MONDAY MUSINGS SEASON 2 - Episode 296 - Attitude or Motivation or Both

WISHING ALL THE READERS HAPPY PONGAL, MAKARA SANKRANTI

We have seen in the last episode that performance is a combination of three attributes ie skills, attitude and motivation.? Many readers questioned me if attitude and motivation are the same or similar. Is it only Skills and Attitude as defined by many management theories.

Skills/abilities, motivation and attitude are all important to get good performance. It's like having a 3-legged stool, if you take one leg out, the stool will fall down right away.

Attitude or Motivation or Both

Attitude and motivation are related concepts in psychology, but they refer to different aspects of human behavior and thought processes.

Attitude refers to a person's evaluation of, feelings about, or tendencies toward a particular object, person, group, event, or idea. It encompasses beliefs, emotions, and predispositions to act in certain ways. Positive attitude to life is a disposition to good things.

Motivation refers to the processes that initiate, guide, and maintain goal-oriented behaviors. It is the driving force behind actions and is influenced by various internal and external factors.

You need positive attitude to get motivated. Motivation is the ability and energy required to sustain a positive attitude. If a positive attitude is the fire, then motivation is what fans it. Your attitude can improve or decrease your motivation.?

Hanuman revered Lord Ram and Lord Ram loved Hanuman. Lord Ram relied on Hanuman as his troubleshooter whenever and wherever required. But not that he blindly assigned all the tasks to his favourite lieutenant, Hanuman. Lord Ram is a great leader, and he knows how to identify right skills and assign tasks as per people’s competency.

Do you know who was the architect of the bridge to Lanka built by the monkeys? It was not Hanuman but Nala. son of Vishwakarma. Do you know the story of how and why Nala was selected for that important assignment? It is an interesting story.?

Identifying Right Talent

Rama reached the ocean with the vanara army armed with the information that his beloved Sita is just across the ocean. On reaching the shore, pondered as to how to make the vanara sena to cross the ocean, about 130 kms distance. Few vanaras like Hanuman could fly but how would others reach the other side of the ocean.

Rama worshiped the god of the ocean,?Varuna and requested him to make way. When Varuna did not oblige, Rama sent arrows at the sea to dry up the ocean. A terrified Varuna came before Rama instantly and pleaded with him to stop shooting arrows, “It would be unnatural for the ocean to become shallow and if the ocean dries, creatures living in the sea would die which would be against the nature”. He offered an alternate suggestion as the solution ie to build a bridge over the ocean. Rama at the suggestion of Varuna diverted the arrow to a place in the north and that place became the famous ‘desert of maru’ (Malwar region).

Varuna suggested that Nala, the son of Vishwakarma, celestial architect and engineer, has the necessary expertise of an architect, owing to a boon from his divine father. Varuna reminded Rama that Brahma requested the demigods to play their part to help Lord Rama to kill the demon Ravana when Lord Vishnu took birth as Lord Rama. Rama listened to Varuna and assigned the responsibility to Nala. Nala readily volunteered.

Some versions of Ramayana give another interesting story of how Nala got his magical power of a civil engineer. It was actually a curse from some sadhus when he repeatedly threw their idols into the well as childhood pranks that whatever he threw at water would float,? Valmiki Ramayan gives scientific description of how Nala built the bridge with the help of vanaras. It is not magical but scientific, engineering marvel.

The construction used some of the modern civil engineering techniques. Vanaras filled the ocean with all types of trees and shrubs like Sala, Bamboo, Neem, Palmyra etc. The wood from the trees was used as the base of the bridge.?Vanaras then piled?elephant-sized rocks and mountains and transported them. The water level jumped up?owing?to the sudden throwing off huge stones?in the sea. The big stones?happened to?fall on all sides disturbing?the ocean.?Vanaras?drew up strings a hundred yojana (1 yojana = 8-13 km)?long to keep the?stones?in a straight line. Nala with the help of other Vanaras was able to construct the bridge in 5 days.

Slokas from Valmiki Ramayan on the scientific details of bridge construction in the next episode.

#PositiveNewsPage will resume for sure in the next episode as I had less time for the preparations this weekend.

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Conceived, compiled and posted as a weekly positive newsletter #MondayMusings by Jaganathan T (www.authorjaganathan.com). Subscribe, Read, Like, Share, Comment, Recommend, Learn and Grow

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