The Buddha said, “What you think, you become.” When I read about it during the college daysI could not make any sense out of it.It was a mere esoteric philosophical statement. However, with the passage of time, and having experienced ups and downs in life, the deeper meaning seems to be unfolding gradually. The more one reflects on it, greater seems to be its significance in our lives but for that to happen one needs to slow down a bit. We can, infact, refine it further by stating, ‘the subject is the cause, the object is the effect’.This can be explained through a couple of examples.

Let us say, Pragya harbors emotions like gratitude and respect towards her team members. As one may expect, this attitude of hers reflects in her courteous behavior towards others. Thus, the subject (that is Pragya) is the cause, the object (her behavior) is the effect. One may reasonably assume that her approach to work is driven by the thought, which by the way is quite practical, that she can do only this much on her own. Therefore, she acknowledges with due gratitude the contributions made by her team members in making her successful. This attitude gets reflected in Pragya’s personality spontaneously. Thus, she is viewed as someone who is not only helpful but also worthy of respect by the team members. This drives home the point that Pragya (the subject) is the cause, her behaviour (the object) is the effect.

Likewise, Anil is a smug. At the slightest opportunity he does not forget to remind his teammates about significant contributions made by him without which they could not have achieved a few critical milestones in course of the year. Anil is viewed as someone who is arrogant and full of conceit. An attitude like this indicates Anil’s Ignorance. He strongly believes that he is the key pivot driving team performance. Thus, Anil (the subject) is the cause, the manifest behaviour (the object) is the effect.

Needless to add, if team members are given an option, they shall always welcome Pragya over Anil as a part of their team because she will add to better cohesion amongst themselves and also mutual respect. Perhaps, now, we appreciate better the significance of the Buddha’s statement, ’What you think, you become’ as it impacts our work-life balance. After all, we may have experienced how one rotten apple is enough to spoil the entire batch, isn’t it? Thus, we see for ourselves how powerful a tool is this statement of the Buddha for self-development and managerial effectiveness.

By Debangshu Chakraborty