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Doing things differently!
As I picked up the vacuum machine and started vacuuming the carpet in my living room, a sense of dissatisfaction loomed over me. It had been just about a year since I bought this vacuum machine, and it was already low in its efficiency. The buzzing sound of the motor from that machine sounded healthy, and the dust collecting bag was changed a couple of days ago. However, as I hovered the machine over the carpet, I saw that the dust and tiny pieces of paper didn’t vanish when machine “vroomed” over them.
Perplexed, I flipped over the base of the machine to check the roller brush. I rolled it with my fingers and it was moving freely. I looked at the orifice of the tube that was opening into the roller brush chamber; there was a crumpled piece of paper obstructing the opening of the 5 feet tube that ran between the roller brush chamber and the dust collecting bag. Using a wire I pulled the crumpled paper from that tube, but along with the paper came out a stream of coiled fibrous material. I continued digging out the fibrous dust from the tube. I was astonished to see that the tube was completely packed with that material from one end to other making me disjoin all parts of the tube, clean it up and reassemble the same. Apparently the fibrous material got accumulated from the carpet during all these days of cleaning.
Well! It is not entirely feasible to design a cleaner that cleans without getting exposed to the dirt, and when the cleaner itself catches dirt, it is time for maintenance.
What about us? Over the years, day in day out, at home as well as outside, we have been exposed to information in the form of conceptual theories, philosophies and non-conceptual experiences. And at every moment of our life, like a vacuum machine we suck whatever knowledge comes our way, good as well as bad. Our habits, behavior, attitudes, perceptions, ideologies, likes, dislikes and the way we relate to others are shaped out of these learning’s.
We get conditioned to react to the world in a specific way based on this knowledge. This conditioning becomes a barrier in learning new things, a hindrance to look at the world with an open mind, and dealing with the ever changing world. It was easy cleaning up the vacuum machine, by simply removing the unwanted obstructing material. Can we do the same with ourselves? Can we erase our natural conditioning that constantly impedes our progress?
Yes! It is possible and this is done by the process of unlearning and relearning. The process of unlearning is not as easy as removing the clogging material from the vacuum machine because we don’t have a mechanism to erase the things that get accumulated in our mind. It is done by replacing the outdated concepts, beliefs, and practices that we follow with new ones and this is when we start doing things differently, different from the usual way that we are conditioned to take. As the saying goes, successful people don’t do different things, they do things differently. One doesn’t need a big leap to do things differently; just start with routine tasks, chores, and daily activities.
How many times do you snooze the alarm daily in the morning? How about walking across your bedroom to snooze the alarm?
Do you prepare the agenda an hour before that weekly meeting?
When was the last time you smiled at your loved ones, other than the smiley on the chat or the messages that you text?
Did you tell your boss about the idea that struck your mind in a reverie?
Believe it or not, every day, pick up at least one thing in your life and do it in a different way from the usual and you will see its effect cascade in all areas of your life and the benefits are enormous. And you will experience the power of unlearning.
Dilip Sharma …………….
As I picked up the vacuum machine and started vacuuming the carpet in my living room, a sense of dissatisfaction loomed over me. It had been just about a year since I bought this vacuum machine, and it was already low in its efficiency. The buzzing sound of the motor from that machine sounded healthy, and the dust collecting bag was changed a couple of days ago. However, as I hovered the machine over the carpet, I saw that the dust and tiny pieces of paper didn’t vanish when machine “vroomed” over them.
Perplexed, I flipped over the base of the machine to check the roller brush. I rolled it with my fingers and it was moving freely. I looked at the orifice of the tube that was opening into the roller brush chamber; there was a crumpled piece of paper obstructing the opening of the 5 feet tube that ran between the roller brush chamber and the dust collecting bag. Using a wire I pulled the crumpled paper from that tube, but along with the paper came out a stream of coiled fibrous material. I continued digging out the fibrous dust from the tube. I was astonished to see that the tube was completely packed with that material from one end to other making me disjoin all parts of the tube, clean it up and reassemble the same. Apparently the fibrous material got accumulated from the carpet during all these days of cleaning.
Well! It is not entirely feasible to design a cleaner that cleans without getting exposed to the dirt, and when the cleaner itself catches dirt, it is time for maintenance.
What about us? Over the years, day in day out, at home as well as outside, we have been exposed to information in the form of conceptual theories, philosophies and non-conceptual experiences. And at every moment of our life, like a vacuum machine we suck whatever knowledge comes our way, good as well as bad. Our habits, behavior, attitudes, perceptions, ideologies, likes, dislikes and the way we relate to others are shaped out of these learning’s.
We get conditioned to react to the world in a specific way based on this knowledge. This conditioning becomes a barrier in learning new things, a hindrance to look at the world with an open mind, and dealing with the ever changing world. It was easy cleaning up the vacuum machine, by simply removing the unwanted obstructing material. Can we do the same with ourselves? Can we erase our natural conditioning that constantly impedes our progress?
Yes! It is possible and this is done by the process of unlearning and relearning. The process of unlearning is not as easy as removing the clogging material from the vacuum machine because we don’t have a mechanism to erase the things that get accumulated in our mind. It is done by replacing the outdated concepts, beliefs, and practices that we follow with new ones and this is when we start doing things differently, different from the usual way that we are conditioned to take. As the saying goes, successful people don’t do different things, they do things differently. One doesn’t need a big leap to do things differently; just start with routine tasks, chores, and daily activities.
How many times do you snooze the alarm daily in the morning? How about walking across your bedroom to snooze the alarm?
Do you prepare the agenda an hour before that weekly meeting?
When was the last time you smiled at your loved ones, other than the smiley on the chat or the messages that you text?
Did you tell your boss about the idea that struck your mind in a reverie?
Believe it or not, every day, pick up at least one thing in your life and do it in a different way from the usual and you will see its effect cascade in all areas of your life and the benefits are enormous. And you will experience the power of unlearning.
Dilip Sharma …………….
