If you want to live, happily and peacefully "love yourself". Love can make a difference.
"Whom do you love and respect? Why do you do it?"
When you get the answers, then we may try to improve ourselves.
"Do we know how to love ourselves? If yes how? If not, why?"
If we love ourselves, is it through knowing, caring and sharing? Knowing leads to know "SOUL subtle senses" - Thinking, Intelligence and Resolved; "Six CHOLER"- Lust, Wrath, Temptation, Fascination, Arrogance and Envy; and "Five ORGANS of body" - Nose, Eyes, Ear, Tongue and Skin. Do we know how to work the SOUL, SIX CHOLERS and FIVE ORGANS of BODY and how they are connected with each others?
Knowing also leads to acquiring new knowledge thorough reading, watching, hearing, travelling, thinking, etc.
Caring leads to care for your SOUL and their subtle senses with positivity and hence develops new thinking. The Five ORGANS help to control the Six CHOLER and if we can take care of these, easily we can take care of the five organs of the body.
Sharing leads to exchanging your information, knowledge, education, technology, skills, behavior, attitude, empathy, etc.
Do we really love ourselves? How much time do we actually spend on ourselves? These questions may seem negligible but they actually motivate us to learn to love ourselves.
When we begin to love our growing self, that is when we start knowing about our limits and capabilities and that is when we slowly begin to feel the love for others, then the organisation, and eventually the society as a whole. The journey of unfolding our true self helps us to perceive the potential in others and the wish to help others unfold theirs. This chain of knowing, caring and sharing of yourself and others leads to the ultimate sharing of love between individuals.
To love ourselves first and then others we need to have a combination of three things -- knowing, caring and sharing.
Fig.: Love Process
The question is how do we know ourselves? We must give time to sit and analyze our daily activities or transactions each day, we must think about what we have done right or wrong and how we can develop ourselves to be a better human being. We have to identify our limitations if we want to put an effort to be a good human being. Knowing our limitations enables us to expand our capabilities to deliver our true potentials at its best. For that, it is essential to invest time for self-development and gain as much knowledge as possible through reading books, keeping account of global affairs, learning new skills, being creative and innovative.
Through this process of knowing oneself and constant self-development we tend to become more compassionate towards others. That is when we start caring, providing support, inspiring others, showing kindness and compassion when someone is struggling, treating others with respect, gratitude, trust and integrity. These attributes emphasise the meaningfulness of life and work.
This chain of knowing and caring for yourself and others leads to the ultimate sharing of love between individuals which not only deepens relationship but also builds mutual respect between one another.
Therefore, we must know the ways to care and share if we want to love ourselves first.
Instead of understanding our very self and the world around us we are constantly pushing or pressurising ourselves to be the better version of ourselves in order to lead a standard life. In this process, we get so lost that we start drowning and gradually ignorance creeps in and conquers our life. Now, if we continue to breed our ignorance, then what will be the end result?
Fig.: Ignorance Circle
Fear, restlessness, greed and distance trigger frustration and cause unhappiness in life, having a negative impact on our personal life, at our workplace and the organisation that we are working in as well. The question is how? Office is a place where we spend most of our time, so it is very important that we are in a right state of mind in order to deliver our true potentials. It is known that unhappy workers are less productive and an organisation with less productive workers cannot sustain for long.
Now, what significant factor leads to sustainability of an organisation?
For long, there is a common understanding in the business that love has more power and virtue than any other factors prevailing in the real world. Tied to every situation in the real world there is presence of love, which eventually gets its depths through the philosophers and the thinkers.
So, the question arises: Why don't we use this word 'love' and practise it in our workplace as well if we believe that it is to be used everywhere? The answer is quite simple and there is actually no mandatory need to use the word and give it result instantly. Rather there are mechanisms to apply this theory by a systematic process in the organisations.
There are instances when one can call love when it is being shown as kindness or respect where there are situations when love acts as a parameter which is not discussed openly. This is where our concern is to relate love in the organisation where it is expressed through actions, policies, products and services eventually.
Therefore now the core question arises about how love increases the product quality and services in an organisation that ultimately leads to an organisation's long term sustainability as a result of its repeat sales maintaining product quality and services. This can be shown by an equation:
L=OS (L is for Love, O for Organisation and S for Sustainability)
LOVE=OLS
L=K+C+S (K for Knowing, C for Caring and S for Sharing)
KCS+L
L=QP+QS (QP for Quality Product and QS for Quality Service)
QPS=RS (RS for Repeat Sales)
KCS=OLS
Therefore, L=OLS (Organisation's Long Term Sustainability)
The future sustainability of an organisation relies heavily on the efficiency of its workforce. Efficiency can only be ensured when employees believe in self growth and devote enough time for self-development persistently. Such practices aid to bring true potentials, develop interpersonal skills, improve thinking level and help to generate creative ideas. There should be adequate input from the employees to learn about self being. Thus, an organisation that injects better inputs in the form of right employees certainly provides quality products and creates strong bonding with customers resulting in repeat sales. Love strengthens bonding between individuals through knowing, caring and sharing leading to organisation's long-term sustainability.
Monojit Kumar Ojha FCA, Director, Finance BRAC University.
Email: monojitojha@yahho.com