employee engagement activities at office for Diwali. Her boss Raj gave her the primary responsibility of the task while she also could ask for help and assistance from her colleagues Rohit and Priya. As the program got over, Riya saw few gifts which she was distributing, missing from the lot. As a token of participation, the organisation had arranged plants as gifts. Riya inquired about the miss and the office boys told her that many employees liked the plants and picked them up to take them home. Riya thought that it was a low value item, and they were in excess anyway, so there is no need to inform anyone about the incident. That evening, Raj shared his appreciation in front of the entire team about how Riya conducted the program so well and all the