He believes in miracles. And if he has his way, he will make those around him believe in them as well.
And while Dale Carnegie dishes out the dos and don'ts of success, Anand Patkar, management consultant and author of the recently published Master the Mind Monkey, urges people, corporate bosses, executives and common people not to seek inspiration from external sources but from within.
"Be it motivation or its absence, confidence or the lack of it, it's all in the mind," says Patkar in an interview with rediff.com.
Why we do what we do? What interests us? What doesn't? Questions thronged this management professional's mind until he found a unique way of addressing them. He thought of conducting a workshop -- 'Master the Mind Monkey: Transforming Individual Mindsets & Attitudes To Attain Organisational Excellence.'
What novelty does it have on offer, especially when a number of similar such events are doing the rounds now, one asks him. "The workshop that I conduct does not seek to change the individuals by guiding them what to do and what not to do, yet it enables them to achieve excellence in every walk of life," Patkar justifies. "Herein lies its uniqueness," he reasons.
The four-day workshop package devised and facilitated solely by Patkar is conducted once a week, over four consecutive weeks. Mostly held in Mumbai, the workshops take place in other parts of the country as well.
Interactions during each workshop day last about eight hours. The size of the participating group is typically 20 to 25. The workshop has an interactive mode in which Patkar strikes constant conversations with the participants.
The workshop also includes some meditation-type exercises and experience-sharing tasks. At the end of each of the first three days, participants are asked to create some 'impossible' tasks/objectives for themselves, the achievement of which would otherwise seem to be a miracle.
Their experiences are shared and discussed in the concluding day to discover new mind-set patterns.
Meant mainly for corporate and management professionals, the workshops, says Patkar, are equally useful for government workers, businesspeople as well as those in professions like teaching and journalism.
"Taking part in these scintillating mind games, the participants discover they have the latent capacity to make a difference no matter which organisation they work for and who their colleagues are."
He substantiates his claim by narrating an incident. "Once a guy got transferred to a different arm of the company he was working in and while leaving his old place, he was tipped off about one of the new colleagues."
"Carrying a baggage of preconceived impressions post-transfer, the guy managed to avoid that particular person until he attended my workshop. Soon after the exercise, he thought of spending some time with that colleague of his and was amazed to discover that he was not a bad human being at all."
"Rather, he realised his colleague' real worth, his true potential and how it can be put to effective use."
This particular instance is not an isolated one, as Patkar would tell you. "In plenty of cases, participants come up with extremely positive feedback. The workshops, they say, have taught them to look beyond themselves, meet challenges and to come out on top."
The mind games that Patkar devises teach individuals not to be afraid of failures. As his book mentions, ". . . there will be times when you may fail and you will hate yourself for it. But stay with it. Notice that each moment is a new one. Life is not about always being on a high."
The book helps you experience your own excellence and guides you into deeper levels of understanding of the mind and the tricks it plays, making it very practical and applicable in one's professional and personal life.
He has a firm belief that 'we are the boss' and that we definitely can 'take charge.'
Master the Mind Monkey, by Anand Patkar
- Jaico Publishing House
- Price: Rs 275
- Click here to buy the book.
- Available at retail outlets too
