From Self-organization to Self-mastery

To organize self we have to be caring towards self .It means weeding and destroying what is not needed and will not be needed in future.It also means finding adequate space for what is needed to be retained, and also arranging them in such a way that we can retrieve whatever we have stored in the shortest  time .                            

              Self-organizing is a discipline.It involves clarity of mind , practice , patience and self-control.When done regularly at frequent intervals , self-organizing leads to self-mastery.Peter M. Senge has described Self-mastery as one of the five essential disciplines for leadership as well as for building a learning organization.Self organization is a process of self awareness and leads to self mastery.It helps us to cleanse our cob webs and bring to us clarity of mind ,thought and purpose.Human mind or nature is not easily subject to order.It has to be trained and disciplined.There are layers and layers of organizing.When we do second order organizing , we go into the deeper layers of  documents and materials.

Organizing requires us to know what is really important to us that we would like to retain and expand .What we would like to categorize as trash or redundant and would destroy.A clear understanding of what is trash and what is important enables us to know what kind of  our associated actions have so far affected the world and what have not been so .This also makes us understand our current reality and stand on various things and issues.Self organizing should be developed into a life long habit , an attitude and a way of living.                

                     Self-organizing increases our efficiency , proficiency and effectiveness,thereby making us professionally competent.When self-organizing becomes a regular life long habit ,attitude and discipline,it leads to self-mastery.Self-organizing gives us satisfaction and happiness.It makes us realize how naïve and ignorant we have been , and gives us a sense of confidence.Is organizing ,like consistency ,hobgoblin of small minds?No , because organizing expands our minds by the process of creative destruction. When we begin to organize , our mind has to discriminate between what is needed to be destroyed and what is needed to be retained and for how long.When we organize,our mind is undistracted and is free from lower level thinking.Organizing empowers us by  enabling us to focus on the broader horizon.                    

                    It is necessary to review our complete inventory every 3 months with strict regularity.In a way ,every review offers us a new start,a new opportunity to begin at the beginning.It brings us closer to our purpose ,by enabling us to weed out the trash and the redundant.
       Basis of organizing should be logic and not memory .Documents should be retained and arranged on the basis of a logic,for our memory is fragile .The logic of self-organizing starts with questioning what is actionable and what is non-actionable. Non-actionable documents are of three kinds;
1)Trash:Those documents  which are not needed, and which need to be destroyed.
2)Material in incubation:Those documents which need to be retained.Some may be needed to be retained for an uncertain period of time while others for a fixedor known period.
3)Reference materials:Some materials like books are needed to be retained in archives and library.Such documents are general reference and not more than one or two on a topic.We need to establish norms and time of retention  and destroying of different types of documents.
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I decided to organize all my papers, books , certificates, writings , pictures and reports, which I had accumulated in the last 30 years.I devoted about two hours daily for about sixty days .As I  overcame my initial inertia and impatience ,I began to feel a sense of self-control , self-awareness , satisfaction  leading to a better clarity about my purpose and life goals.I thought , I was approaching  towards what Senge has called Self-mastery.I know ,I am no where near that stage ,but I certainly know that self-organizing is one very effective approach to Self-mastery .