Categories: Business

Truths out of a jar

Practical, Precise, Purposeful. The book The Seventh Jar by Srikumar Rao, is an offering of the programme of the same name that he taught at Columbia Business School in easy jargon- free language through practical exercises.

From professor at Columbia Business School to Executive Coach, his personal journey to seek and understand from various masters and their teachings informs the contents and the wisdom shared in the book.

Profound truths are offered in easy to understand, relatable ways on how to be on a path to personal mastery through exploring self by way of purposeful exercises. Following them leads to self-discovery and sustainable change.

The book is almost a self-study leading to self-discovery. Most concepts are perhaps not new but are presented in original and simple ways. It would be valuable to not view them as being simplistic.

Surrender, acceptance, gratitude, celebrating abundance, freedom, happiness — they are profound concepts which may seem best left to philosophers and spiritual leaders to share and follow, yet the book is able to bring it down to doable workable ways to comprehend them and leverage them practically in our daily lives. There is always a ‘Lets Practice’!

Our mental models and internal chatter unconsciously rule our actions and creates challenging situations. Awareness of them begs deconstruction of what we believe is reality and invites reconstructing an alternative reality that serve us. He invites us to question these mental models and keep replacing limiting ones to more expansive ones through a step-by-step guide.

The exercises span three areas of life — work, family, relationships — exploring them through the lens of emotional tenor, thoughts and actions, making it a very holistic way of consciously redesigning our lives’ transformation to success.

Some fundamental Laws of Universe such as viewing the Universe to be a benevolent one; Law of increase and how that can propel us to create a life of freedom and happiness; Law of self interest and how that way of operating is not viewed with negative connotations, are useful. They lead to understanding the personal power we have and the power of choice that exists in all of us, bringing the locus of control back to self.

Empowering actions

The most useful tool for mastery is our ability to be in the ‘Witness mode’. When we can observe ourselves as a witness, we become aware of our emotional tenor, our mental models and this awareness then leads to ease and we take more empowering actions.

Srikumar Rao liberally uses stories, examples, analogies from everyday situations and personal experiences that explain and enhance each concept, elevating our understanding and relatability to the book; a sign of an exemplary teacher. The tools of journaling, visualisation and giving oneself to pause and reflect to process and integrate new ways of thinking are at the core of transformation.

The book is a call to move from a state of frantic doing to calm being.

The Seventh Jar is an ancient story, featured in the last few pages, which brings home the concepts and exercises everything that the book hopes to accomplish.

To the unsuspecting reader, you cannot read the book as if it’s a work of fiction. Read at an unhurried pace experimenting with the exercises suggested in conscious, deliberate ways to truly reap the benefit.

As a Coach Practitioner I could see how I can use these tools myself and offer the same to my client leaders.

The reviewer is a Leadership Coach, Coach Educator and Supervisor