Friday, January 30, 2009

THINGS I LEARNT

Over 5 months have passed since I went for the Performance Driven Team training which involved a trek in the jungle. I recall posting up anguish filled posts that were related to the issue before and after the training because it did mean a big deal to me. Nevertheless, one final post about it remained in the drafts section of my blog for reasons I cannot remember.

A cap and a watch, lying on the floor. It's anybody's guess what could have possibly happened


Anyway, in the early hours of Wednesday morning, as I was floating in and out of the different stages of sleep, I found myself dreaming that I was in another outdoor adventure of the same sort, this time with team #5 at the beach, in which someone I sort of know but haven't actually met in real life made a special appearance and was part of the team. Nevertheless, our adventure was far from pleasant as we had to deal with waves that turned into tsunamis. As a self professed hydropobic, that was freaky gila babi! (Literarily translated gila babi means crazy pig and does not make any sense unless you take into consideration that we also call wild boars babi in the local language, and they can be a bit crazy. Oh well... one thing's for sure is language can drive anyone crazy!)

And then when I was at work, they made an announcement for all the members of team #4 to head on to the HR department, and we received a baseball cap and a watch each. Actually, every team receives the watch and cap, but check out the co-incidence of me dreaming of the training just a few hours before that!

Admittedly, I am on the geeky side, but I've never obsessed about any training I've been through except for this one because this one was really really good. So, I thought it would be best to give a summary of the few precious lessons I've obtained from this training.

1. Nike was right. Just do it should be everyone's motto.

2. Everything you can or can't do is because of your mind. If you believe you can do something, you can. The same goes if you don't believe in yourself then you can't. It is a pity that you learn something so important like this when you're in your late twenties, but hey, better late than never.

3. Focus is the key. Focus removes all fear.

4. Food cooked when you're hungry is the most delicious even if you lack certain ingredients.

5. When a group of equally focused people combine their brains and their energy, nothing can stop them.

6. Insects only like some people, and not all. Evidently, they didn't give a damn about me.

7. Sometimes, lack of sleep and being under pressure can help you perform better.

8. If you put in a group of people together for a long time, they end up becoming very close.

9. If you can communicate well, then your ideas will be well accepted. You've just got to make people understand.

Aside: I wonder if my fear of water would disappear if I went for hypnosis. It would be even better if I could be hypnotised into believing I was a champion swimmer! Anyway, they would never actually conduct the training at the beach. Some people would just have too much fun seeing that the beach is so very relaxing. The jungle is more conducive for torture!

7 comments:

  1. As much as I tried to recall, I have no idea why I never published the list earlier. Baffling...

    ReplyDelete
  2. Ummm.. some things on the list just don't work with me...
    5. Hehe, if I'm involved in the group, my focus is enough to throw everyone off. I;m just an awful team player.

    7. No sleep + pressure = me screaming at everyone in sight, for no reason whatsoever.

    9. If someone talks loud enough, they can get everyone to accept a bad idea.

    And i kid you not, I'm dead serious. These are really things I've noticed at work :)

    ReplyDelete
  3. Just do it is my most favourite motto. Simple and to the point!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Ah, retrospection.

    #4 There is no stale food for a hungry man.

    #6 Discovery channel says mosquitoes love women and the color blue. I'd never venture into the wild without an insect repellent lotion.

    #9 I something a lot of 'creative' engineers learn the hard way.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Kartik: Perhaps it is the urban jungle vs the real jungle atmosphere. But still, I laughed at your comment on #9... if someone here had a voice loud enough (ie: a boss or something)then we'd be forced to accept the idea ;)

    Orhan: That's one good motto :)

    Julia: Funny thing is I actually wore blue in the jungle... at least for the first day, but then I also used insect repellent. I concur with #9 :)

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  6. Depends on what the "it" is, doesn't it. Sometimes you should defintely not do it, sometimes you defintely should.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Oh yeah, definitely... this one was for accepting challenges. But yeah, there are some forms of it which I couldn't possibly 'just do' :)

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