CONNECT THE DOTS TO PLOT THE DOTS AHEAD

You will vividly remember having skidded on a Banana Peel (this is more popular in India) or having stumbled upon something while walking on a road or walkway.  You do get up and collect yourself but what everyone does (without having been trained to do so) is to look behind to see what happened, where it happened and why it happened.  You also take cognizance of the consequences, had not not managed to control the fall in time and limit the impact of the incident. You make mental notes of it and store it in your long term memory.  The next time, when you see a Banana peel lying in your path or an uneven surface or a stumbling block, you will automatically recall that event and put it to good use.

The words “Connect the Dots” has been made popular by two famous personalities, viz. Steve Jobs and Rashmi Bansal and there is abundance of truth in it.  We cannot repair the past but we can certainly look back to introspect, learn and move forward and be wiser than before.

The rules that are applied for performance appraisal of Human Resources in corporates apply here too.  Performance appraisal of employees in an organisation is an effective tool to review the past performance, give constructive and developmental feedback, undertake course correction, and then plan the objectives for the next performance period.

In life too, it is important to look at the trail that we have left behind, map the various points which have led to success, which have resulted in failures, which only gave lessons, identify the lowest as well as the peak periods.  When these are reviewed in totality, you get a picture which will reflect the journey you have covered so far. 

Man has been gifted with this unique ability to plan ahead.  Only when you have complete information about your professional and personal accomplishments, your portfolio of qualities, skills, attitude, behaviour, your knowledge, your good and bad experiences, what has worked for you and what has not, you are fully equipped to plan for the next stage in life – whether you want to leapfrog to your next objective or you want to take each step cautiously, whether you want to gain more experience and knowledge or whether you want to take a different route altogether. 

Animals too have been gifted with this strong instinct and they also use their memory to connect the dots.  I have seen on  umpteen documentaries on Discovery and Animal Planet channels how a young mother teachers her cubs to pounce upon their prey and how they keep on continuously learning from all their previous experiences to achieve that flawless performance in attacking their target and making it their next meal.

It is, therefore, very important to connect the dots to plot the dots ahead.  Plotting the dots becomes easier only when you have data about their past experiences.  For this you can depend on your memory or you can maintain a diary, a log or use some tool to record the events in life.  They also can be in pictorial form where you have photographs of each and every event which brings back fresh memories of all those milestones you have covered in life.

Plotting the dots ahead is relevant in all aspects of a person’s life – right from acquiring higher education, to finding the life partner, right job, family life, family events like birthdays, marriages, grand children, professional life, social life, retirement, sports, holidays and recreation, fitness, investments, property, and so on.  The journey then becomes easy because you know very well where you are going.  There are no blind spots, no half-baked measures, no doubts, no ambiguity.  You don't have to stop at each milestone to plan to reach the next one.  The journey is smooth.  You know fully well what distance you have to cover, how it is to be covered, what resources will be required, how much time will be required and what kind of terrain would you come across.  Once you know that you will be travelling on smooth roads, you will be less concerned and your mind will enjoy the journey.  But assume for a moment that you have set out for a smooth journey and not anticipated a river crossing, a gorge, or a mountainous region.  You will have to slow down, halt, go back halfway to take another route which will result in loss of time and delay in the achievement of your goals.

However, if you know that your journey will cover various landscapes (it is like travelling across India where there are desserts, mountainous regions, dense forests, backwaters as in Kerala, rain forests, hot and humid zones, icy mountains, etc. etc.) you will certainly equip yourself with all the tools, resources that may be required to continue your journey should there be surprises, short diversions, breakdowns, delays.  Plotting the dots helps you to plan for every thing and the picture becomes very clear in your mind.  When you see a picture of your goal, you start living it day in and day out and that becomes your mission in life.  Having a Mission in life is what drives you to the achievement of your goals.

One of the quotes which aptly sums up is “If you fail to plan, you have planned to fail”.

Best wishes.

Sarfaraz Lakhani

Calibre Creators

www.calibrecreators.com