Scout Mindset

Salam w.b.t and hello all,

Recently I watched a TED Talks video about Scout Mindset. You can watch the video here - Scout Mindset.

It is interesting information, I never heard of this before. So after watching this, it opens another dimension of how I should think. I will refer to myself as an example because I cannot talk for others. Most of the time, when I ask questions, I normally want to;

1. Know the answer as I genuinely don’t know
2. Double check my understanding
3. I know /don’t know the answer but I want to test the knowledge of the person I talk to, either the person knows what he/she is talking about or no idea at all and how far they know/don’t know
4. Implicitly say, I am right and I am not stupid as you think

In some circumstances, this can lead to zero knowledge of information exchange or worse, argument. Especially in point c and d.

I have a person who always start with the conversation, "I heard,…..(enter the information here)…". This is basically the start of gossiping and discussing about rumors as well as speculation. At the start, I was okay with it. Then, over time I kept hearing, "I heard…", I find that this is not good and useless conversation. So, I started asking more critical questions to the person, implementing Point C. Often times, I asked the second follow up questions the answer I commonly received is "this is what I heard".

Let me give you a short example that relevant to the current market situation.

A - I heard from my friend they lay off the people in Country XX.

ME - Yes, it is the news and it happens everywhere. Tough times now.

A - We will be lay off as well.

ME - Who told you?

A - It happened everywhere, we will also be lay off

ME - How do you know? Did you confirm with anyone? Our situation in the country is slightly different from others, and each market has their own way of tackling this tough situations.

A - No, this is what I heard.

ME - Fine.

This conversation has zero information exchange, and more towards speculation. I don’t like to engage in this kind dialogue when there is no support apart from "I heard…". I normally end it up with OK or Fine.

Point D, I always used to the managers who shows micromanage behavior. Yes, we have it. So, from time to time, micromanage can be such a pain when the person always highlight things I already know or keep chasing me to make sure I do my work. If you ever work with me, you know how I operate. I am not a kind of person requires babysitting to carry out my task. Whenever this happened, I utilise Point D to shut the personnel out and most of the time it works.

I think I have been deviated from the main point here. Scout Mindset, it is good start to retrain our way of think and manage ourselves, especially when managing our ego. Sometimes, when we are wrong, we always associated it with losing thus scratching our ego. This is unhealthy especially when we work in a group/team or interaction with any person.

I started to think consciously and asked myself this two questions; (1) I want to prove I am right or (2) I want to understand the truth? It is a small start to exercise my way of thinking, however it is better to start rather than staying at the same spot. 

That’s all for now. See you in the next entry. Take care and Salam w.b.t.

P/S - I felt the earthquake last week. It was originate from Iran, 5.7 Richter and the tremor felt in Doha. I did not know it was earthquake, because it only lasted less than 10sec. However i felt the floor, window, ceiling shook. I thought I was maintenance or imagining because i did not expect the quake. Alhamdullilah, no damages here in Qatar, but for Iran don't know the effects.

It is Mental Health Awareness Week in UK

Salam w.b.t and hi all,

For me, there are days where it is sometimes it is going up/positive, and sometimes it is going down/negative. Recently, with this isolation due to Covid19, the situation is getting more frequent.

I will give you my example.

Yesterday, I will work for long hours and get many things done. I had my day like, "Yes, I am going to nail this!". It was like the motivation was really good. Finished my day with the sense of accomplishment.

Started today, "Well, I am not sure what I want to do…" I ended up like doing nothing, shifting through my random stuff - clothes, papers, books, foods, cabinets for hours. From 7AM to 1PM to be exact. No, I was not looking for anything, just browsing hopefully I can find my mood to do something. Netflix? Nah…similarly, browsing, browsing, and browsing the list of shows but not interested to watch any of those.

The cycle repeats. It feels sucks.

Scrolling the media social, news, and do some random reading on internet. After some time, I scrolled in LinkedIn, and a lot of sharing about Mental Health Awareness week.

Eventually, it is Mental Health Awareness Week in United Kingdom. It is from 18 May to 24 May, so this topic has been brought to surface. 

Like it or not, this topic is not always become the subject of discussion. We always hide our mental state from others, reluctant to talk about it. So we will not look WEAK. I am not excluded. That’s why after hours browsing for random things in my apartment, I decided to share briefly this subject on my blog.

Let's look at the diagram below, I think you can relate right.

Be aware of which zone are we at all time. We all been through days where it was full of colour and some days it is gloomy. 

Apart from that, somebody on LinkedIn shared an article written by Malaysian international student in UK. She shared some tips to overcome the loneliness of being away from home. Most of the time, public always have the perception of how lucky the person to be able to study/work/live away. In this circumstance, out of Malaysia - more money, can travel, meeting different people and many more. Believe me, all these mindsets are outdated. It is always a lonely road when you are away from your loved ones. This definitely affect your mental wellbeing. Please read the article here.

This is where I spent most the time during day. 

It is a tough situation for everybody. However, please try to keep yourself healthy and occupy. Call your family, and keep in touch with your fellow friends, better call them. My other two housemates are in the isolation at the client's designated hotel. So, I am alone here. Honestly, it is lonely. From time to time, I texted them individually or in our Whatsapp group. Just to say hello and if they need help of getting their stuff from the apartment to their isolation place.

Hopefully, my entry this time will be beneficial for some of us and encouragement to talk more about this subject. The main idea is, no, having mental issue does not mean we are crazy. It can happen to anyone and it is important to look around us and recognize this.

I am ending this entry with a song from Demi Lovato, I Love Me.

Stay safe all. We can do this!

Salam w.b.t.

P/S - So far, my company does not bring up this topic. Quite unfortunate because it is actually a good time to bring up this topic at bigger scale as it is relevant to the current situation. They do talk about the importance of work safely, Covid19 prevention, STOP unsafe job etc. However, none touch this topic even a slightest, unfortunately. Regardless, look after yourself, your friends, family. 💓💓💓💓💓