Do we want our child to rejoice death?

Since Kasab was hanged last week, i have been hearing various interviews of the victims, police officers, and other social activist. One of the common response has been 'We are satisfied that he was hanged. Although there has been a delay in the court sentence, the justice has been done'. Some of the comments on the net, on the other hand, generously took a long term view of hanging, when they said " We should not be satisfied with Kasab's hanging. We should catch the other perpetrators of crime."

Therefore, i was pleasantly surprised when i read this response of Ashish Chowdhry, an actor, who lost his sister and brother-in-law in the 26/11 terror attack. He said

" I do not see any point in rejoicing any body's death. Justice is done to small part of the problem. I am a father, i don't want to set that as an example for my children"

Such incidents, which happen less frequently in our society, are the perfect instances that we can use to help our child learn about life. Because if we try to tell our child about death and life, he will ignore us because death is not a salient context for him at his age. If we try to share a universal principle that ' criminals are produced by the society', he may not agree with us. In short, if we do not help our child learn from these socially poignant and emotionally intense situations, how do we prepare our child to face the challenges of life? 

It is in these situations that we can help our child understand that Kasab may have been an innocent child like him, but because he was born around wrong people, imbibed wrong teachings and was taught to hate. Kasab did not plan his future, his future was created for him by the people around him. And more importantly, if one Kasab is hanged, there are more than hundreds of Kasabs being produced every month and year. In other words, we can help our child understand the difference of terrorists and terrorism, which he otherwise is not just interested in knowing.

We can help our child understand how educated people are pulled into terrorism. We can also teach our child, that though we may not be able to fight terrorists, we can fight terrorism. We can share with him the stories of heroic people who are fighting terrorism. For instance, how Greg Mortenson is fighting terrorism by opening schools in Afghanistan. Or how an Orissa Collector managed to bring together people to fight terrorism, not terrorists.  And why it it is better to fight terrorism, instead of fighting terrorists.

Instead of letting child rejoice in a death of terrorist, it will help him if he understands how to prevent the emergence of terrorism, because his future lies in stopping terrorism. In tomorrow's society, we will not be able to stop terrorists because they will be amongst us, not around us. Our children therefore have to learn to stop terrorism. As Ashish Chowdhury said it succintly 'I will rejoice when killing in the name of God will stop". We should also rejoice at the death of terrorism, not for the death of terrorist. 

Are you really learning a subject?

If you see the Learning plan ( LP) of a student, one important component of planning is 'learning' the core and complementary subjects. Unfortunately, the concept of learning is not fully understood. We confuse learning with many other similar words. We think that learning is being able to recite the 'learnt answers' in the same sequential manner. Or we think that learning is applying the algorithmic solution of moving from x to y on a predetermined path such as in Geometry or Algebra to another similar problem. Because marks in a test only captures 'rote' recitation, marks also do not capture the learning that has happened in a student. So what is learning? 

Stage I of learning

When we listen to someone for the first time, we hear the 'data' that is being given to us. For instance,when a student hears the history of the Jallianwalla Bagh's tragedy of 1919 in a history class, he absorbs it as a data. However, when he absorbs this data in the context of freedom struggle, his understanding of Jallianwalla Bag becomes deeper. Now, the student understands 'fuller' meaning and significance of Jallianwalla Bagh incident. The student has converted 'data' (raw bits of data structured by the 'instructor') into 'information' ( same bits of data restructured by the 'student').  In other words, Learning "does not take place in the act of listening to (or viewing) information explained, but rather in the moments when we are asked to make sense of that information, to wrestle with ideas." When, the student's  learning remains at the the level of 'data', he is stuck up and his understanding is shallow. This data may be useful in answering the question on Jallianwalla bagh in the exam, but it does not halp him deepen his understanding of subject he is trying to understand.

Stage II of learning

But learning can also happen at a even more deeper level. Deepening may happen in various forms.  For instance, when the student compares 'Salt march of 1930'  with 'Jallianwala bag' incident , he or she understands that not 'all incidents' have similar impact on freedom struggle movement. He starts 'building relationship of data with outcomes' newly. He starts gaining 'better picture' of the overall freedom struggle movement by connecting individual pieces of historical events. This is descriptive knowledge. At this stage, he is using anamolies, inconsistencies in the 'data' to get better knowledge of the events ( such as Jallianwalla bag ) and how they are correlated with the outcome ( freedom struggle). 

Stage III of learning

Learning can deepen further. A student may start understanding 'causes' of different events. For instance, why and how different elements of Jallianwalla bagh incident exactly 'caused or helped' freedom movement.  This is called converting 'correlation' into 'causation'. Not just understanding how x is related to y, but understanding why x causes y. (Not just understanding how flu is related to fever, but why flu causes fever.) This deepening enables the student to understand the conditions when x can cause y. At this stage, the student starts developing the 'predictive knowledge'. Here learning is "to apply, synthesize and use what we have learned to create something.” This kind of learning is facilitated when a student learns to develop 'experiements and prototypes' that 'mimic' the cause-effect loop of thinking in real life. 

Conclusion

Typically, a student will deepen the learning of a subject or chapter for which the teacher is good, or deepen the learning of the subject he or she likes. Learning becomes automatic and unconscious.

However, in order to excel in his life, a student has to guide his learning consciously. He cannot spend time on learning non-important subjects. If, in his Academic-excellence plan, he decides to learn 'physics' or 'english', he has to consciously deepen the understanding of those subjects. Irrespective of the poor teacher of physics, or the difficulties of the school, he has to find options to deepen the understanding of physics. He has to use multiple methods to deepen the understanding of a given subject that he has planned in his AEP. For instance, he may have to e-learning tools on internet to deepen his understanding of physics. Or he may find expert teachers in physics who are in different schools. Or he has may use Physics Olympiad to gain deeper understanding. Or he may find friends who are equally interested in 'physics '. Excellence is not possible without a deliberate plan. 

Excellence also happens when one uses the limited time effectively. An LP enables student to prioritise his time judiciously. Deeper the learning, the longer it takes. And because there is limited time in a day, a student has to 'prioritise' the subjects he has to learn. He cannot learn all the subjects to the same depth of learning. With LP, a student learns to prioritise his time carefully, so that he can achieve excellence in given subject. 

Why should a student make a plan instead of only choosing career option?

In my coaching, I have never observed a student making a plan in their student life. In my observation, students do not draft a plan due to three reasons. One, students do not know how to plan. Two, they do not know what to plan. And three, students do not know what to do if the plan fails. In other words, they do not know the purpose and benefit of planning. They are just happy to choose one career option and hope that it will work wonders automatically.

Why should student make a plan?

Single biggest reason of making a plan in student life is to 'excel' academically. If the students IQ is well above average, he can excel in many subjects and areas. He may not need a plan. But most of us need focus of efforts and time to excel. That is why a student must first choose a career option to focus his energy. And then he must also make a plan to channelise his efforts to excel in a chosen career option. This is not possible until he draws a plan. Drawing an action plan in the school life is a plan for 'ensuring excellence in academic life'. Therefore let us call this plan, Unique Learning Plan, or ULP in short.

Unlike a student excelling in entertainment or sports ( such as Lata Mangeshkar or Sachin Tendulkar), a student in cognitive field ( please see this distinction of cognitive and Aesthetic field here) requires a ULP. A student in entertainment and sports field starts his race (playing music or playing sport) at the age of 8 and therefore has a greater chance of excelling. On the contrary, until the age of 21, a student in cognitive field (also called as knowledge field) is engaged in reading and understanding concepts that he may or may not use in the later age. Until the student starts working, he will not apply these concepts in real life and verify his knowledge he has gained. ULP is required because it enables a student to focus his efforts in his long academic life on meaningful actions.

Two critical areas in Unique Learning Plan (ULP) 

The Unique Learning plan should cover at least two type of subjects: Core subject and complementary subjects.

One, it should help the student to build deeper knowledge in his chosen core subjects to become 'excellent'. More often than not, student chose core subjects such as physics, biology, chemistry and mathematics because they are traditionally considered to build the skills that are demanded in a skill-market. These are the left-brain oriented subjects. To ensure admissions, a student has to work with dual objective:  Work on getting good marks in the subject, say physics, and also work on acquiring deeper knowledge of Physics. Most of the coaching classes today help in scoring higher marks in the subject, say physics. But it requires a different type of teacher ( and also some additional avenues like Physics Olympiad) to help the student gain deeper knowledge of a subject in physics. This deeper knowledge helps develop excellence in physics which is later useful in student's work-life.

Two, ULP should also include a plan to understand and apply complementary subjects. Complementary subjects are those subjects that complement the benefits of core subjects. For instance, subjects like Language develop the art of communicating one's thoughts and ideas in a cogent manner. Without this basic skill of communication, a student excelling in physics and maths cannot benefit. Because of this lack of focus on language, you will meet many brilliant students who are unable to express their thoughts coherently and therefore fail to maximise the benefits of their academic excellence. Likewise, subject like history helps student understand the history of our country, and how the philosophies of leftist or rightist political parties are influencing today's policies and governance. Without knowing where he stands in his community, a student feels like a traveller who has lost his way in foreign land. Subject like Geography helps the student understand the inter-related variables of environment and therefore appreciate the dynamic complexities of one's environment. These right-brain oriented subjects are therefore very useful for the student to 'develop the qualities' that will complement the student's core left-brain oriented subjects. For more detailed exploration of right-brain and left-brain, please see Ian Mcgilchrist's detailed exploration.

In earlier days, students typically chose left brain subjects as core subjects to excel in their career. But in today's economy, the right-brain subjects are equally in demand. Today, you will find many students choosing  right-brain subjects like Language and History as core subjects of choice. For them, complementary subjects therefore become physics and chemistry, as they have to learn left-brain subjects to 'structure' their thoughts. Core subjects for one student could be complementary subject for another student and vice versa. Therefore, depending on their ULP, every student has to spend different 'time' and 'type of effort' on each subject.

Summary

An ULP therefore helps a student start the race, because there is no benefit in waiting for the race to start. The earlier you start running the race, the ahead you are in the race. The biggest benefit of ULP is fully utilising the years you spend in the academic life to excel. This excellence helps considerably in the later work-life.

However, the biggest benefit of ULP is indirect. It channelises a student's bubbling and restless mental energy  ( adolescent age also brings its own energy and force) in a focused direction. This helps a student discipline his whimsical mind. For instance, taking all the necessary actions in the ULP - studying core subjects or complementary subjects - requires a disciplined mind. As a student mind in this age is easily distracted, ULP enables him to reduce these distractions. LP enables the student to develop the required willpower to focus. As LP requires taking assistance from friends and colleagues to understand a subject; this forces a student to interact and collaborate with friends. In other words, ULP enables student to develop his mind. We have also seen the definition of Mind growth and how it is different than academic or intellectual growth. Mind growth is facilitated unconsciously by LP.

Earlier we had seen how mind growth directly influences work-life excellence. Mind growth also impacts academic life equally strongly. Later we shall see how it impacts the academic excellence and what steps should one take to consciously plan for Mind growth.

Selecting the right career option is less important than making a Unique Learning plan

Anushka went through a thorough process of selecting her career options when she was in 10th. She also gave aptitude test where she discovered that her logical skill is very good. She wanted to go outside India, have a career that has got lot of potential. So she chose Diploma in software, and wanted to take a degree course in software later. She did very well in all the three years. She scored first class throughout. However, in third year of diploma, she discovered she cannot continue with software discipline. But everyone strongly dissuaded her. Her friends told her that her marks indicate that she is fit for software. She was thoroughly confused.

What did Anushka do wrongly? Did she go through wrong aptitude tests? Or did she select a wrong career option? Or did she make a mistake because her mind was 'used' by her emotion ( instead of using emotion to take the right decision) that she wanted to go out of India? What do you think went wrong?

Aptitude tests are only indicative. They will tell you that your logical skill is good, or your numerical skill  is poor, or your spatial skill is OK. Aptitude tests do not tell you that the career option you must choose if your logical and numerical skill is good. With good logical and numerical skill, you have many options: Mathematics, any engineering discipline, physics and others. Infact, by going through your past exam scores in different subject, you can find 'which skill' of yours is good. You do not need an aptitude test ! In other words, aptitude tests are not useful in taking a career decision at all. As Benjamin Bloom, the researcher who has researched talented people found out, that not even the best of the talent have unusual talents at a young age of 12-15.

But Anushka did a much bigger mistake. She got satisfied by selecting a right career option. Because of too much data about the skill market and too little information about yourself, no one can choose an ideal career option at such an early age. In other countries, career options are taken in early twenties. Because of this inherent complexity, it is more prudent to draw up a Unique Learning plan, a plan that will enable the student to develop his/her abilities.

In other words, Anushka should have made a Unique Learning Plan to develop her abilities. She may use her abilities in different domains depending on her interest ( such as software, other engineering disciplines). , She may design an engagement that will her develop her abilities deeper, and change her future options by finding her growth in her chosen abilities. What Anushka needed was a Unique learning plan, not a career-option which will come later? Career-option is just using one's ability in a domain. Career option taken at an early age can never be accurate; because one has to get ready to face different scenarios which are different than predicted. A flexible career option required to tackle different emergent scenarios can help you prepare better when your chosen career-option turns out to be wrong. If she had made a plan, Anushka would have been ready with the next option without feeling confused and lost.

The second feature of unique learning plan is equally important: the feature of engaging with the external world that will help you engage 'fully' with the chosen abilities. Although Anushka did not make a plan, she engaged with the field of software completely; not half-heartedly. Her marks in software proved her full engagement. Project work that helps one apply the learnt principles, is another indicator of full engagement. Anushka did her project work well. So when despite full engagement, one finds that one does not like the field, like Anushka did, it is time to take a call. That she got good marks in software is a proof of her engagement, not a proof that software suits her. Anushka's friend confused her, because they misunderstood the 'meaning' of high marks. This confusion happened because Anushka had not prepared a Unique Learning Plan. Software domain is just an option to use her abilities, not a fixed path that has to be taken.

Third feature of Unique Learning plan is the design of cross-road point ( the point where you can change your chosen abilities if something went wrong in the growth of those abilities). In Anushka's case, this cross-road point (shifting from software to some other engineering discipline) automatically got created because she realised she is not so good in software. Imagine what would have happened to Anushka if she had decided to do software degree course after 12th. She would have discovered that her choice is wrong at the end of degree course. She would have perhaps done what most other engineering students do: Do MBA after finishing engineering. That is why you find, that even today, 80% of the students in IIM come from Engineering. When a student chooses career option at 12th class, with very little engagement with outside world, it is bound to be wrong. This is why a Unique Learning plan is required to develop and use those abilities, not just making one single career option.

Summary

Designing a flexible Learning plan is more important than choosing one best career option, because that allows you to readjust your plan with the changing realities. Your plan should help you chose alternative options (based on alternative scenarios that are applicable to the specific student), chose engagement that will help you find if the chosen path is right for you and design cross-road points that will help you change the path, if required.

What are you doing for your child? If you are just trying to find one ideal career option for your child, you are not helping your child. If you are really wanting to do something meaningful for your child, please help me make a career-plan.

Excellence is about making numerous choices daily

Many self-help popular books and counsellors advocate that excellence is about getting big macro choices right, such as choice of right discipline after 10th, or the right college to graduate, or right job after graduation, or even the right partner to marry. Because of this mistaken belief, students and their parents spend considerable time in deciding what to do after 10th class ! But excellence is not about doing one thing right; it is about doing things right daily ( at least most of them).

In other words, Excellence is a habit. It is not a mindset, or a one-time skill. Taking one decision right does not guarantee excellence. Taking the decision to do 'engineering', for instance, does not guarantee any excellence in engineering, until you do numerous small things right while finishing your high school till 10th class. For instance, if you have decided that your potential strength is physics, one of a critical subject in Engineering, you have to find methods and ideas that will daily help you increase your strength in physics. Your strength is not going to increase by understanding one chapter right, or passing one exam of physics with good marks. Your strength in physics will increase only if you make most of your micro choices - of doing well in physics -  right.To excel in life, one has to practice the habit of excellence consistently with conscious effort.

Because excelling is a habit, you have to practice it again and again consciously. Like driving habit, excelling habit has three characteristics. Firstly, even though you have learnt driving, you still have to drive the car every time with focus and attention. You cannot just put down your guard and hope the car will be driven automatically. Once you learn driving till a threshold level, you may require less conscious effort, but you still require some effort. Similarly, excelling habit, even if you learnt it once, has to be practiced again and again in every situation. Secondly, when the situation changes, you have to re-learn the habit again. For instance, if you have to drive in Ghats, you have to learn driving again. Thirdly, a contextual situation may  require a very different kind of similar skill. In such situation relearning the same habit takes lot of practice and time. For instance, if you want to enter the competition of car-racing, you may have to unlearn some of the practices useful in city driving, and practice new way of driving. Excelling habits, even when they look similar, require quite an amount of relearning for each situation.

So how can you develop this excelling habit to achieve anything meaningful?

1. Excelling is making micro choices daily (again and again) to gain knowledge

Many students assume that excelling is about making one right choice - Engineering, medical, arts, or any other discipline - after 10th class. Unfortunately, it is just the first step. If you do not do the micro-work, nothing will save you.

When you, for instance, choose to use Physics Olympiad to deepen your knowledge of engineering, you have to make numerous micro choices consequently : how to study every day for olympiad despite the school schedule, where to find other students who are also working for physics olympiad, how to locate teachers who will teach you the depth of physics, how to find websites that will help you learn some concept of physics faster, and where to meet older students who had gone to Olympiad and so on. These micro choices ultimately determine if your macro decision of doing engineering will help you excel or not.

2. Excelling is using the 'forced situations' in your life to grow mentally

We do not have choices in many situations. We are, on the contrary, forced into situations. Forced situations push us back into the corner and make us take a stand that primarily determine our mental growth. Remember the definition of mental growth: Mental growth is our ability to see as-is reality without any bias.  For instance,  we are born into a particular type of family, a specific kind of town or city, and in a specific culture or community. All these forced 'situations' bias us unknowingly. Our ability to be aware of these biases and utilise them in our life ( either as crisis or as opportunities) determine our mental growth.With mental growth, we develop qualities like patience, concentration, persistence and courage which are necessary to complement your intelligence.

3. Excelling is about using every situation to tame the mind beast so that you can take the above two actions with commitment 

Mind has features which are good and ugly. Despite knowing 0.001% of the world ( or even less), it still has to function in this world and help us find our place to grow. This is the power of our mind. But to use this power, Mind is forced to adopt certain practices. For instance, it has to use 'fast and instantaneous'** emotion to take quick decisions without enough information. But one cannot always rely on these 'emotions'. For instance, when we are going to stage to deliver a speech, we have to learn to ignore the discomforting signals of emotion. In short, we have to learn to tame the mind beast : sometimes consciously go against its orders and sometimes follow its powerful orders.

When we use stress, that mind generates to keep us wary of danger signals, to channelise our efforts in studying more, we are taming the mind beast. When we use self-doubt to prepare for the next exam, despite doing well in the current exam, we are taming the mind beast. When we ignore the belief ( mind unconsciously adopts beliefs to help it take decisions with less information) that 'drawing is just a hobby', and decide to pursue career in drawing, we are taming the mind beast. Some self-help gurus advocate the opposite: instead of taming mind beast they tell us to believe that our mind can do anything and everything. But mind, because it is always functioning with very little knowledge about the world, cannot be all-powerful! This strategy therefore fails.

Summary

In short excelling, first of all, is a habit. Excellence is not a mantra or rule that can be practiced once in a while. Excelling is habit that has to be practiced daily. You will not learn to excel always. Sometimes you may not succeed in excelling. Excelling is about using daily situations in life to guide your actions and behaviour that slowly and surely enhances your knowledge( strengths) step by step, help you grow mentally by tackling forced situations differently, and above all use every situation to become aware of the mind's beast so that you can tame it . Taming the mind beast is necessary if one has to use the power of mind without falling prey to the mind's unpredictable demons of emotion, stress, belief and self doubt. We may not get right all these choices and decisions. But overall, our averages will improve and help us lay the solid foundation of any excellence.

Do you practice the habit of excellence consistently?

** To know more about mind's fast and instantaneous process, read Noble Prize Winner Daniel Kahnemann's book ' Thinking slow and fast'.

Excelling in life is Not about winning the battle against external odds

Excelling in life is generally seen as winning the battle against external circumstances like poverty, or against competitors, or even against tough situations. But it is none of this; it is about Winning one's battle against oneself. We cannot win the battle against oneself in one go, we have to win this battle one step at a time.

For instance, we make multiple choices in our lives to develop our strengths slowly and steadily. Excelling is about making most of those choices right. But in life, we also encounter 'forced' situations that we cannot choose. We need to use these forced situations and not be at their mercy. And, more than anything else, winning the battle against oneself is winning the battle of mind. It is battling the fear of carrying one's mashal (flag) alone despite others telling us that we could be carrying a wrong flag. Let us explore this further.

Excelling in life is about winning the many 'micro' choices that we take every day to focus on something (or defocus on something else) to develop knowledge in our areas of strengths. When we decide to play, and not study, we are making a choice of which strength to focus. When we decide to study on English, and not maths, we are making a choice of English versus maths. When we decide to see a movie, we are choosing to focus on arts and find meaning in life. When we decide not to ask a question to teacher, even when we have not understood anything about the subject, we are making a choice that directly influences our progress. When we decide to drop from the essay competition, we are making a choice of not choosing the path of writing. When we decide to break away from a studious friend who speaks English well, we are making a choice of learning English in a difficult way.

But excelling in life is not only making choices in 'unforced' situations. Excelling in life is also about using every forced situation (good or bad) that comes in our life in a way that will help us win. We do not always have the liberty to choose situations in life, many a times we are forced into a situation. Winning in forced situations enables us to use these situations to complement our strengths ( be it in English, Maths or Art). Mental growth is using situations to develop qualities such as patience, motivation, confidence, tolerance of different views - that will help you complement your strengths. For instance, excelling in life is about using the forced 'poverty' to motivate yourself , it is about using forced TV/Internet culture to hasten learning instead of just entertainment. Sometimes excelling is about tolerating incompetent teachers to discover your own learning difficulties, while sometimes it is about using difficult social environment to learn the qualities of patience and waiting. Sometimes excelling in life is about encountering death of close family member and learning to use it appreciate the fickleness of life.

Lastly, but more importantly, winning against oneself is winning the battle against mind's hidden demons.  When , despite our knowledge of physics, we fail to score poorly in physics exam, we have to tolerate the mind getting swamped by failure.Winning the battle of mind is learning to battle stress ( that accompanies any uncertain task) even when stress threatens to derail performance. Winning the battle of mind is about avoiding the distractions of environment that threaten to defocus our mind.  Winning the battle of mind is about conserving mental energy during 3 hours of exams so that one can answer all the questions to the best of one's ability. And more importantly, winning the battle of mind is reminding oneself again and again that it is OK to lose a point or even game ( or even match) to win the ultimate battle: the battle of excelling in Life.

In short, excelling in life is about making the right choices in unforced situations to gain knowledge in your strength area as well as using forced situations to grow mentally while battling with the mind's demons that we have not deciphered. As you would realise, this whole battle happens in one's mind and cannot be monitored from outside. It is therefore battle against oneself. For better understanding, see how Andy Murray won his battle to win the US Open.

Surprisingly, we need only one key to win this battle against oneself. We will learn about that key in the next blog.

Seminar on 5 August 'How to choose your career after 10th class'

A free seminar was organised on the above subject at Nashik in collaboration with Yeshwantrao Pratishtan, at their Hall at Gangapur Road office, Nashik.

Harish Nair ( in the chair) and Sanjiv Bhamre ( who is on the mic) in the seminar 

Harish Nair, Founder and CEO of a Executive Search Firm which finds CEO's and seniormost managers  for corporate world was a key speaker. He spoke about the emerging trends in the corporate sector and its impact on the careers of today's students. He urged students to specifically focus on three careers : Careers in High technology segment, Careers as Entrepreneurs and Careers in Social Sector.

Sanjiv Bhamre, Career designer, on the other hand, talked about the issues that a student should address while choosing his career. Career is about unfolding one's potential to excel. Therefore, decision of 'which career to choose after 10th' is really a decision of choosing 'Which potential should I decide to unfold and why'. 

Sanjiv Bhamre highlighted the key differences between the unfolding of potential of sportsman and musicians ( who are engaged in senses-based careers) and those who are engaged in knowledge field such as Engineers, Doctors, Accountants, Consultants and Researchers.

For instance, Sportsman and musicians identify their potential only once in their life and then continue to strengthen that chosen potential area throughout their lives. Be it Sachin Tendulkar or Lata Mangeshkar, they continue to unfold one chosen potential ( be it cricket, golf or singing) throughout their lives. On the other hand, knowledge workers have to constantly 'identify and chose' their potential strength at different stages.

At every stage, a student has to choose a potential strength from his available choices to proceed further. At 10th, he has to decide which potential path to chose - Science, Commerce or Arts- from the available choices. At the stage of 12th, the science student has to chose which potential strength to unfold further " Engineering, Science, Mathematics  or something else'. At graduation, he again faces another choice of potential unfolding path  "Post graduation in his earlier field of graduation, diversify in MBA, or do a job in some specific skill." In other words, a student in knowledge field cannot just identify and chose his potential strength once, but instead has to learn to 'identify and chose the potential strength again and again"

This difference compels students ( who are engaged in knowledge field) to learn three skills that are required to master the process of Excellence cycle ( CTS) of potential Unfolding: 

1. Choosing the Potential strength: To be able to identify and chose a potential strength from the available choices, a student must learn basic skill of converting data to knowledge. Without understanding this conversion process, a student does not understand which of his potential area ( history, maths or literature) has got better 'chance' of unfolding into 'knowledge'. Only when he can do this, he can chose a career at 10th/12th stage !

2. Tapping all the opportunities to enhance the chosen strength: Choosing the potential strength to unfold is however not enough, he also has to learn to 'tap all the opportunities to enhance it constantly't. Without tapping the opportunities, the first step of choosing will not produce any fruits.

For instance, if a student decides to take up 'Arts' at 10th, he has to initiate and take certain actions in the field of Arts to tap opportunities in Literature, Psychology or Journalism, the three paths available in Arts. Only if he 'taps' opportunities in these fields, he will know if he has the 'capability' of  converting his potential strength of Arts. Tapping the opportunities means engaging in the chosen field and using all the options to practice in the chosen area.

To tap the opportunities, a student has to learn to spot and use the available interconnections around him. For instance, he  has to find group of students who have similar interest in English Literature to talk and discuss topics in English, or write short stories after attending 'Story writing' workshop, or appreciate different aspects of English Literature by reading English Novels. The more he is interconnected with the world around him, more easily he can utilise all the opportunities. This is the skill of understanding and exploiting interconnections.

3. Sticking and choosing the potential area of strength for sufficiently long time: "Strenthening a chosen area of potential strength" requires focused attention in a specific direction without getting distracted from it. Our emotions, for instance, distract us. Gaining emotional intelligence is therefore critical in helping the student gain focus. A student also has to learn to train his Willpower to focus his energies on one subject or area. This skill of Regulating  Self is critical for the student in sticking to a chosen potential strength for a sufficient time and then deciding to continue with it or let it go.

Summary

In short, choosing the career after 10th is not a simple decision of finding colleges, courses and matching with our interest. It is understanding the Excellence cycle process of unfolding one's potential and taking actions after  choosing the career for sufficiently long time to excel in it.

As we have seen above, a student not only has to choose the unfolding path of science or arts after 10th, but also has to tap all the available opportunities to enhance the chosen potential in a given field after 10th, stick to it for a sufficient time so that he is once more ready to take a more informed decision at the stage of 12th. This sequence of identifying and choosing a potential (C) > tapping it (T) > and sticking ( S) with it and again choosing the next potential path is repeated again and again in a student's life. For instance, this is repeated again after graduation.

Infact, this sequence of steps are repeated again and again in one's life till the age of retirement. For instance Manmohan Singh ( a professor in economics) had to chose his potential in 'Policy making' when he decided to become a RBI Governor at the age of 52. Nandan Nilekani  also had to choose his potential after the age of 50 when he moved away from corporate sector to join Governmental arena.

Oversimplifying the decision of 'which career to choose after 10th' does not help a student to identify and fulfill his potential. Instead a student will benefit more if he understands the CTS cycle of excellence and use it for his own benefit.