Grain by Grain.....

It was just a thought for a few days - then I decided to make it a reality - grain by grain and wallah! It worked ! Yes about a week ago I decided that a complete art dummy like me could create my own craft grain by grain - from drawing an outline to filling the sketch with grains from my kitchen - and the Elephant God , Ganesha , looked almost as real as He could! Getting to the finish line was made even more delightful and sweet as it was possible despite my not so perfect and still recovering right hand doing most of the work! And more so, as in Hinduism, Lord Ganesha represents successful new beginnings.

Beyond this and more importantly, it was a fascinating moment of reflection -- how each of us build our lives and every element of life grain by grain literally. That was my biggest take-away and I wanted to share some of these reflections.

From birth, we are nurtured by our doting parents and caregivers - each one of them painstakingly and patiently nurturing every detail in us - they never hesitate to repeat teaching us every little thing till we understand and learn, answer our unending curiosity based questions - those never ending “ why”, “”why this” , “why is it not ...” . They were delighted to see us take our first steps , help us through all the falls so we rise and keep trying till we get to the end game! We too cooperated and there seemed to be no hurry, no stress, no pressure - it was just a voice in our heads telling us “ You can do this!” . And we did everything "grain by grain" till we achieved it. There was this dependable rhythm in "grain by grain". It was like the comfort of a native tongue or language to us.

With sheer drive and passion, we built our lego blocks, wrote our first alphabets, sang our first rhymes, rode our first tricycles and bicycles, tied our shoe laces .......... learning, relearning, unlearning, experimenting, succeeding, failing - were all part of the journey . It was fun, well supported, self motivated, appreciated by near and dear and repeatable. 

We go through 15 to 18 years of education before we get our first job, building knowledge, character,values and experience "grain by grain" to land our first jobs! In no time we realise these years of education help build core competencies but learning has just started all over again on the job grain by grain. Many of us then seek a second job often as we build our career paths and progression. We don’t get another 15 to 18 years to prepare for this second or subsequent jobs! We build "grain by grain" again, picking up new skills, experiences, insights, and hopefully conscious and unconscious wisdom. 

As we journey along navigating our careers, of course depending on our selected career paths, several of us may see ourselves compelled to fast track, compete to survive, stressed to shape up or ship out. We are often exposed to environments that encourage and even reward transactional behaviours ! The globalization of greed some may call this and how true as it happens pervasively across the globe! When these things happen, we too may look for instant gratifications and immediate outcomes to prove our value, salt , keep up with peers, demands of our workplaces .....and keep punishing ourselves for everything that we spend too much effort and time on!

Sadly , our "grain by grain" approach that preceded every success in our lives this far suddenly gets forgotten or compromised. We seek faster, speedier methods to the madness and move onto a different pattern of behaviour often not at all aware that we may be doing so. These patterns lead us to forget the joy of building "grain by grain"- they make us cut corners, look for short cuts, have little time to enjoy and absorb or even think deeply or look inwards and reflect.

Short cuts, faster outcomes, chase a next and the next project or result - these become the accepted new rhythm..... we even get motivated by carrots an employer may hold out that rewards this behaviour of “faster and more “ ...... all good when the going is good in all respects, health wise, economy wise, certainty wise etc consciously or unconsciously, we have learnt a new language through repeated behaviours - a new language of speed and instant results and we may even for a period in our lives choose to downplay the native language of “ grain by grain” we were nurtured with. 

When an event like COVID-19 strikes, or health fails , or family priorities demand one’s time, what do we fall back on ? Well the good old “ grain by grain” method of keeping engaged, meaningfully and impactfully employed yet not bouncing off the walls looking for instant gratification! Staying in the centre brings on confidence, comfort, credibility and personal stability - all so very important in these challenging times. 

It’s like going back to our native language we grew up with - it’s natural, it’s comforting and it’s reassuring and most of all emotionally and mentally rewarding

COVID-19 and most of 2020 has brought our native languages back to us. The sheer number of blogs and videos we see of people posting what they do to keep them sane tells us that going back to what’s most important at their core is comforting and catching on. The power of the pause that this virus has brought is a huge opportunity we should all seize to do the things we truly enjoy “ grain by grain” .

Much as we pivot to the next and new norms, building each moment "grain by grain" is essential to our individual and collective greatness.

So what’s your “ grain by grain “ project my friends?