My education journey from a Positive Psychology perspective
To introduce myself, I teach and practice Positive Psychology. Taking the risk of self-glorification, I was perhaps one of the few people in India who was talking about Positive Psychology in the year 2009, just ten years after the field was officially inaugurated either as branch of Psychology or a logical transformation of Humanistic Psychology. So, the reason for this post is a challenge which someone who also works in the field of Positive Psychology threw it on me. So my friend asked me if I can reflect on educational qualifications I earned and write down at three things I am grateful for, in terms of each and every qualification I earned. As one can have various qualifications, she said that I can perhaps focus on Post Graduate experience (Graduate in context of the US) and even post the pictures of the degrees/diplomas.
So, here I am and I have taken up this challenge. I did my MBA level business school immersion in a school called Institute of Management Sciences and Productivity Research (a division of a quasi government body, Delhi Productivity Council). The school is now renamed as DPC Institute of Management. Here is my Post Graduate Diploma;
Now, I am having gratitude for at least three things for my educational experience in this school. The first is that the school had very good professors including Professor B.P. Singh who used to visit us from Delhi School of Economics, a premier school in India. There was Professor Kanti Swaroop, one of the foremost expert on Operations Research, who used to visit us as well and so did Professor S.N. Maheshwari, the master of Financial Accounting. Secondly, I made lifelong connections with friends and peers and our batch was a remarkable batch of people with tremendous energy and zeal to do something remarkable. Thirdly I grew myself as an individual and I transformed from a shy small town boy into a confident young man. I majored in Finance and Marketing and thought I would embark on a journey in Finance or Banking. Of course destiny had more exciting choices to offer!
Once I completed this educational journey, I had a craving to do something more in Finance and I took up a Masters degree in Finance at Kurukshetra University, India and my three gratitude notes from that experience includes firstly the unique experience of traveling to a new city and a new university for the contact classes which made me understand new subjects in Finance, in-depth. Secondly, I was in the city of Kurukshetra with my best friend (he was also enrolled in the program) and we enjoyed exploring the city together and the good vegetarian food. Thirdly, we met some cool students and we hanged around with them.
Uniquely, the degree I received was bi-lingual, in Sanskrit and English. While recalling that experience now, I feel a surge of positive emotions embedding my mind.
Later on, I shifted to a Human Resources role. But my Finance degree has a value. There is an intrinsic link between Finance and HR specifically when we look at things like Employee Taxation, Compensation and benefits, Return on investment in terms of Talent Acquisition and so on. I in-fact used my Finance know-how to facilitate workshops on Finance for non-Finance executives.
While I was in my third career role, I was interested to invest my evening times (and I was single) in higher studies where I would be independent to study at my own pace and I enrolled in a “non-traditional” Doctoral Program from a US-based non traditional distance learning University. I wrote my dissertation on Newer ways to look at performance appraisal where I recommended more of a strength based approach. The three take-aways that I could think of include firstly, I was productively engaged in something I have always loved and that is learning new things. Love for learning is something I identify with. Secondly, I used to discuss my studies with couple of friends and got ideas to make it better. Thirdly, I felt nice that I was a researcher and trying to find my own answers in a unique dissertation that I worked on
I subsequently studied for a Masters in Political Science. Now one may say that it is not related to my area of work but my argument is that it is indeed related. I will share the interconnection through my gratitude notes- firstly this degree helped me understand the nuance of opinions, diplomacy, decision making under crisis, politics and economics connection, rhetoric and negotiation and that is also part of organizational behavior in some sense. With my political acumen (which I inherited from my father), this qualification made sense to me. Secondly, I write on Politics off and on, through my blogs and I am still open to write more in print as well as digital mode. Thirdly, I am thankful that I have a better perception of the world around me.
In 2012, I completed one year of International MBA (online) from United Business Institutes (UBI) in Leadership and Entrepreneurship. The reason for me to study this program was to become more aware of latest business concepts and ideas and how entrepreneurship can be a force in the economy. I also work as a leadership coach with start-ups and this knowledge helped me in working with smart people, for achieving their goals. In April 2021, I facilitated a session for the UBI faculty and Alumni and it is a cherished achievement. So, firstly I got an International degree and my immense gratitude to the faculty who curated content. Secondly, my knowledge in areas like Entrepreneurship got tremendous value addition and thirdly as a Visiting Professor in many schools and Institutions, this degree helped me undertake some interesting conversations with people.
Meanwhile, I had also completed my degree in Psychology as well. The qualification which added knowledge as well as my worldview was the specialization qualification in Positive Psychology (through Coursera) from UPenn and it made me become much more passionate about Positive Psychology (and it is my first gratitude note about this learning). Secondly, I started applying many interventions myself and thirdly, it made me understand Positive Psychology in much more profound way and that helped me teach few classes on Positive Psychology at the Indian Institute of Management, Indore India.
One of my goal was also to study technology and how Artificial Intelligence can help us find solutions to many pertinent and contemporary questions. I was also keen on linking AI with mental well-being and in future I may do more work in this area. Again, this helped me understand AI from a non-mathematical and business point of view and the learning is still on. Looking back on this education, my three pointers to feel good about it are; one it made me understand the recent innovations in the field of AI. Secondly, how AI can be a vital force in creating spaces for well-being and thirdly how we can leverage technology to solve problems of hunger and poverty. I am certainly using whatever extra time I have in reading and researching more.
Finally, to end this piece, I want to share a Honorary degree that was awarded on me. I just feel encouraged to retain my curiosity, keep delving into interesting areas and help people around in any way possible.
I love my work as an Educator and I am always open to share my know-how and expertise. Now the question might be if my educational experiences aid my PERMA score. I believe it does. When I reflect on the journey, it certainly does elevate my positive emotions, makes me feel that I was engaged in a very interesting way. I made new positive relationships wherever I studied and also as a repercussion of my knowledge, I have made many new friends as well. This gives me meaning and all of these, in retrospection are my tiny accomplishments
The question emerges if all of my degrees are having some commonality and can I be paid, in my work for all the qualifications that I have. The answer is that there are commonalities in many ways possible. Politics and leadership is all about opinions and decisions based on judgement, perceptions and ideas and Psychology is an overarching field that makes us function as humans either individually or in groups. Technology is a factor that surrounds our lives. From a Positive Psychology viewpoint, my education journey complimented my intrinsic well-being by giving me learning, wisdom, ability to look beyond the obvious and a courage to expand the possibilities of acquiring new perspective and ability to question the existing and mainstream junk. Positive Psychology talks about creating a flourishing life by tuning within and looking at the factors that give us optimal life satisfaction and well-being. The intellectual growth has been tremendous and I can say this for sure that all of these experiences have always given me newer days to look forward to, for carrying out work that helps me achieve optimal happiness.
