In this VUCA world every one of today’s youth is scrambling to be successful / famous / impactful. Due to the FOMO (Fear of Missing out) on any opportunity available to them to get noticed, they are trying everything that is available to them to create an impact on people around them & to improve their lifestyle.
In this world when everyone wants to succeed why is it that only few succeed? There are 2 reasons that I see…..
- Individuals are doing multiple activities without really thinking what will make them successful. They are doing things that someone has told them / have seen that someone has been successful in their known circles doing those activities. What is lacking is their originality and knowing what will work for them.
- Individuals are reading books, watching various videos, doing lots of courses so that they can succeed. This is all in the knowing domain where they are being told what needs to be done or bombarded with information (Didactic nature of imparting knowledge) instead of making them think by asking the right questions as to what will really work for them. (Socratic method)
I want to introduce our Career Chakra, a kind of a success compass, as another approach to thinking for understanding the cause and effect and acting with originality. Just as our ancient yogic practices have been talking about 7 Chakras or flows of energy in our body, which, if balanced can attain perfect balance between physical body, mind and spirit and achieve spiritual awaking. Similarly, when the 7 Career Chakras get activated then one can achieve the success that he/she desires in his/her career / recognition in the society.
For anyone to be successful one needs to be watchful of 3 flows ….
- Society to Society
- Human to Human
- Lifestyle to Lifestyle.
If the flow amongst these 3 major streams is seamless and continuous without any restrictions, then Career Chakras are balanced, so that a person’s ambition in his/her career / recognition is the society can be achieved.
Before explaining about these flows, let me clarify why we who basically are experts in performance management, process management, theory of constraints and lean practices are talking about chakras. In all these cases the fundamental principle is to achieve a seamless continuous flow. While attaining a seamless continuous flow is relatively easier in assembly lines, where one can easily see and correct the flow, flows in work and life are mostly abstract and obscure, making it extremely difficult to map, improve and design. My colleague, Dinakar, first came up with business chakras for business flows and then career chakras for career flows from our Consultancoaching experience combined with his research.
Now Let’s get into the details and find out more in details about each flow and each of individual chakras.
First Flow is Society to Society which has 2 chakras in it – Rhythm Chakra and Continuity Chakra.
First flow which is most important for an individual to be successful is Society to Society. Society can be your family, friends circle, community, education institution, company, department, team etc…. Whatever the term society implies to you first thing what you need to examine is what are your contributions from your own circle to the next circle in the chain. Once you understand the contributions that you are making is making an impact in the adjacent circle in your chain then there are Relationships that get built between the two adjacent societies (family, friends circle, community, education institution, company, department, team etc….). This relationship prompts you to make more contributions to the adjacent society that makes more stronger relationships.
This Circle of Rhythm Chakra and Continuity Chakra needs to continue to spin and its influence/ impact needs to be widening (from family to friends’ circle to community for personal success while for professional success to happen you need to impact (from individual to teams to departments and to company and your customers). The wider the influence / impact you create in this society-to-society flow, more successful you become. It is also necessary for you keep this chakra always active. And any interruptions/impediments to flow of contributions & building relationships causes slowdowns in the success you are generating. Key for this Chakra to be active is there has to be Intolerance for Interruption in the flow of making contributions & building relationships.
Second Flow what you need to be watchful Human to Human flow. This has 2 chakras in it Top-down Chakra and Bottoms up Chakra.
Next Flow which is important is connection between one human being and another human being. These 2 human beings can be either friend, family members, colleagues, junior & senior it could be any combination that can be thought of.
In Top down chakra one human makes request to another human seamlessly with a natural flow and without any inhibitions. This request could be a favour / delegation of work / simple request to do a task. Depending upon the strength of relationship from the first flow (Society to Society) this request will get fulfilled which is the 4th Chakra is Bottoms up Chakra.
Here the circle of influence for this flow is Awareness for Authenticity. It depends upon authenticity with which you make a request coupled with the emotional bank balance that you have created based on your earlier flow (Society to Society) which decided extent to which this request of yours will be fulfilled and with / without follow up. Another factor that decides if the request will get fulfilled or not depends upon how you make a request. Can you create a relatedness regarding the request you are making with the person to whom you are making a request? Is there a good reason which is clear for him to take an action / Is it opening out an new opportunity for him to learn/succeed/ get highlighted/ further his cause etc.. Is this reason a good enough motivation for him, touching/ inspiring him to act? Above are some of the factors that decides if your request will get fulfilled or not. This Flow is one of the most important corner stone in leadership role and for you to succeed in your career. Since one’s progress in his/her career depending upon how much work he/she is able to get done. Hence this flow becomes quite important.
Third flow to be watchful about is Lifestyle to Lifestyle this has 2 chakras in it Progress Chakra and Growth Chakra in it,
Here in this flow Lifestyle is not limited to effluence but it means the way of being. How you are being, what all you do as routines, what comes to you as a natural way of life, what are the habits that are formed, how focussed are you so on,
and so forth. Lifestyle here is more comprehensive and has more to do with your interior way of being while exterior way of being has comparatively lesser impact. In this flow you need to focus on how are you being in life as a default mode? What areas of this default mode ( it could be your habits/behaviour/ attitude/ outlook towards life) is hindering your career? What progress / improvements you need to make in this default mode and set new standards / highs in those areas of life that is creating hindrance in achieving your goal. In short you are assessing what is the progress that you are making.
While you make progress / improvements in those areas of life what are learning for you? How are you using those learning to make more improvements/ progress in not only that area of life but in other areas of life too. So, you are always questioning what is the learnings you are having from the progress that you make.
The characteristic of this Flow is Excitement for Evolution. Vitality of this flow depends if it is free flowing & dynamic? and is it expanding its influence in multiple areas of life? If answer to this question is No then you might do well but, your progress might get limited to a small area of your life. This flow is the launch pad for you to soar higher in your career/ life/ society.
The seventh success chakra, driven by ambition is the key to balancing all the flows with intolerance for interruptions in the society to society flow, awareness for authenticity in the human to human flow and excitement for evolution for the practices to practices flow. The success chakra is the same as in the business chakras and is really the essence of success.
The place to start with is ambition. What is your ambition, what are your aspirations?, What are your dreams?, start sharing them with your loved ones and over time it becomes a passion, this passion naturally enables the drivers of the 6 chakras of flows I have explained earlier.
You may want to check out the following doHow® maturity self-assessments.
Happy reading!