If Egg is Broken..

If Egg is broken by an outside force - a Life Ends;
If Egg is broken by an inside force - a Life Begins;
- Great things always happen from within.

I got a forwarded email message and the above saying was set as a signature from the Sender. The author is, however, unknown. Whoever it may be, we should admire his thinking. To be frank, till date it never struck my mind that two different and opposite forces can act on an egg leading to two different and opposite outcomes. At the end, what impressed me most is the way it is related to ones own self!!

We spend most of our time and energy to analyze things and investigate whats wrong and right happening around us. It is not new that we try to give big and long lectures on how the Society can be changed, how the City can be changed, how the Country can be changed, etc., etc.. But, seldom we ever think of how to change ourselves? It is practically impossible to change everything around us; at the same time, if every one of us start changing ourselves - it would end up in a mass revolution.

Recently, I started analyzing things that happen to/within myself. At work, a team of 12 is lead by me and they are a good bunch of smart and hard workers - no doubt. Everything is now target-oriented; so its very common to set targets and try to achieve it. Sometimes (not always though), my team fail to perform tasks which I assign them and end up giving reasons to substantiate their failure. I used to get angry and upset when people give reasons, which makes me feel that they are shirking from responsibility. After reading the above quoted saying, I just sat aside and thought - why should I get angry when assigned tasks remain undone? It is actually me myself 'generating' anger from 'within'. I did a bit of homework and prepared myself on how to act when my team fails to dischare their duties. Well, it was not too far for me to wait.. and you know what? As usual, I got angry and was about to literally 'shout' at them.. myself spoke to me:

Hello.. relax, relax. You remember how it was planned to handle the situation? And now, what are you doing? Hold on for a moment and think over - who made you angry? Team members or ....?

While I was conversing with myself within, there was a pause with killing silence. Guess my colleagues were expecting the worse from me. I was still busy within:

Ok, understood. 'Anger' was not imposed by anyone on me; instead, I (me) was actually imposing anger on myself. So, it was not the team responsible for my anger; but (me) myself (This is called as personalization of problem in Psycho Therapy). So, who should solve this problem? None other than me. What should I do now? Firstly, please don't get angry. Well..

Asked them the reason for lagging; I could sense the glimpse of surprise on their faces for me not shouting at them as usual. My calmness had increased their enthusiasm to start giving 'reasons'. Again.. I started getting angry; pushed myself 'within' and myself said to me - this is the right time, not to get angry but to listen to what they got to say.. common, listen to them carefully.. I sat silent and became a good listener for a moment. 'Myself' had won 'me' within, but I couldn't actually listen to what they are trying to say - don't know why? There was a pause.. I broke the silence and said "back to work guys, I will talk to you later". I was totally blank and felt the need of some real time for me and myself. Couldn't talk to them the whole day, I was busy 'within'.

Now a days, whenever work is pending or tasks are incomplete; I don't get angry - greatest achievement one should say. Just because am not getting angry, my mind and energy are being channelized in making better decisions and strategies for success of the team. The whole atmosphere seems to have been now changed and the performance is getting better. Everything is a result of something that happened from 'within'. No doubt, I have now started believing that the strongest strength is 'within myself'. Read it all again:

If Egg is broken by an outside force - a Life Ends;
If Egg is broken by an inside force - a Life Begins;
- Great things always happen from within.