Vision Revision is not merely an intellectual introspection. Nor it is just a rational retrospection. It is a way of life, a way of self-evaluation and self-perfection, a way of seeking constant and never-ending improvement. It is a stimulus that helps us to manifest our inherent potential. It empowers us to make the most of our potential, not only for our own good, but also for the welfare of society. Many factors have influenced the genesis of the vision revision concept. Here are some important ones.
While researching the role of education in making our lives better during the 20th century, I noticed that the educators’ impact quotient has been constantly declining. Notwithstanding the overall good progress in the education domain, the educators’ influence in making their students better human beings is slowly, but surely coming down. Unfortunately, this trend is gaining momentum.
It is not that educators are abdicating their moral responsibility and deliberately focussing more on the so-called core career chores. And it is also not that the ever-increasing emphasis on the ‘employability factor’ is entirely responsible for the increasing disconnect between education and moral excellence. Clearly, many other interest groups are largely responsible for this sad situation. It seems that they have vested interests to usurp the power of influencing people. But then, apart from family and friends who should be primarily responsible for influencing people, especially children? Undoubtedly, educators. And they are also officially responsible for moulding the character of future citizens. They are the social guardians, the accepted conscious keepers of the society. In fact, the society respect educators and expect them to influence the collective mindset of the humanity.
But paradoxically, even a casual look around us will show that we regard movie stars, sports-persons, entertainers and politicians like Obama and Osama as change leaders. They are considered really effective at influencing public opinion. That is why these media magnets are engaged to promote virtually everything. This is not a new phenomenon. We are habituated to see celebrities as social influencers. However, earlier the scene was not one-sided. But, lately, their clout in influencing public opinion is dramatically increasing with the arrival of internet, mobile, and such-like mediums.
Hardly ever, we see a teacher, an official preacher, makes it to the elite list of campaigners in the media. Promoting a thing is something that comes naturally to most teachers. But they are rarely in the reckoning for convincing public. Why the teachers, supposed to disseminate the knowledge and information, are relegated to the back-stage? Are we approaching the dusk of educators’ leadership? Definitely Not. It is not a matter of choosing between the educators and others. Instead, all have their defined roles, their defined domains. While educators’ role is nurturing societies, others have their own agenda. But an impressionable mind cannot rightly distinguish between the two and often swayed by the hype. Besides, educators have traditionally believed that they have an edge over others because they are associated with children. But whatever edge may have existed seems to have vanished, thanks to the onslaught of newer social channels and educators’ apathy. And if educators continue to overlook their moral responsibility, these channels can undo the improvements of recent years and blight the chance of a better future. That is why educators ought to protect their turf.
And it is not that the media and others have immorally encroached on the teachers’ turf. It is just that they are adept at exploiting all the enabling devices and ways to enthral people, while most teachers are not morally psyched up to devise the ways to remain effective in these rapidly changing times. Besides, many educators, born before the advent of the PC, internet, and mobiles, are not well-equipped to discern the implications of these potent as well as polluting mediums. They may perhaps find it difficult to check the negative consequences of these powerful tools.
And it is not that all other interest groups are irresponsible. On the other hand, a few irresponsible educators are also responsible for corroding the education system on which they survive and thrive. They are spoiling the image of this noble profession through their unethical practices and thus directly contributing to the deteriorating influence quotient of educators. It may not be a crisis, at least not yet. But there is no time for complacency.
We all know the importance of good teachers in shaping our lives. But how contentedly engaged teachers can make a big difference in the lives of their students dawned on me at Nepanagar, a small non-descript industrial town, where I started my career in 1983 as a management trainee in a government company. At the management trainee house, I stayed with two other boys. As the company’s policy was to prefer IIT plus IIM graduates for the post of management trainees, fortuitously, both these boys were from the same engineering institute (IIT Kanpur, India) and the same management institute (IIM Bangalore, India). So, they had many common threads. I used to enjoy their usual boy’s talk, but had to endure the talk about their common teachers as a silent listener. However, after a while all these experiences collectively pointed to something important. I noticed that most of their positive, constructive talk had something to do with their teachers. Even our otiose chat used to become an intellectually stimulating discussion when veered around their teachers. While these two high-fliers were great personalities by all odds, yet such talks seemed to transform them− for the better. I began to see the contribution of their teachers in their success. And I began to see the root of this work.
And then the continuous above average performance of students of Nepanagar- a sleepy township in a remote area devoid of cities facilities- further supplemented the view that the contented teachers play a defining role in shaping the lives of their students. At Nepanagar children were lucky to get a holistic education unlike big cities where curiosity, creativity, spontaneity and sweetness, the characteristics of the child, become the transitional casualties of acquiring the education. Here the authorities used to encourage teachers to avail every opportunity to integrate moral education in the regular teaching. While teachers were responsible for the excellent all-round performance of students, credit was also due to the authorities as they ensured all-out support to the teachers to make the teaching-learning process less oppressive. The authorities also ensured that the teachers were happy and contented as well as in the right frame of mind to impart a holistic education.
Our world is facing many unprecedented challenges. Most of these problems can be surmounted provided we infuse right values in children during their formative years. And we can easily achieve it with a sensible shift in the collective consciousness. In the present scenario, it is not just our duty; rather, it has become a compulsion if we want to leave a live-able and lively world for our future generations.
Though vision revision is my obligation, the underlying concepts have been strengthened and validated by many intellectual contributions. One such corroboratory contribution is from my friend, who after a full career with the Air Force, embarked on several exciting career endeavours in a typical dynamic vision style. His career life-cycle manifests two distinct and peculiar features. First, it is upside down in the second half, i.e., there is no provision for the usual decline stage in it, even the maintenance stage often takes the back-seat to make way for the growth stage, propelled by his unusual enthusiasm and urge to contribute. Second, his career life-cycle shows many elements of a dynamic vision; it seems he is naturally adept at the vision revision process. This work is greatly inspired by his career life-cycle, which demonstrates that career and socially conscious people can combine charity with career to grow at any age and any career stage to achieve the success they envision. His discreet contribution to the social cause further proves that one can constructively integrate the social obligation with the professional responsibility to experience the existential bliss.
Finally, yet importantly, the need to highlight the increasing importance of the career management in this rapidly evolving world of work is one of the deciding factors rooting for a book on the career management.
This book has a simple purpose- to set you thinking about your duty to yourself and the society. It seeks to realize this purpose by helping you to take charge of your future career. It is based on the premise that envisioning and thinking about the future is the key to contented success. While studying this book, you will discover parts of you you never knew you had. It will provide you enough inputs to create your career vision and devise your vision revision regimen, so that you can smartly keep tabs on the future to facilitate the professional and personal progress.
Professional-progress and personal-progress ought to progress together. But, more often than not, self-progress takes a backseat. Vision revision is surely for the professional empowerment, but not at the expense of self-factors. Professional success has no meaning if you are not happy or cannot make others happy. It is not an either/or choice between career success and happiness. The process of vision revision offers a synergistic approach to seek the both. It expects us to clear the decks at the conceptual level. Otherwise, our unbridled quest for success would only drag us deeper into career dilemmas.
This book is meant for educators who want to effectively deal with their career dilemmas. And it is also intended to help all educators to enhance their career effectiveness. The mandate I have followed is to keep this book simple, practical and just relevant to your career management issues even at the expense of making it a little uninteresting as well as consciously reiterating a few key points to draw on the power of your sub-conscious with the intention of realizing the context-relevant objectives. The objective is not to aim at an interesting read, but to take care of your career interests. The objective is to ensure that it empowers you to manage your career successfully and you are amply motivated to embrace the vision revision way of life. In view of that, this book is divided into seven parts to give a clear view of the career jungle. This book aims to acquaint you with all the career stages so that you can start your vision revision journey in an informed and well thought-out manner. The credit for many features aimed at enhancing the psychological impact of the material, many times even at the expense of syntax, goes to many kind pedagogues who have tested this material and offered invaluable feedback and suggestions to make this work more practical and inspiring.
I hope this book will serve its intended purpose by making you aware of your duty to yourself and the humanity. May you never be the same again!