Thoughtshop of Nihit Mohan

Concept of Interbeing is an important concept into spiritual realm but finding important in management thought and business conversations.

Learned Helplessness: Managing setbacks and negativity

In medical terms, “Learned Helplessness” is a psychological condition where an individual continuously faces a negative, uncontrollable situation and stops trying to change their circumstances, even when they can do so. In simple terms, a smoker may repeatedly try and fail to quit. He may grow frustrated and come to believe that nothing he does will help and therefore stop trying altogether. Discovering the loss of control essentially elicits a passive response to the harmful situation.

One of the biggest challenges leaders today face is knowing how to interpret their failures or even difficult situations and people. Sometimes leaders’ points of references are so negatively charged that they begin to believe that nothing they do will make things better. Some leaders, when faced with really tough situations and people, actually believe they are helpless. Their reaction, as understandable as it might be, is nothing more than a way to avoid fear and to preserve their self-concept in the face of a tough challenge. When leaders indulge in these types of defense mechanisms, they block their ability to act in constructive ways, as well as their ability to solve issues and to mature as executives. This destructive mindset in psychological terms is a form of learned helplessness, and it is at the root of immature leadership behavior.

So the real question is…… How do we fight it? How do we become aware and not fall into this unknowing trap?

Saying “I can do it”, “I can succeed” or even “I am worthy of success” repeatedly can give some amount of motivating boost, however circumstances in front of you are indicating opposing bias. Hence, this technique might not be enough to alleviate the perceived negativity around you. The possible way to create positively charged references is to create successes. And you cannot create successes without taking a risk, without taking action aimed at providing support for your thoughts.

For the leaders or future leaders who need to build reference reservoirs, great benefit can be derived by searching for positively charged references outside their own reservoirs. In this case, you—the leader or future leader— must seek out, identify with, and vicariously experience the positively charged references of those who have successfully met challenges like those you are facing [“If They Can .. So, Can I” Attitude]. The process begins with your reaching out and interviewing other successful leaders and asking them to explain, in real specific terms and in vivid detail, the challenges they have faced, what they did to gain a better understanding of their challenges, and what they did to work through them, including what they were thinking, feeling, and doing. I have found that this kind of mentoring element, if done in vivid detail, can have a powerful vicarious impact on the leader who lacks critical references.

In a nutshell, “Learned Helplessness” is a noted psychological condition and can be fought easily. Following points in summary:

– Building positive references and experiences around you. You can rely on positive experiences of others.

– Embrace setbacks positively, Not always past can predict the future.

– In good days, do build relationships and associations with Mentors and learned people who can help you when you are feeling down and overwhelmed with situations around you.

Nihit M

Business & Love: Its Complicated

“Business” & “Love” are two concepts which generally do not pair with each other in normal circumstances. However, I think they are intertwined with each other in very much of a philosophical sense. In today’s world, people or customers buy what they love. The real competition is not for the money of the customer, it is for the emotional connect and hearts. Hence, organisations and executives should make sure to strike a chord with the emotional part of the sales pitch. Today’s reality is, Customers buy with their hearts, logic follows later.

This statement reverberates so much with my personal experience. If I re-look at my shoppings of non-essential items in last couple of years, many items were bought because of the firsthand attraction to them. It could be a piece of electronic (which might be lying in my cupboard unused) or piece of garment or even footwear.

Kevin Roberts (CEO of Saatchi & Saatchi) in one of his best-selling books quoted “In my 35 years in business I have always trusted my emotions. I have always believed that by touching emotion you get the best people to work with you, the best clients to inspire you, the best partners and most devoted customers.”

So, Business is all about love

Success comes with treating people with love

Market leadership comes with selling with love and compassion

Let customers love you .. adore you…

Love has an important part to play in the business developments and transactions. However, “The problem with love is that it’s not for sale,”. The only way to get love is to be lovable. It’s very irritating if you have a lot of money. You would like to think you could write a check: I’ll buy a million dollars’ worth of love. But it does not work that way. The more you give love away, the more you get.”

Love is one of the most powerful emotions a human being can feel, and yet, we still live in an individualistic society. We forge ahead with our business ventures and strategically plan our career paths in hopes of finding fame and fortune. We feel we have finally arrived at the top when we’re able to vacation twice a year to exotic islands and drop a European luxury car (or two) in the garage. We dream about having all these things, love be damned. We forget that these things are worthless if you don’t find love of family, friends and colleagues.

So, what can you do !!

In summary, Love cannot be bought it needs to be earned over a period of time and protected like a treasure. Once Love for customers, employees and vendors is established. The other metrics like growth, sales, revenues, profits, and presence will automatically soar through the roof.

Nihit M

Mental Pollution: Hazard of Modern Society

Mental pollution by scientific community is defined as the acquisition of useless information which creeps into our living room, bedroom, work area etc… and cause hindrance and havoc for our creative faculties, decision making and learning processes. In simple terms, these can be termed as distractions which appear to sway me and you from our path of greatness.

In the current world, where we live is the world of information and technology. With advent of technology and Internet, a tornado of information has been made accessible and available to masses with click of few finger movements. Accessibility to information becomes a mental pollutant, when the consumed content is not of any use and distracts us from our own objective. Such distractions have increased exponentially in past few years and have caused impaired decision making, criminal mindset and general numbness and inactivity of mind. Clinically, we are seeing rapid rise in attention disorders in kids, learning disorders in adolescents and mental disorder cases in adults.

The real question to ask is ….

Is there a way out?

Can we learn to control such phenomena in our life?

Yes, there is a way out. You can control the media consumption of your life. The answer is in 2 words ‘Being Responsible’ for the content you consume, forward, share and multiply. The following few paragraphs encapsulate the ways one could manage ‘Mental Pollution’.

One of the greatest minds of the world said, “You don’t get a brain you want, you get a brain you deserve”. Neurologically, Brain is just a neuro-muscle, it learns and adapts depending on experience it gains via the sensory stimuli. What it means is, Brain is going to learn what you feed it. Like healthy body needs healthy nourishment. Similarly, a healthy mind needs healthy experience/content. One may want to balance intellectual, academic, healthy entertainment and sometimes junk to give good experience your mind. So, censoring certain amount of media could be preferable

Mental development and physical development follow the same underlying principle. Healthy inputs lead to healthy outputs. You may sort the content based on the reviews posted by so many people around the globe or based on recommendations of your friends and family. You can also look out for inspirational content over internet. Inspirational content in form of movies, videos, books or even text should be always welcome.

Recently, I have realized most of the knowledge of the world still resides in hard printed books. Its unfathomable to acknowledge that people have just stopped reading books, just because snackable content is available so easily. Reading books based on recommendations from internet be a good way out to avoid the so called ‘snackable content’ served to you on your screens.

In summary, Mental pollution is a real thing. It does affect mental faculties like creativity, rationality, learning etc. If overdone, can lead to real clinical diseases. Hence, one needs to start becoming aware about this and act accordingly.

Nihit M

Spiritual Intelligence: The need of the hour

Spirituality has been an obscure topic and has divisive interpretations and different meaning for each one of us. Unlike the impression, Spirituality has nothing to do with any religion, caste or creed. Because it is an intangible topic, it is difficult to define what it really is. That is why we need to study it more. Spirituality is an enlightened focus on who we really are. As we come to know who we really are, the great questions of life come into focus and we find ourselves aligned with divine purpose and legacy. While everybody in this world is talking about “Artificial Intelligence”, I think it is pivotal to equally talk about “Spiritual Intelligence”. Spirituality is something which cannot be imitated artificially.

Spiritual intelligence reflects what an individual or organization exists for, believes in, aspires to, and takes responsibility for. Based on this definition, it is a new paradigm that requires us to radically change our mindset about the philosophical foundations and practices of business. It signifies the power an individual or organization can manifest based on their deepest meanings, values, and purposes. Spiritual intelligence underpins IQ and EQ. Spiritual intelligence is an ability to access higher meanings, values, abiding purposes, and unconscious aspects of the self and to embed these meanings, values, and purposes in living richer and more creative lives. Signs of high SQ include an ability to think out of the box, humility, and an access to energies that come from something beyond.

There are 3 aspects of one’s life “Personal” “Family” & “Working” lives. Lets take them one by one.

Personal Life:  

Family Life: 

Working Life: 

You can stay calm and focused in the face of crisis and chaos, a more selfless and altruistic attitude towards others and a more enlightened and relaxed perspective on life.

How do we develop it?

As per belief, all human beings are born with the capacity to use these three intelligence to some measure because each supports our survival. Some of us may be strong in one and weak in others, but each can be nurtured and developed. Recent research has identified 12 principles for enhancing the SQ. Lets have a look at the briefly.

Self-awareness

Spontaneity

Being Vision & Value Led

Holism

Compassion

Celebration of Diversity

Field of Independence

Humility

Tendency to Ask fundamental “Why” questions

Ability to Re-frame

Positive Use of Adversity

Sense of Vocation

To summarize, Spirituality helps us understand the purpose of our existence and to see things as they really are. SQ if developed can help everyone of us to be more happier, contented and contributing human being.

I wish, we all could spend some time and energy to enhance our spiritual energies and be a better version of one-self.

Nihit M

Secrets of Unhappiness: Treasures and Riches

One of my mentors mentioned this to me early in my career, being happy or unhappy hardly depends on the situation. It depends on how you take-on the situation. It will also determine, whether you will sail through or drown in the situation. However, when I look around me, I see a lot of people are unhappy and disgruntled with their circumstances. When I carefully see them, few common attributes emerge which are called as ‘Secrets of Unhappiness’. They are summarized below:

Comparison Disorder: 

‘I am not good enough’ Syndrome: 

‘What if’ Disease: 

Prisoner of Past: 

The Victim Syndrome: 

Introspectively speaking, we are all humans with inherent imperfections have experienced more than one of these syndromes/diseases in our lifetime. Many of us are still struggling with these daily. So, what can be done and how it can be done. Few tips which I follow might help you to begin the healing process:

These were certain remediation methods to alleviate an unhappy situation. If these are implemented in right spirit and intentions, one could possibly see shift in behaviour and perception of your personality.

May be life turns around and starts smiling at you 🙂

CoVID: Opportunity in Disguise

Once a remarkable person said, ‘Opportunity often comes disguised in form of Misfortune or even Temporary defeat’. While I completely endorse the idea from my own personal experience. I see this more than fitting in the current scenario where world is battling with excruciating pain of the tiniest living organism. It has put the entire globe on lock downs, house arrest and emergencies.

The coronavirus pandemic has a lot of dark sides. Around the world, people get ill and die, schools close, the healthcare system is overloaded, stock markets collapse. And in due course of time, employees lose their jobs, companies face bankruptcy, and countries spend billions on bailouts and medical aid. And for everyone, whether directly hurt or not, Covid-19 is a huge stressor shaking up our psyche, triggering our fears and uncertainties.

No matter how serious and sad all of this is, there are upsides as well. Hence, one should just not see the downsides but all the numerous opportunities this crisis could offer to all of us. With opportunities I don’t mean that the crisis provides extra business for companies like Zoom and Go to Webinar that enable virtual meetings, or for Amazon, which is planning to hire another 100,000 employees. With opportunities I mean general opportunities that are available for most people affected by the crisis. The opportunities which can be life altering on the way we work. way we interact and even the way we want to consume.

As I can see it, CoVID19 is challenging but it does give following opportunities for us to mull over while we are all in lock downs, working from homes, and saving hours of transits and commutes.

Opportunity 1: We have got the gift of “Time”

Opportunity 2: Finally, got some time to “Reflect” and “Reconsider”

Opportunity 3: Necessity is mother of Sustainable Innovation

Opportunity 4: CoVID could be “The end of Individualistic Society”

Opportunity 5: Cleaner environment

In conclusion, the virus pandemic has shown that, no matter how well-planned and organized we are and no matter how much we live in the Anthropocene (the era characterized by significant human impact) we are not in control. This offers a great opportunity for humans to wake up to the fact that we all live in the illusion that full control is possible. It provides an opportunity to take a more modest role and accept that many things are simply beyond our control.

Nihit M

"I am So Busy" : Today's Response

I saw a dear friend a few days ago. I stopped by to ask her how she was doing, how her family was. She looked up, voice lowered, and just whimpered: “I’m so busy… I am so busy… have so much going on.” The tone was exacerbated, tired, even overwhelmed.

“I am so Busy”, does this sound familiar. From a chat with old friend, colleagues, sometimes even family members. Hence, I thought why not expose this expression in writing.

“I am so Busy” educes sympathy from others.

Saying “I am Busy” is like a direct line to sympathy. People automatically identify with the overload that comes from being overworked. But in actual terms, we might not be busy for real things in life.

And let’s face it—we all like it when people understand our plight. Something about it just feels good, and when something feels good, we do it again.

Unfortunately, sympathy doesn’t help us get past being busy. Sympathy from others reinforces that mental state and allows to feel okay with being that way. This leads to no self-improvement or self-realisation

“I am so Busy” is a very good defence.

Busy is a pretty effective excuse. When we say we are busy, others often don’t ask a follow-up question. They take our “busy” at face value, which allows us to avoid any further, potentially unpleasant conversations. People will forgive you for not doing something. Feeling distracted or irritated? Blame it on being ‘very busy.’ Moreover, when you can’t find time for yourself, use the same excuse: “I am crazy busy.” That’s how we end up lying to everyone (ourselves included).

You probably think you need for a formula to do more. Or wishing you could multiply yourself and accomplish everything you want.

“I am so Busy” is a fitting justification.

We all have a to-do list, and for many of us, it feels never ending. We look at our too-long to-do list and tell ourselves that more things aren’t crossed off the list because it’s simply too long!

We intend to push our limits wanting to do more and more, without even thinking sometimes. But, in the end, we feel guilty for not accomplishing everything we wanted. No matter how hard we try, we are just stretching ourselves too thin.

That circular argument is ridiculous, but appealing. As a result, we continue building our list of things to do while simultaneously building our ongoing justification for not getting those things done.

Take a pause in life and assess, “Are you suffering from disease of busyness?”.

Try being brutally honest with yourself (at least give it a fair shot).

I am not offering a solution or ways to help you here.  People are different… Situations are different…

So , there is no one-size fits all. The only thing I can suggest is take a step back and probably “Prioritize”.

No one in this world has unlimited energy, time and resources. One needs to plan to “Optimize”.

Nihit M

Welcome to the ThoughtShop of Nihit Mohan

I welcome you all to this brand-new Podcast, we will be discussing diverse philosophies on topics pertaining to life, management, leadership and spirituality. I was inspired to do this Podcast for people who have loved my thoughts and encouraged me to put it in this format. We will be dedicating time to discuss concepts and deliberate possibilites pertaining to the philosophy.

The concepts and creativity will be inspired from my blogsite. You can check further from www.nihitmohan.com and subscribe the blog to get immediate updates.

I am very excited to share my thoughts through this podcast, so do tune in for new episodes and concepts.

Happy Listening!!

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