#Celebrateblogging: THE LESSONS-4
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Once I mended my
friction with that team member over some issue with previous communication
between us, she gave me some valuable feedback on the chapter I wrote. I
accepted them and made some alterations with the chapter. Those suggestions
were crucial and reminded me of the great lesson that there is genius in every
individual and that we must acknowledge them instead of ignoring their presence.
Every living on non-living entity is placed there to direct us into the
direction of Peak Consciousness. And all of them have a spirit compelling them
each moment of their existence to follow the path of their interconnected
destinies, serving and being served at the same time.
From that point
onwards, I decided to consider various suggestions that came from others in the
team on how to modify chapters. Although some suggestions still appeared subjective,
I benefited immensely from their opinions on a different level. It’s very
important, as a writer, to know what other people think when they read a story.
These inputs will help us enormously to write better for a specific category of
people.
I realized one
more thing: the number of page views received for the first chapter that I
wrote without posting it to the Facebook group, unlike what others did, was way
more than the ones I received for the later chapters I wrote in the same
series.
I posted two more
chapters. The page views I received for the two of those chapters combined
wasn’t even close to what I had received for the first chapter.
This meant that
my suggestion to post the chapters we write directly to our blogs did work
tremendously in improvising blog-statistics. However, it remains an
unacknowledged reality still among my team members at Kalakar Colony.
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None of them
could accept the thought that posting directly to our blogs, instead of wearing
ourselves off in a secret Facebook Group discussion, could bring us all fascinating
results. No one accepted the suggestion to utilize the flexibility of blogging
to edit and rewrite. Until the end of the #CelebrateBlogging contest, in which
everyone is a winner, Kalakar Colony edited and reworked their chapters in
their Facebook Group and kept their blog ‘neat’ and ‘quiet’ losing out on those
hundreds of page views they could have amassed otherwise. The lesson in this
experience? We must listen hard when there is too much noise.
Even though at
times, I felt I might not be able to feel comfortable with several decisions my
team members made I held on to the image of a student in my mind. I was a
student of life. Learning and educating my consciousness on the nuances and ramifications
of human behavior.
I learned my
lessons in this short-term crash course in ‘group effort’, for sure. In
addition, I was able to guide my own team while in the time of a severe dispute
between the Point of Contact and one of the team members. This I consider as
one of the tests I had to go through if I needed a passing grade to be promoted
to the next level of personal growth.
The dispute was about
how one of the team members felt she was mistreated by the Point of Contact.
The team member shared her annoyance with the team’s Point of Contact. However,
their communications at one point lost the transparency they should have kept
being the participants of a ‘team effort’. One of them excluded the other from
a group mail sent to the whole team. I sensed a very violent outcome for such a
behavior.
Something
must be done to mend things, I thought. That
was the right time for me to interfere to let the team members know that there
was yet another way things could be settled—the way of friendship, of honor, of
love. Although some members still felt uncomfortable with this new way of
looking at life’s conflicts, our team, Kalakar Colony wounded up the contest in
peace and relative harmony.
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By the way, the
Facebook Group still functions and I would surely post the link to this article
on the status bar there, as I have been doing for the previous part of this
series. There is one feeling that all of us team members experienced while in
the contest and perhaps, even now—fulfillment. Every one of us is born with the
ability to create. But to create a specific and meaningful work is immensely
fulfilling and truly Divine. That is where the reward for the Kalakar (artist) comes from.
Each of us in
group Kalakar Colony, feel especially thankful to Blogadda.com for providing
this opportunity to strive toward an artistic goal, together, with all these
wonderful, gifted and unique individuals. Although in this matter I haven’t
communicated with any of my team members, I am sure they all feel the same.
#CelebrateBlogging
was a group effort. When one considers the success of this group work, one must
shift one’s glance at the individuals who worked together in this project. The ultimate
gain apparently, doesn’t seem to be for the group. It seems, the group work
ultimately caused benefit to the individuals who took part in this contest. In
my case, it helped me learn some invaluable lessons in my life.
Firstly, it was
the communication problem. I learnt that when we exchange emails, try not to be
too economic. Share every aspect of one’s comments and suggestions eliminating
the maximum possibilities for any future conflict and hurt. Always illustrate
your point with examples. Never consider that the person you are communicating
with for the first time (and that too through email) will understand your
casual talk. Short statements are always prone to being misunderstood as curt
or arrogant statements. Never reply with a short statement in Simple Present
Tense or in a fragment, with a person you write for the first time. Especially,
if the language of your communication is second-language to the other person.
When I look back
at the “error” that occurred while exchanging one of the group mails, I realize,
I would have done it without causing future friction. In one of the group mails,
we discussed a title for the team. One of the team member’s suggestions was
about to be accepted when I felt that it wasn’t a very impressive title for a
group. So I interfered and said that the title suggested sounds a bit amateurish.
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Little did I know
that this comment would spark an inner fury within the team and also in the
mind of the other person involved. Later, when I came to know about the hurt
the person felt in relation to my comment, I immediately apologized and sincerely
tried to mend things up. However, had I avoided using short statements and
casual talk I would have prevented this personal conflict. The reason why we
use casual talk when we meet someone new is in the hope that it would make the
other person feel comfortable instantly. This might appear very helpful and
reliable in one-on-ones. However, in mails and other forms of written
communication, short sentences and lack of explanations can cause unprecedented
damage.
My second
realization was never to undermine anyone around us. There is a reason why we
are among the specific people and things that are around us right now. This
mystery could be explained in two possible ways. Either some Higher Power
places us among them or these living and non-living entities and human beings
are surrounding us because they were
ordained to do so. In both cases, one definite purpose stands out. The reason
and meaning in the coming together of those living and non-living entities
around us, the reason for being surrounded by the people who are around us now,
is simply this—they are there to help us achieve what I call Peak
Consciousness.
I also learnt through
this experience that my growth as a writer lies beyond my ego. I overcame the prodding
of my ego to be the one and only decision maker in my writing life. I went
beyond my usual editing process, in which I go through the three of my familiar
editors. Throughout #Celebrateblogging, in the process of opening myself up to
new possibilities, I learnt lessons I would never have learnt otherwise. The suggestions
helped me to improvise the story, to present it, as ‘they want it’. In
addition, it helped me to practice the invaluable lesson of creative tolerance
by being open to suggestions of relatively unfamiliar people.
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The name we gave our
mystery story was “The Circle of Deceit”. Contrary to what the name indicates,
the game of blogs did not betray us. There were lessons, but of an intimately personal
kind that I learnt.
Thirdly, I learnt
that everything we do in order to restore peace and harmony among others would
become a spiritual act. When I interfered into the personal conflict between
two of my team members, I was actually undertaking a spiritual task, dependent
on my limited understanding of how to use love, respect, and honor to bring
about great change.
__This Concludes
Here__
Thank you for taking
this course through my personal life.
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