My social network timeline & tweets were filled with odes to teachers for last few days as we celebrated Teacher's day on 5th September in India.
As the weekend approached, I paused to think about my teachers & their profound impact on me. Indeed, many teachers to be grateful to and reflect about the lessons I learned from them.
In the process, I could remember most of my teachers if not all. However, I truly struggled to recall all the lessons I learned from them. As a learning & development professional, this is very uncomfortable.
Am I not supposed to help people become better learners? But, I am doubting my own 'way' of learning here.
Did I get conditioned to learn in 'ways' that are not helping me anymore?
Is life not throwing enough challenges that remind me of the lessons I need to anchor myself to?
Did my priorities shift from the joy of learning to other priorities?
These are only few of the many questions that bothered me. It was unsettling yet I knew the right way ahead was to be patient and take some significant actions even if they are small.
I thought of the teacher who influenced me the most this year and that was easy. It was Sudhanshu Palsule whom I met earlier this year and was extremely fortunate to have a long & engaging conversation. More than anything, it was his authenticity, sagacity and his sage like presence that influenced me the most. His advice to me was simple to remember and difficult to implement. He had 3 suggestions to me as we enjoyed sipping our filter coffees:
1. Exhaust yourself in the process of giving-Only when you give generously, you create the capacity to receive what truly matters.
2. Choose wisely and take responsibility of your choices- Usually (not always) the seemingly harder choices are the right choices.
3. Have fun- We did not discuss this in detail as we did not have much time. Guess he mentioned it because I confessed that I take myself too seriously most of the times and was struggling to change that.
Last but not least, for some reason he mentioned that I must write. I had NOT mentioned to him at any point that I used to write many years back for my old blog and was unable to continue it. After the conversation, I had promised myself to create a new blog soon then but failed in doing so. Till date, I am curious, why he told me to start writing again. However, the only bit that matters more to me is that he told me to write again and today I am writing.
Thinking about him was a great reminder to start this new blog. In reference to the title of the blog, he is the 'first teacher' I want to mention here and this blog is the 'first new beginning' this weekend.
Shifting my focus to the second teacher and the second new beginning- The other small yet significant action I took was to find a way to pursue a meaningful engagement as a beginner.
I have always found colors to be fascinating and have a very special admiration for painters particularly acrylic painters.
I heard some great reviews about the art classes conducted at Art Rickshaw in my city from friends and social media. I recall painting in a very clumsy manner in my junior school days and the very little progress I made in learning sketching & drawing was not encouraged by even my fondest well wishers.
Recently I came across a quote somewhere- 'growth happens at the intersection of support & challenge'.
Enrolling myself for the acrylic painting classes would be a significant action towards becoming a beginner, challenging myself, learning something very joyful and seeking support in the process.
Today was my first day in my art class and it was a sheer joy to become a beginner. In the process, I certainly made little progress in the art but very significant progress in understanding some deep insights about 'learning'.
Following are the lessons from Pranab Roy, my first ever art teacher after junior school, also a seemingly very patient, generous & joyful human being:
1. I was absolutely candid to him that I did not have any natural talent as an artist but he pushed me out of the comfort zone right in the beginning. I expected that my first assignment would be simple, maybe to draw some simple straight lines or draw some fruit or vegetable.
Instead, he randomly picked up a stunning & complex artwork from the artbook and told me to replicate it.
2. While he was quick to give me a complex assignment, he was even quicker in providing a very basic & high level framework to begin with yet leave me with enough & more to navigate by my own. I did not have anytime to feel nervous but got actively engaged with a challenge that seemed fun yet achievable.
3. While it would have been most gratifying to start my first day with colors, he insisted that I learn the basics of drawing using pencil on my first day. Great reminder on 'delaying gratification', a fundamental element for any effective learner. Though his sense of humour & jokes kept me going without any dull moments.
4. As I made tiny progress in my 2 hours class, I slowly felt great about becoming a better 'observer'. I felt that over the years with so much distractions around us, my observations were not as keen as it used to be and also realized how simple (if not easy) it is to become more observant. Sir mentioned that sense of observation was a basic requirement for any artist.
5. The portrait that I was trying to replicate was a face of a woman and in the first glance only the face was most striking particularly the eyes. Drawing the eyes seemed most challenging as it had a lot of intricate details. Sir pointed out that I must look at the other abstract details around to get a better sense of the portrait. This helped me to recognize the numerous abstract elements that surrounded the face and then drawing the eyes seemed lesser daunting.
I believe in our life & career, we invest much energy in judging the person without putting much effort in understanding the 'context' in which we are judging the person.
6. Another useful tip that ensured stickiness with me was dividing the whole portrait into quadrants and focussing on one quadrant at a time. He even categorized the pencil strokes in a very clear & compelling manner. This reminds the importance of synthesizing as we learn.
7. I overheard him telling one of the students that she must NOT assume that 'mistakes are bound to happen when we start painting' (I felt this was more relevant to me as I was the newest student in the class). Assuming that 'mistakes would NOT happen' and enjoy the process of painting was his clear advice. That's a very powerful shift in assumption and in the art of reframing what we tell ourselves in the process of learning.
Cheers to my two wonderful teachers, the two beginnings and this incredible weekend...
Learn on! Shine on!
As the weekend approached, I paused to think about my teachers & their profound impact on me. Indeed, many teachers to be grateful to and reflect about the lessons I learned from them.
In the process, I could remember most of my teachers if not all. However, I truly struggled to recall all the lessons I learned from them. As a learning & development professional, this is very uncomfortable.
Am I not supposed to help people become better learners? But, I am doubting my own 'way' of learning here.
Did I get conditioned to learn in 'ways' that are not helping me anymore?
Is life not throwing enough challenges that remind me of the lessons I need to anchor myself to?
Did my priorities shift from the joy of learning to other priorities?
These are only few of the many questions that bothered me. It was unsettling yet I knew the right way ahead was to be patient and take some significant actions even if they are small.
I thought of the teacher who influenced me the most this year and that was easy. It was Sudhanshu Palsule whom I met earlier this year and was extremely fortunate to have a long & engaging conversation. More than anything, it was his authenticity, sagacity and his sage like presence that influenced me the most. His advice to me was simple to remember and difficult to implement. He had 3 suggestions to me as we enjoyed sipping our filter coffees:
1. Exhaust yourself in the process of giving-Only when you give generously, you create the capacity to receive what truly matters.
2. Choose wisely and take responsibility of your choices- Usually (not always) the seemingly harder choices are the right choices.
3. Have fun- We did not discuss this in detail as we did not have much time. Guess he mentioned it because I confessed that I take myself too seriously most of the times and was struggling to change that.
Last but not least, for some reason he mentioned that I must write. I had NOT mentioned to him at any point that I used to write many years back for my old blog and was unable to continue it. After the conversation, I had promised myself to create a new blog soon then but failed in doing so. Till date, I am curious, why he told me to start writing again. However, the only bit that matters more to me is that he told me to write again and today I am writing.
Thinking about him was a great reminder to start this new blog. In reference to the title of the blog, he is the 'first teacher' I want to mention here and this blog is the 'first new beginning' this weekend.
Shifting my focus to the second teacher and the second new beginning- The other small yet significant action I took was to find a way to pursue a meaningful engagement as a beginner.
I have always found colors to be fascinating and have a very special admiration for painters particularly acrylic painters.
I heard some great reviews about the art classes conducted at Art Rickshaw in my city from friends and social media. I recall painting in a very clumsy manner in my junior school days and the very little progress I made in learning sketching & drawing was not encouraged by even my fondest well wishers.
Recently I came across a quote somewhere- 'growth happens at the intersection of support & challenge'.
Enrolling myself for the acrylic painting classes would be a significant action towards becoming a beginner, challenging myself, learning something very joyful and seeking support in the process.
Today was my first day in my art class and it was a sheer joy to become a beginner. In the process, I certainly made little progress in the art but very significant progress in understanding some deep insights about 'learning'.
Following are the lessons from Pranab Roy, my first ever art teacher after junior school, also a seemingly very patient, generous & joyful human being:
1. I was absolutely candid to him that I did not have any natural talent as an artist but he pushed me out of the comfort zone right in the beginning. I expected that my first assignment would be simple, maybe to draw some simple straight lines or draw some fruit or vegetable.
Instead, he randomly picked up a stunning & complex artwork from the artbook and told me to replicate it.
2. While he was quick to give me a complex assignment, he was even quicker in providing a very basic & high level framework to begin with yet leave me with enough & more to navigate by my own. I did not have anytime to feel nervous but got actively engaged with a challenge that seemed fun yet achievable.
3. While it would have been most gratifying to start my first day with colors, he insisted that I learn the basics of drawing using pencil on my first day. Great reminder on 'delaying gratification', a fundamental element for any effective learner. Though his sense of humour & jokes kept me going without any dull moments.
4. As I made tiny progress in my 2 hours class, I slowly felt great about becoming a better 'observer'. I felt that over the years with so much distractions around us, my observations were not as keen as it used to be and also realized how simple (if not easy) it is to become more observant. Sir mentioned that sense of observation was a basic requirement for any artist.
5. The portrait that I was trying to replicate was a face of a woman and in the first glance only the face was most striking particularly the eyes. Drawing the eyes seemed most challenging as it had a lot of intricate details. Sir pointed out that I must look at the other abstract details around to get a better sense of the portrait. This helped me to recognize the numerous abstract elements that surrounded the face and then drawing the eyes seemed lesser daunting.
I believe in our life & career, we invest much energy in judging the person without putting much effort in understanding the 'context' in which we are judging the person.
6. Another useful tip that ensured stickiness with me was dividing the whole portrait into quadrants and focussing on one quadrant at a time. He even categorized the pencil strokes in a very clear & compelling manner. This reminds the importance of synthesizing as we learn.
7. I overheard him telling one of the students that she must NOT assume that 'mistakes are bound to happen when we start painting' (I felt this was more relevant to me as I was the newest student in the class). Assuming that 'mistakes would NOT happen' and enjoy the process of painting was his clear advice. That's a very powerful shift in assumption and in the art of reframing what we tell ourselves in the process of learning.
Cheers to my two wonderful teachers, the two beginnings and this incredible weekend...
Learn on! Shine on!
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