There are three C’s which when intermingle and interact with one another dynamically create a potent formula for exponential growth, evolution and a sense of meaningfulness. These three C’s can become the pillars of one’s life irrespective of whether one is chasing peace or prosperity. The three C’s are:
In Hindi Character would be Charitr (चरित्र), Competence would be your Kabiliyat (काबिलियत) and Communication would be Vicharo ka aadaan pradaan (विचारों का आदान प्रदान). I occasionally use Hindi just to give flavour to the subject and bring it alive since that’s my mother tongue. Let’s talk about these three today.
Character is a sum total of your values. Character is what you do when no one is watching you. Character is what makes people say she’s a nice person, he is a nice guy. That may bring us to the question that if the character is the sum total of our values then what does the word value mean?
Value has become a very clichéd word and a lot of people think that values are all about integrity, honesty, transparency, hard work, professionalism etc.
The actual meaning of the word “value” is anything that is of value to you. So, if you value dollars, diamonds, shoes, bags, massages, sports, and travel then they are also of value to you.
So how do you define value? And where am I going with all this? I am trying to get into the first pillar of life which can be used pre, during, post and beyond COVID-19. The first pillar of life is Character. Since the character is made out of value one needs to deal deeper with the characteristics of values.
Value could be anything that you associate happiness with. You could associate happiness with mundane things, tangible things, and intangible things.
Your behaviour, your pursuits, and your drivers will be based on what you truly value. So if you value travel a lot then you would be willing to pay more for air tickets or hotels.
Values have two characteristics. The first characteristic of value is whether it is short-lived or long-lived. Short-lived values could be having a cigarette. A cigarette is of value because it gives extreme pleasure to a person. Ask a smoker that! And by the way, I am not trying to promote smoking, please.
Smoking gives immense pleasure to smokers despite their knowing that it is not for good health and that is the duration of the value of cigarette somewhere between five to nine minute’s and it’s a lot of bliss. It involves four out of five senses you can touch it, smell it, taste it, see it and sometimes you can even hear it. So it is something that you can use and as I am saying that I am not talking about promoting smoking. I used to be a smoker once upon a time but not anymore. So values could be short duration or they could have a long life.
Feasting could have a short duration, fasting has a longer life. Feasting gives you happiness and fasting also gives you happiness. Your fasts during Navratri or Ramadan give you a sense of inner cleanliness whereas feasting may give you a sense of heaviness. You could sleep late and wake up late there is one joy in doing that but you could sleep early and wake up early and there is the joy of sattva and brahmamuhuratthere.
So the first attribute of value is its longevity. And when it comes to choosing value one needs to choose a longer life instead of a shorter life. So choose your value carefully whether it is pre, post, during or beyond COVID-19. Do you want to choose feasting or fasting? Do you want to watch Cricket or play Cricket?
The second criterion for choosing values is whether the value is loved, liked and respected by a few people or preferred universally.
For example, gossip is a value that a few people may like but transparency is something that everyone likes to see in their near and dear ones.
So the key point is to choose values which are universally respected rather than those values which may be respected by very few.
So the true criteria for choosing values are longevity and universality. In the process of building one’s character, one must work on values that stand the test of longevity and universality.
Universality must not be confused with populist values. Universality is about values that are deeply respected by one and all.
Does character mean being a goody-goody person? Not at all. Does that mean that you have pseudo-moral science values? Not at all. Is it about misplaced virtuosity? Not at all. It’s about what you truly value and what you feel is right. So do character development irrespective of circumstances.
The second C in the three C’s that I was talking about is Competence. Competence is about delivering value to others. It’s about marrying content with form. It’s about making effort look effortless. For example, you don’t need software but you need bug-free software. In a restaurant, you want a dish where the onions are well done.
They are not too black, they are not too white, they are golden brown and that’s competence. To develop one’s competence one may want to invest in skills like time management, focus, detail orientation, analytical abilities, design thinking, managing complexity and handling ambiguity.
And the third C that I would want to wrap up within the C-Cube mantra for success is Communication. So what is Communication? Communication is about successfully informing, influencing and relating with people. Communication has three goals – to inform, to influence and to make relationships. One needs to invest in several skills to improve one’s communication.
It could be in the areas of bridging the Knowing – Explaining Gap mastering, probing and summarizing skills, developing the ability to say no, negotiating, building credibility and developing a sense of charm.
It is important to remember that working on just one or two out of three C’s in C-Cube mantra will not give you a complete feeling. An intelligent will allocate his energy to all the three C’s and thereby enjoy the benefits of the dynamic chemistry between the three C’s. This will lead to exponential growth.
Successful and happy people have been found to be using the C-Cube mantra to be good as well as in challenging times.
Thank you very much for listening.
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