Day 57 - Self Awareness Skill
5 June 2020
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sirurp@gmail.com
My learning for the day
Today I want to summarise two movies on Self Awareness. Thank you Vishnu Warrier for your recommendation.
Movie 1 - Wild Strawberries (!957)
The Plot
Wild Strawberries, a movie by the legendary Ingmar Bergman, is an emotional journey of Dr. Isak Borg, a retired professor of medicine.
The original Swedish version of the movie was titled Smultronstället (means a special place that is close to your heart, that isn’t so easy for others to find, where you feel at ease and at one with the world).
Grouchy, stubborn, and egotistical Professor Isak Borg is a widowed 78-year-old physician. He sets out on a long car ride from Stockholm to Lund to be awarded the degree of Doctor Jubilaris 50 years after he received his doctorate from Lund University.
During the trip, Isak is forced by nightmares, daydreams, old age, and impending death to reevaluate his life.
He meets a series of hitchhikers, each of whom sets off dreams or reveries into Borg's troubled past.
The first group of two young men and their companion, a woman triggers memories of his young life. He reminisces about his childhood at the seaside and his sweetheart, with whom he remembers gathering strawberries.
The next group of hitchhikers, an embittered middle-aged couple, reminds him of his unhappy marriage.
Borg finally arrives at his destination and is promoted to Doctor Jubilaris, but this proves to be an empty ritual.
As he goes to his bed after the ritual, he is overcome by a sense of peace, and dreams of a family picnic by a lake. Closure and affirmation of life have finally come, and Borg's face radiates joy.
In one day of his journey, Borg manages to transform his long-term despair into hope by experiencing “cataclysmic psychological upheaval and renewal.”
The learning
Death is inevitable for all of us, and we must remember to accentuate (give importance to) those opportunities that life perpetually gifts us, as well as savor those memories of beautiful moments. (Source - FilmSufi)
Borg's epiphany demonstrates that elderly people are capable of learning lessons that have evaded them throughout their long lives from dreams, new relationships, and introspection (Source - Psychoanalytic Notes on Ingmar Bergman's Wild Strawberries, Dr Harvey Greenberg)
Time and space do not exist. Upon an insignificant background of real life events, the imagination spins and weaves new patterns; a blend of memories, experiences, pure inventions, absurdities and improvisations (Source - Ingmar Bergman Foundation)
Movie 2 - Ship of Theseus (2013)
The Plot
This bollywood movie is a philosophical exploration of human existence and the purpose behind the creation of mankind.
The film tells stories of three seemingly unrelated people; a blind photographer, an ailing monk and a young stockbroker whose lives question their perceptions of reality, individualism, ideologies, personal beliefs and moral and ethical values.
The movie ‘Ship of Theseus’ asks you to look beyond yourself; beyond the inner walls of your beliefs and beyond the illusions of your perceptions on life and reality.
Ship of Theseus ends with the Platonic Allegory of the cave. The philosopher Plato argues that human beings are imprisoned in the cave of their own existence, falsely believing the temporary as having permanence. The job of a philosopher, he argues, is to help people find a way out of the cave.
The learning
Human beings are works in progress that mistakenly think they’re finished. The person you are right now is as transient, as fleeting and as temporary as all the people you’ve ever been. The one constant in our lives is change - Dan Gilbert
“Which you is ‘who’? The person you are today? Five years ago? Who you’ll be in fifty years? And when is ‘am’? This week? Today? This hour? This second? And which aspect of you is ‘I’? Are you your physical body? Your thoughts and feelings? Your actions?” Plutarch asks: If the ship on which Theseus sailed has been so heavily repaired and nearly every part replaced, is it still the same ship — and, if not, at what point did it stop being the same ship? - Maria Popova
We use the planks that are taken away from the original ship to construct a new ship. After all planks have been replaced, we have 2 ships: one which started out as the original, but had each plank replaced, and one which consists entirely of the original planks. Which of these ships is Theseus ship? If it is the newly constructed one, at which point is the identity transferred? - Thomas Hobbes’ twist to Plutarch paradox
What is Self Awareness Skill?
Self-Awareness is the ability to see yourself clearly and objectively through reflection and introspection
My learning so far on this topic
Day 7 post - What Is Self-Awareness? Four daily practices
Day 17 post - Importance of self-awareness and Bandura’s Self efficacy
Day 27 post - Imposter syndrome, Advices from Gurus about daily journaling
Day 37 post - Two TED talks - The power of vulnerability & Should you live for your résumé or eulogy?
Day 47 post - Two books - Insight & StrengthsFinder 2.0
How to improve this skill?
Set a goal to become a go-to person by mastering the art and science of Self Awareness Skill.
Follow the LAST model to build your personal brand as a Guru of Self Awareness Skill.
Learn - Invest time in learning different frameworks/ models/ techniques of Self Awareness Skill
Apply -
Identify a model suitable to you
Create a template to document the flow of the process
Find opportunities to use the selected method/ template
Maintain record/ process flow of every important activities you did with respect to Self Awareness Skill
Maintain notes of your thoughts/ insights/ failures/ challenges…. to be used for sharing/ training others
Share - Share the insights captured in step 2 above in a planned manner (social media posts, blogs, videos, study notes…)
Train - Generate opportunities to train your peers and team members so that, over time, your organization benefits from your efforts
Purpose of this document
I took a 66 day challenge to study Life Skills last year (10 April 2019). To my astonishment, I succeeded in studying for 66 days one skill a day.
My objectives of learning these skills were - To strengthen my mind to face life’s challenges with ease, To use these skills in my worklife for a better performance, To use these skills in my personal life for enriching my relationships, To open new possibilities to surprise myself.
This is my next 66 day challenge (from 10 April 2020) - To share my Life Skills learning with my social media friends.
I pray that my toil helps you in your success journey.
What are Life Skills?
UNICEF defines Life skills as - psychosocial abilities for adaptive and positive behaviour that enable individuals to deal effectively with the demands and challenges of everyday life. They are loosely grouped into three broad categories of skills
- cognitive skills for analyzing and using information,
- personal skills for developing personal agency and managing oneself,
- inter-personal skills for communicating and interacting effectively with others.
Which LifeSkills are covered?
The World Health Organisation identified these basic areas of life skills that are relevant across cultures:
1. Decision-making
2. Problem-solving
3. Creative thinking
4. Critical thinking
5. Communication
6. Interpersonal skills
7. Self-awareness
8. Empathy
9. Coping with emotions
10. Coping with stress.
Some trivia
‘Life skills’ was never part of the school curriculum. WHO/ UNESCO mandated academia to teach these skills in all schools across the globe in 1993.
Different countries educate their children in these skills with different objectives
- Zimbabwe and Thailand - prevention of HIV/AIDS
- Mexico - prevention of adolescent pregnancy
- United Kingdom - child abuse prevention
- USA - prevention of substance abuse and violence
- South Africa and Colombia - positive socialization of children.
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