If we can dream it,can we build it ?

The  POM class started with a discussion on 3d printing technology and how it is being used in 3d modeling and prototyping. This technology is at a very nascent stage at this moment and very few sectors have learnt and embraced it. A simple prototyping machine would cost you about 50 lakh..!!  Dr Mandi shared with us that few students from our college are working together to take this amazing technology to the reach of engineering students. Some of the students from the class were very keen to contact the students already working on it and know more about it..

The next topic on the table was the Pygmolian Effect. It is a theory in which the greater the expectation is placed upon the people, the better they perform. It can be seen in schools, business, organisations and even in relationships. Surely this helps a lot in raising a child or motivating an employee. But it has its own loopholes :How much ever you expect, you can never expect a cat to act and look like a lion. And obviously not vice versa also!

Expecting a person to achieve –what you want him to- might create pressure on him. And playing under pressure is not recommended. Real life examples include manager-employee, parents-child etc. I can remember how as a teenager, some times I used to fall in arguments with my parents due to their “view” of me and my “experience” of me. But with time, all that has been settled.

Talking of expectations and achievements , we moved on to discuss GOALS and SMART GOALS. In order to achieve something meaningful in a certain period of time ,we need to set goals in order to give us a clear picture of what we are aiming at .Smart goals  have more chance of being accomplished than general goals. 

Even the word “smart” is an acronym for some of the very smart words.

S - specific, significant, stretching

M - measurable, meaningful, motivational,manageable

A - attainable, agreed upon, achievable, acceptable, action-oriented,appropriate

R - relevant, realistic, reasonable, rewarding, results-oriented

T - time-bound, time-based, timely, tangible, trackable

Like a general goal can be “Get in shape” .But a smart goal will be to “Join a gym and workout 3 days a week”.

Dr Mandi explained to us the meaning of the very simple and daily use words –“Continuous growth and evolution” with the help of a snail. Learning is much more of a cyclic process than a linear process. We come across the same set of difficulties many a times. But each time we encounter them, we are at a different level – probably matured –and thus get over them faster.If today we achieve 5,then tomorrow with more experience and learning we will achieve 13,then 35 and this will go on.. This explains the continuous evolving and learning.

To explain goal setting and achieving more clearly, we performed the same tower building exercise, just that this time the students who were making the tower were more in number and also there were no constraints like the blind-fold. Every individual in the class was asked about the height expected out the group. The answers were mostly around 25 -30.The group making the tower had actually set their goal as 50.The record made by the senior batch students was 27.This team aimed to break that record. They could manage building the tower of 28 cubes.

Few Questions to ask:

Should the goal set be always more than the potential?

Should the goal achieved be more or less than the goal set?

Dr mandi cleared these questions with the help of a graph .

A = Goal set

B= Potential

C=Goal achieved

D = Historical Achievement

This simply means that it is better to aim for goals higher than our potential .Then only we will be able to measure our potential and accordingly work to achieve more higher results and success.