If you haven't heard about "selective listening", sorry for having a miserable life to-date. This is one of the best skills to have to be able to live a life which you choose to live. You are not driven by others, rather you decide, how you want to define "your" life.
Selective listening is basically the ability to decide what you want to listen to. You may "hear" a lot but what you choose to "listen" to is totally in your control. Yes there is a difference between hearing & listening. Sometimes, I just put on my headphones or earphones to indicate, I am not in the listening mode. I may or may not be listening to something. Its just to indicate to people around me that I am not in the listening mode right now. It works like a charm and I think its only polite to indicate your wall & space, instead of somebody just assuming that you are going to listen to them just because they start speaking.
I extend this concept to "selective reading" also. There is enough material out there to read however what you should be able to choose what you want to read. Your interests, your influences, should be driven by what you choose to read rather than what comes in front of your eyes to read. To be able to decide what to read and what not to read, that's "selective reading".
Extending that to "selective watching" is what we should do with television & streaming websites like YouTube. All this intake of information in this age can pretty much mess up your mind if you try to just take what comes to you, in your face. Instead, use this knowledge about selective listening, reading & watching to decide what you want to watch which leads to controlling how you want to live your life.
The various power sources of the world, political, religious, corporate, know how easily our minds tune into information. Hence, they are using these tools, social media, television, radio, etc to be able to control & condition how we think. Influence it in a way that we end up believing them, buying their product, following them or something of the sort.
Its about time, we took back what was ours in the first place, our mind. Think about it, how many times your action was influenced just by reading, watching or listening to somebody. Why should anybody have control of my mind other than myself?
My Baba - My Hero
So the elder one moves to Grade 3 this year. So as you can see, time is speeding along. I am already referring to her as the elder one, my grown-up young lady, with the younger ones growing at similar pace. By the way, this indirectly also means that, I am growing old.
As her new school year started a few weeks back, she is already realizing that things are getting a bit tougher from all angles. More responsibility expected, tougher things to learn. It is no longer a breeze through day. I think there is a transition from Grade 2 to Grade 3 which is a larger jump than the Grade 1 to Grade 2 one. It also feels a bit more difficult after 3 months of vacation, everything is a bit rusty.
First week end, I get to know that she had her first setback in school life. She was no longer the ms-know-it-all. This time there were things asked to her which she didn't know. That is the whole point of education isn't it, stretch the mind more. But on that day, she was devastated. So much that she didn't want to go to school anymore. Woah!! Hold on lady.
It was my time to shine. It's moments like these I crave for where mayG has done what she could and now needs me to swoop in, jump over buildings, stop a bullet train, deal with a few bad guys in the middle and then ... save the day.
So, I was in the superhero mode. The basics first, get to know the problem. This didn't take long and it was all about mathematics and adding up bigger numbers, carry-sums as they call it. Time for the deep voice which will live with her for times to come. See, this is something I do, whenever there is a learning opportunity, I make my voice a bit deeper which could speak to her at times when she needs it. It's like the "answer" for everything had to come through that voice. Agree or not, we all have one. Unless we hear something in that voice, we are not convinced on doing something.
So after the change of voice, we went through sums and sums, kept it interesting and basically the message of the day was, nothing is rocket science, all it needs is practice and practice. If she wishes to be ms-know-it-all, it wouldn't be possible unless she keeps learning new things and practices to improve. I think she got the message and realized how radical her decision of not going to school was. She is back on track and back focused on the job at hand.
I didn't realize how big this was until this weekend when I found out they had a session at school about "Heroes". The question, "Who is your hero?" While the standard answer for a 7 year old would be some cartoon or action figure, my daughter's answer? Yes folks, it was me. My daughter's hero is her Baba.
What a day? What a cherishable moment? It's the culminating point for everything that I do. The best reward, the perfect expression of gratitude. Now I am not sure if it was the mathematics lesson we had gone through in the first week or was it a general combination of my performance but all I can say is, it was a proud moment for me. It surely means a lot.
We get report cards when we are in school to tell us about her performance in school. How do we know we are being a good parent? Such situations are what could tell you and give you the boost. To do even better next time.
Being a super-hero to my children is not a new concept for me. I do see myself in a superman costume, doing the best as I can for my children, for my wife, for my family.
I am UTP by day and UTP by night, no change. Super-hero 24/7, 365 days of the year. My special power is "Being Baba". Bad guys beware, this Baba means business.
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