Do the following statements sound familiar to you? “I have not been lucky enough” “My efforts being put and the results that I have got are no match” “I am really trying very hard, not sure why I am not achieving what I am set for” “Not been able to have a breakthrough” “I am not sure where to start from” One of the reasons for this conversation/situation is that, the person is not grounded well, from the context where he/she is operating from at that point in time. Their expectations and actions taken are not aligned at that point in time and hence the results are not great.

Success is a function of Context, Time, Plan and Action.

Let me introduce you to a personal assessment technique to get well grounded. Thus providing a platform to have access to great results. The Personal Grounding Chart shown below has 4 quadrants: (i) Student, (ii) Specialist, (iii) Employee and (iv) Entrepreneur; … spread over 2 dimensions: (a) Involvement and (b) Responsibility

Guidelines to plot yourself on to the chart:

1. Set your context and the time and see how involved you are/want to be AND what responsibility are you taking/ready to take in that area of work/initiative that is important to you and your life.
   • Plot with the context and time being set.
   • DO NOT pre-determine your interest of quadrant before plotting.
   • It’s important to know that whichever quadrant you are in, you are fine, whole and complete.

2. Once you have plotted, three aspects gets accomplished:
   • Realization: it gets you grounded and fetches you to the platform of Reality
   • Equips you for right skilling
   • Provides the right space to set new goals, have an action plan, take action, set right expectations and enjoy the results

3. It’s important to know that you can migrate from any quadrant to any other quadrant at any point in time by altering your involvement and responsibilities in that context of work/initiative.

4. The Entrepreneurship area in the center deserves a special mention. It is a virtual space which is available in all the four quadrants. It’s the space where the individuals have a very special responsibility and involvement, operating within a structure.

Let me illustrate the usage of this chart with an example:

In my life, I have been a serial entrepreneur in the Information Technology space. However, if I am interested in the space of healthcare or want to perform surgeries I assess myself as incompetent in performing surgeries at this point in time. In this context, I cannot get deeply involved in it nor take lots of responsibility. I move to the ‘STUDENT’ quadrant. Now, being well grounded, I can have a plan and take action accordingly and set a goal to migrate to the ‘SPECIALIST’ quadrant at a set timeframe. Get Grounded; Set Right Expectation; Go Take Action… image courtesy: tech.co