Upskilling : Journey from Sati to Parvati

Learning is a continuous process and Covid 19 has acted as a catalyst for humanity in terms of learning. Pre Covid times were more of a routine 9–7 job , weekend parties , annual foreign vacations and so on. But Covid has given us time to look inside. A time to connect with our real selves and upgrade our versions. Upskilling has become the new buzz word of the town.The likes of Coursera , Byju’s , Udemy are flooded with plethora of courses on all life aspects. As a learner it becomes very important to choose an appropriate learning module. The purpose of this article is to bring in some clarity in one’s mind before we start to enter the rat race of upskilling.

Mythology is full of such instances where a person found the panacea of knowledge by upgrading her version. The transition from Sati to Parvati can be looked through the prism of upskilling and finding the correct path to identify relevant skills one wants to learn

Hindu mythology lights up the path for upskilling -

Sati is the avatar of Shakti who is destined to pair up with Lord Shiva. But there is one condition in place, Sati has to upgrade her mental and spiritual being at par with Shiva i.e. Upskilling. Sati fails to attain the skills and finally dies by self immolation. Parvati is the reincarnation of Sati with same destiny to be the better half of Shiva. Parvati is a composed and complete version of Sati who mirrors all her previous flaws and learns from all the odds. And finally she becomes Shakti of Lord Shiva. So how did Parvati upskill her human embodiment to a divine god. Here are the 3 pillars she followed for upgrading herself -

1. Know Thyself —

Knowing thyself simply means how much of self introspection has been applied to know our strengths , weakness. If we are aware of the same its a cakewalk to decide which new skill to pick up. For example, if I am good at talking to people , PR or Communication would be a relevant skill for me

2. Begin with the end in your mind —

It is all about imagining what you want to achieve. Do you want to join a course just for the sake of spending time or make it relevant to your professional life. The best way to procreate a goal beforehand will help one define the road map to achieve skills. For example if one wishes to be a maverick Marketer, Programming will never be a logical skill to acquire and vice versa. So to achieve the maximum deep dive inside your and understand if the new skill is needed for the sake of a promotion , project or just learning

3. Key Result Areas —

End point of the journey is the destination but key result areas are the compass. They help guide you and measure your progress. Keeping relevant milestones while doing online courses i.e. frequency, closure etc can act as a guiding tool for effective and continuous learning.

So let’s embrace the journey of constant learning with some words of wisdom from our Hindu mythology and make these tough times a phase of upgrading our inner selves.