Sunday, January 1, 2012

New Year

Unlike last year, I am not making a year-end round up, though I did more publications, reviews and committee work for IISc! People often discuss about new year resolutions.

Just as I was leaving a committee meeting last year, a young faculty remarked about the problems he was facing with his chairman. I spoke to him for nearly 5 min on how he could potentially handle the issue. My senior colleague, who was next to me, smiled and said, "Now, I know you are getting old.  The older one grows, the more one starts giving advice.." And he was correct as I began to notice that I have really started giving unsolicited advice.

However,
When you’ve been there and done that and have the battle scars to prove it, the temptation to offer unsolicited advice can be almost overwhelming. Avoiding doing so feels almost like watching someone go into cardiac arrest and not calling an ambulance. But there’s a big difference between the analogy and the reality: The ambulance will actually help that person; unsolicited advice will not. Unsolicited advice is almost useless for one simple reason: Many lessons must be learned, not just intellectually, but emotionally. Taking action to change your life requires not only thought, but intent, and intent is driven by our internal pain and pleasure associations.

If other people really wanted your advice, they would ask for it. Happiness is not obtained from listening to others but by listening to oneself. On that happy note, wish you all a very happy new year.

8 comments:

L said...

Shall I make a slight modification to your statement?...As one gets older one gives unsolicited advice, but when one gets a little wiser, one tries to stop doing that. Note I say 'try'.

Anonymous said...

well said prof giri

Anonymous said...

Agree with you completely.

DIlip said...

Thank you Sir for the words of wisdom.

I started last year with your inspiring year end round up. It helped me a lot . I was looking forward to read your 2011 round up but this post is also equally inspiring.

Keep giving your unsolicited advice and keep inspiring us.

Best Regards
DILIP

Chris said...

Nice post Prof. Giridhar. I also liked the referenced article on 30sleeps.

Wish you and all your blog visitors a very happy new year 2012.

Chris

Kaneenika Sinha said...

Nice post, Prof. Giri. The older one gets, the more tolerant one becomes in receiving advice, even if it is unsolicited :)

Anonymous said...

Dilip,

His researcher id profile shows 37 publications and 750 citations for 2011.

Amazing, what he has for this year, I do not have in my career,

Anonymous said...

Dear Prof. Giri,

A Very Happy New Year. Nice post.

Prof. TA