UPDATING / MEDIOCRITY

 

23      UPDATING- THE KEY TO SUCCESS

Humans are eternally interested in personal success. There can be nothing more positive than this. But, why is it that success seems a ‘distant dream’ to some and an illusion to some, despite their earnestness? As is often the case, people nurture desire more than some positive effort towards the goal. Success is                                                                                                       

seemingly elusive, because we look up for the ‘ultimate’ reward instead of step-wise ascension by effort. Any one desiring success has to contribute to the system that [s]he is working in. Success may have to be aimed at as a product and not as a mere end in itself. Any product is a derivative of processes and conditioning. So, the perfect ‘end product’ indicates correct processes and right conditioning. If so, our desire for being successful has to be backed by appropriate strategies of learning and pruning our skills. Of the varied prospects in improvement, updating should be a constant item of everyone’s repertoire, as it helps to stay abreast and infuses a level of confidence essential in our work and work places.

Updating has to occur at least by the day if not by the hour. It cannot be an isolated, periodic exercise. We need to keep our perceptions alert to gather all forms of information. It gets to be faster and simpler if we follow a regular practice in updating. The suggestion is, delay in updating may complicate our effort, as we may lose track of different key issues; on the contrary, by regular approach, the volume of matter to grasp stays small. It is a greater incentive to update, as our efforts do not require ‘time’ to doing it.

We, also witness a degree of pleasantness in our interaction, as we are eager to share new information. The bottom line is, we can ill-afford to stay with ‘old’ information, as others in our domain of activity may be more informed. In our exchanges with such personnel, it would prove a hurdle to convince the authorities. The issue of updating should be even more relevant to teachers at any level. As learners, we can differentiate the out-dated from the updated with a decided preference for the latter. Let us remember that updating is the best strategy in ‘marketing’ any stuff. How can education choose to be oblivious and insensitive to this fundamental criterion of staying abreast?         

24   RELUCTANCE –THE BREEDER OF MEDIOCRITY

             Updating is a step in ascension. Without it, slowly we stay where we were, as things progress upward. The tendency of ‘staying contended’ on items of information is a reflection of reluctance. One of the factors behind ‘reluctance to update’ is from a lack of focus, essential for professional outlook. Often, excuses of ‘adequacy’ in the present form are advanced suggesting ‘efficacy’. Inadvertently, workers are left behind, as technology advances rather incessantly. The scenario is frightening in the arena of education. While industries can resort to automation to replace unskilled workers, education stagnates with outdated teachers unwilling to update. This is a silent crime on learners. Groomed by such ‘outdated’ protocols, the students fail to gather more recent information and stay mediocre in terms of ‘advancements’ in their domains of study. When such students take to teaching, the cycle is repeated but for an ‘odd’ conscious teacher who tries to live up to some higher level. But, the mediocrity surrounding such ‘odd teachers’ is so overwhelming that they are specks of microscopic dots, few and far between to make a large scale impact. Unless, the culture of updating is encouraged, there is little relevance to our courses of study.  Mine is no attempt of denigrating the teachers. It is a painful lamentation that personnel who should stay abreast of academic widening, choose to be oblivious and blissful. When the system of education collapses and inevitably so, the society would only be a silent, clueless spectator. Our society would then be a huge body of incompetent men and women who can do precious little to themselves. Mediocrity has to be perceived an epidemic that can potentially inflict catastrophic damage silently.