Human affinity

Progress can only be achieved in calmness and harmony.

Human affinity can only be fostered through service to others.

Venerable Master Hsing Yun

It is the moral behaviour that determines one's success or failure (Hsing Yun)

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It is the moral behaviour that determines one's success or failure.

Ysing Yun

An organisation is able to retain talent only if it provides good opportunities for those outstanding workers to unleash their potential (Hsing Yun)

  

The secret to success lies in the determination to attain the goal. The key to success lies in completely understanding the necessary conditions (Hsing Yun)

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It's become something of a January tradition of mine to use Venerable Master Hsing Yun's wise words to kick off a new year (his goal setting advice in that post is well worth revisiting each year).

So, here's a thought for 2021:

Those who have succeeded in different professions in politics, economics, education, military and so forth have all manifested their dreams through perseverance and practise (Venerable Master Hsing Yun).

What are your dreams for 2021? What will you do to bring them about? 

Motivation

Read intellectual books. Motivate yourself to increase wisdom.

(Hsing Yun - January 2 entry)

Listen, do you want to know a secret? (The Beatles)

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The secret to managing is to be transparent, just, and above all, fair; the best way to handle challenging situations is to understand others along with their emotions and reasoning. 

(Venerable master Hsing Yun)

Every obstacle is a test; every kind act is an innovation (Hsing Yun)

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This is my second year of reading the venerable master Hsing Yun's 366 Days Of Wisdom.

Starting each day with a short message and explanation from the venerable master has become a habit, a morning routine.

Reflecting on his message has become a valuable ritual.

Lately they have been particularly apposite.

Here's yesterday's entry: 

Gain experience out of grievance, Accept challenges presented by difficulties, Accumulate wisdom earned from failure, Strengthen willpower cultivated from obstacles.

The first step

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The first step of seeking change is not to rebel externally but to transform internally (Hsing Yun)

It's that same old dizzy hang-up, I can't do with you or without, tell me why is it so (Isaac Hayes)

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We talk a lot about Self-Directed Learning at our school.

To get to there, our students need a certain degree of self-awareness. Staff debate at the moment is centering on the readiness of many of our students to be Self-Directed Learners, as they appear to lack this requisite self-awareness.

Awareness of our selfness. That's a big ask for anyone.

According to Hsing Yun (366 days of wisdom), it incorporates estimating our value in accordance to our:

• morals
• knowledge
• working skills
• interpersonal skills
• achievements
• family and educational background

That's some list.

As he says, if we don't know ourselves, we will end up without any value.

From that starting point comes self-discovery, then comes self-confidence, then comes self-empowerment, and finally self-independence.

And THAT'S where my direct job ends, and where my influence takes over.

That's MY goal. Always has been.

Everyone in the world has to strive to improve if they want to be outstanding (Hsing Yun)

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It's the start of a new academic year. True fact: my students will come into school next week and some of them will not succeed this year. Because they won't strive to be the best they can be, to be outstanding.

Some will - strike 'some', a lot will strive for success and be pushy and not settle for second best, and that's as it should be.

But I know going in that a continuum will again exist between those students and the ones that try to coast and under-perform, and the ones that give up because it's too hard.

That's the tragedy of school. All are capable but personality will enter the equation and the obstacles that test them will find them wanting.

For me/us the questions remain: how do I/we instill in them the spirit to strive for the best, the desire to produce outstanding achievements in any task?

Isn't that what we are all about?

The secret of success lies in the determination to attain the goal (Hsing Yun)

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Setting goals was obviously on Hsing Yun's mind at this time of the year. 

I especially like his analogy of a machine: If you force the machine to produce over its capacity, there is a high chance the machine will break down and fail to achieve the desired output. 

Having goals and targets that exceed our capacity is like having no goal at all.

Instead, Hsing Yun says, a goal is set by considering its feasibility, the necessary conditions, what steps need to be taken in what order, and our capacity to achieve it.

In addition, he refers to the famous story of The Tortoise and the Hare.

This year, I have set a goal of having a post going viral. So I will work away at that over my blogs and, like the tortoise, I will keep on crawling/posting every day to give my goal a chance at success.

In the end, I will reach that goal (it might take some time).

It's getting better all the time (The Beatles)

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Now that I've sorted out my goals for the year (easy peasy lemon squeezy - see my last posting), I have to reset and aim to be better.

Better Than Before (BTB) has been my mantra this year at school; that has all been about establishing a positive collective culture of improvement.

But it has to start with me! 

As Seth Godin says: 

Next year is almost here. And doing what you did this year probably isn’t going to be sufficient.

That’s because you have more to contribute than you did this year.

To reach your goals, you’ll probably need more effective and powerful ways to tell your story, get clients, gain market share and serve your audience.

Venerable master Hsing Yun's instructions match Seth's: 

Do more good deeds to accrue virtuous merits. Create more good thoughts in order to accomplish right thoughts. 

Those are fine things to keep in mind as I begin the pathway to 2018 - Do more. Create more.