Happiness and Excellence Arises from

Imbalance

Lt General Arjun Ray, PVSM, VSM (Retd)

Future competition between nations will not be between competing political ideologies

and economic systems, but competing education systems. The school landscape

across all countries is similar: disengaged students who are part of an education system

that encourages fierce competition through standardized testing. All are struggling to

score high grades to get admission in high label colleges. Schools are not preparing

them to succeed and be happy in life.

I don’t think parents alone can fix the problem. In several cases children are being

micro-managed by parents at home, while others need to be rescued from hyperactive

parenting. They are either too busy with their lives to parent their children, or have left it

to schools. What are schools meant for after all?

There is no Superman we can wait for.

The problem has to be fixed by teachers, or else we will Race to Nowhere.

The single greatest reform in education is not curriculum, it is leadership - we need

teachers to be transformational leaders to inspire students to be able to lead

themselves. To be leaders teachers will have to be happy and seek excellence despite

all odds.

In order to be a leader, the teacher must facilitate learning − her learning and the

learning of the students. In her second role, she has to bring about transformation in

herself first, then the students, the school, and even the community. To be a leader she

must serve first and then lead.

Happiness is a dynamic state - not a static goal/state of mind.

What is preventing anyone from becoming a leader? This is the central question.

To be leaders teachers

will have to be happy

and seek excellence

despite all odds.

The various reasons advanced by teachers are shown schematically.

The first challenge is to intellectually accept the change of role from instructing in

a class to transforming oneself, the child, the school, and the community. Teachers

have to rid themselves of traditional mindsets of being mere repositories of knowledge,

in favour of being transformational leaders.

The second challenge is to have the courage to pay a price.

Excellence needs constant practice - remember the 10,000 Hour and 10 Years Rule.

Excellence requires sacrifice and dedication. To achieve excellence in any walk of life,

and to realize your full potential and break a new path with a powerful vision, you will

have to promote yourself to what you are capable of becoming − you must imbalance

yourself. Walking the middle-path and trying to balance is reserved for mediocrity.

Imbalance does not imply losing a foothold. Imbalance means a revaluation of focus in

your life, and varying it from time to time as the needs of

other require.

If you desire mere

contentment, go

If you desire mere contentment, go for ‘balance.’ If you want

for ‘balance.’ If

happiness, then go for ‘imbalance.’ This is the price tag that

comes with excellence. Are you prepared to pay it?

you want

happiness, then go

Too much balance can be frustrating because it often leads

for ‘imbalance.’

to:

 Increased loneliness - alienation of the self, and the inability to give ore

receive love.

 Loss of individuality and independence of thought, leading to mediocrity

 Despair, as a result of not being able to seek one’s passion in life.

 Greater interest in how I am, rather than who I am

 A feeling when we look back on life that we haven’t lived, that we haven’t

made a difference to other people (except possibly our blood relations).

It may appear heretic and subversive to recommend a strategy of imbalance. But I have

spiritual and psychological reasons to put forward. We seek identity and fulfillment of

five spiritual and human needs. These are:



Relatedness or love in its deep sense



Creativity



Rootedness



Sense of identity our individuality and how we are different to others.



Meaning in life.

We have two choices as appropriately suggested by Erich Fromm in the title of his

book, To Have or To Be. To Have is the pursuit of materialism - the possession of

power, property, wealth and pleasure. The idea is clear: “I am what I have.” On the

other hand, if I have nothing, I am nothing. The second choice, and that is the leaders’

choice, is To Be. To know about and to be are two different things. To know about is to

be inquisitive; to be is experiential, transformational. For example, to know about

religion and to be religious are again different. Another example is love. In the having

mode, to love means to possess, to imprison, and to control the object of love. I love

you means I possess you on my terms. In the being mode love aims at making the other

free, and to be able to develop her full potential. In order To Be there has to be

imbalance.

To be is experiential, to love, to renew oneself to give, to sacrifice, to forgive, and to

share. The mode of being exists only in the here and now. The New Man, the Being

Man’s Portrait is as under:

Love

Identity coming from giving

Purpose and meaning to life

Self-awareness

Realization of one’s full potential

The leader’s challenge is, therefore, to develop strategies to cope with imbalance the

leader’s first step is to convince those who matter to him the most, about the ‘why’ of

leadership journey he is embarking upon. Like Michael Maccoby’s Gamesman, the

leader explains the rules of the game of his leadership manifesto. If the leader is

unconvincing, or he is overcome by a sense of guilt, then he is the wrong candidate. He

had better give up at the earliest.

Second, we can only reach our self through aloneness, and therefore, the leader

must seriously practice the virtue of aloneness and solitude. These are specific times of

the day or week or month, when he breaks contact with routine and devotes quality time

to study, practice, reflection and contemplation. This is called as leisure time.

Solitude is required for:

 Resolution of one’s inner and outer conflicts

 Self-appraisal of one’s performance over self-set goals

 Refection on crucible experiences

Third, the most practical and effective strategy in finding quality time for self-

development is by effective goal-setting. Managing goals gives one the capacity to

manage oneself. Indians are culturally not goal-oriented because of society’s

hierarchical structure and non-linear sense of time.

Only happy teachers can be teacher-leaders.

Leadership reform in schools is daunting and will be an uphill task. Teachers can’t

become leaders by reading books and attending workshops, seminars and retreats.

They need to be happy. Only happy teachers can be teacher-leaders.

School leaders ought to focus their attention on raising the happiness levels of teachers.

Most teachers are driven by extrinsic motivation - habitat, hygiene, and money. This

would clearly place them in levels 1 and 2 of Maslow’s pyramid of hierarchy. The

challenge before principals will be on developing strategies for moving teachers to the

next higher levels of love/ belonging

(level

3), self-esteem

(level

4), and self-

actualization (level 5). Strategies to sustain happiness are meaningless unless their

progress is monitored and measured. Goal-setting in professional development, formal

and informal feedback, implementation of findings of research teams, and student

achievement, are effective measurement tools.

There is widespread belief that Maslow’s hierarchy of needs dictates that, an individual

cannot move to a higher level until the basic level of needs are met. This is not true.

Terrorist can go without food, shelter, and security of life, and yet remain happy and

optimistic, ready to die. It is possible, therefore, to transcend levels.

Excellence and self-actualization arises from happiness, and the two are not possible

unless teachers imbalance themselves.