MBWA v/s MBWI

Friends,

MBWA is a concept, which was introduced to me by Tom Peters. In his book titled A Passion for Excellence, he talked about the importance of Managing by Wandering Around. He wrote about the style of effective and successful managers. They didnt sit in their AC cabins. Rather they kept walking around the plant, the market, the territory to gather first hand information and understanding of the business. This enabled better decisions.I have observed that most great managers and leaders practice this trait of MBWA.

I myself have used this very often with great results. Yes, MBWA does work.Recently, while pondering on my life and work, I came up with another theory, which I have begun to call as MBWI. Managing by wandering Inside.

This entire exploration started with a simple question which I asked myself. Is there a way to know how well am I utilizing my mind?So I started wandering inside. The more I wandered, the more I found. As more and more thoughts came, the more I could see about myself. This journey was like travelling from one planet to another. And some how each was interlinked.On the first day, I landed up spending thirty minutes wandering around. Within a weeks time I had reached sixty minutes strong. While I did not get the answer to my original question, I did realize that I had stumbled upon something big. There was no end to the wandering. Each day, I could wander in a completely new direction/topic and land up reaching somewhere comepletely unknown.I realized that there was a lifetime of wealth inside my mind and all I had to do was to wander around inside, with a free mind. It was more like surfing on google, without having to click buttons. I just had to think on a word or image and lo...the journey would begin. The mind would map images, data, learnings about that particular topic.

Earlier I used to spend hours surfing on the net. Now I had a better passtime. I began surfing inside. Rather, I just wander inside. I would take a word, any word, trigger it and just sit back and relax. Within seconds the movie would start. All I had to do was to keep my eyes closed and observe my inner film.What an experience it was!One day I was trying to visualize the way my blood flows in my veins. I wondered how it must feel to be a Red blood corpusule. Then I tried to wander in my mind about my childhood days and the kind of games I used to play.I realized that I could just go on and on and on.

Earlier, I used to suffer from major mood swings. I would react to people or incidents only to regret later on. This used to cause me immense stress and frustration at a personal level.I experimented my MBWI theory on this problem. I listed down all the areas which bugged me and I started wandering inside, on these thoughts. I wandered deep inside and was able to identify the loops which were responsible for these swings. I was able to identify that so many of my traits with my parents. As both of them were completely different personalities, I had landed up getting bundle of contradictory traits. Earlier, I used to get frustrated at my inability to understand my behaviour.

Now, after MBWI, I was able to objectively look at a trait, originate it to the relevant parent, and then start managing the trait. Rather than trying to eliminate them, I started managing them.For me, this was a major victory.These days, I am better. Not only am I able to control my responces, I am able to respond in ways which are very productive and proactive. I dont get hassled, because I know that my mind will have the answer. All I need to do is wander inside and have the faith that the answer is there somewhere inside.I have allocated time for MBWI and I look forward to these sessions. Each session tells me more about myself. Each sessions helps me to unlock my potential by unlooping my complications.

I would encourage each of you to begin this journey within. It will prove to be a great one.Do keep sharing..

Adios Amigo !!
Gurmeet