Book Review - 360 Degree Excel Anything and Everything

  "360 Degree Excel At Anything And Everything"

For me reading has always been like breathing. I believe that it opens up both your thought process and your world view. It also helps mature expressions of what you think, feel and aids you in articulating what is. Reading brings you closer to the universe & your own core. 

When you get closer to your own core, you become a person with 'a well inside you rather than you stay in the well or in the web'. 

A well inside implies you to be as someone who can deep within, think, explore, feel, act and respond as an independent human entity as compared to one who is confused , is a people pleaser or then submissive. 

I learnt this from the very same author, who  released this holy grail called "360 Excel" in Nov 2022 with practical lessons on living a life that yields you a sense of satisfaction across different facets. 

This piece is a review of the book - "360 Degree Excel At Anything And Everything" authored by Dr. Swati Lodha. 

360 Degree is the GET - SET - GO to life. It talks about the various P - Pods that complete the human life cycle (Person | Partner | Professional | Parent | Perennial).

 The author has explained the use of different life tools to play the human roles associated with each of these pods to its optimal. 

They say , after 84 lakh births, one comes to life as a human. We live only once & only if we are lucky enough & further committed to our own being, do we get to live all the P- Pods. 

As someone who has been in education & training management for fifteen years now, I believe that we humans are lifelong learners who bag ample experiences on the way. 

To understand, analyze and make the most from it & also to identify what to keep and which to delete, self care plays a mega role. 360 Degree is all about understanding different aspects of your own human persona & shaping it in a direction that you envisage your life to be, which forms the crux of self care. 

The first tool explained by Dr. Lodha is Self - Teaming where she talks about identifying and grouping of the skill sets you possess and use to execute the different life roles you play (that of a learner, a sibling, a son, an employee, a boss, a friend, spouse etc) . 

The author, in her book, has finely crafted the weave of "how" that can be done. In my opinion 'Self-Teaming' will nurture you to understand yourself better and build healthy emotional maturity which is very necessary to be at harmony with yourself. 

For the student community, self teaming will also aid you to identify the work domain you want to opt for on the basis of your identified skills so that you make an informed career choice. 

Like I always tell my post graduate students that it is only sensible to have an arranged marriage with your profession, so you are able to reduce the chances of a divorce !! 

Self-teaming will also help you as you shape up your professional profile & need to spell out your strengths. It works like a basic brag sheet which can be later developed to suit your needs. 

They say, 'Good governance begins from the self' , so you be the starting point of your internal network and then move out and ahead. Self-teaming , according to me, is purely about striking a balance between passion & sustainability which is a crucial foundation to not only a rewarding career but a fulfilling life as well. In her book, the author has beautifully explained the essence of being a 'Transfer Learner' and how a smooth P2P ( Pod to Pod) Movement works well for this. 

She tells us how we transfer from student to intern life and then move to the management trainee or our professional life. Here you needn't switch back to your intern or student life. 

But as you move ahead to play the role of a partner or a parent the switching or transfer of roles is by the clock. We all know that a tiny lapse in here often causes people to pay heavy prices ! 

Transfer learner is tough but a must have skill. It aids you to multitask effectively as well, be it the personal or professional front. 

A shout out to each of the 'To Be Partners'. This one's for you! Next in line the author has crafted a narrative on ' And Gaming' which is actually both relationship strengthening & saver for life partners as it helps create newer, more fluid and versatile prototypes of gender based roles in the institution called 'Marriage'. While reading this part of the book, i strongly felt that ' And Gaming' can actually be applied beyond life partnerships. 

It could be any partnership, a parent - child, siblings, a mentor - mentee, friends or any for that matter. 

Understanding where the partner's thought process is coming from always benefits to create a win-win situation amongst human partners whether it's occasional, situational or then a daily soap. 

Pedestalling is another key tool where in the author explains the stereo typical script that makes most humans live in uni-dimensional formats. 

We have all grown up seeing a male member seeking satisfaction from his profession while a lady feeling fulfilled as a homemaker. 

That's what she calls as a living a uni-dimensional life. In one of her previous books (and I call it my bible) , Come On! GET - SET - Go !!! Dr. Swati Lodha tells us that the road to success is always under construction & how we are in a continuous process of figuring, clearing our construction sites & building our road maps. 

Each one to him or herself & thats is exactly why the author believes success and fulfillment to be as personal as a toothbrush.

 I am sure with this background in place you can easily relate to why the author, through her book, voices out that a conscious effort should be attempted to challenge the suboptimal life script. 

To do this , she says one should integrate and not segment the different P-Pods while running the marathon called life. That's where the fluidity element comes into the frame. When these stereotypes are integrated commonly across genders , it will be a start to multi dimensional living.

 I believe that Pedestalling can be extended beyond specifics. A student with academics alone is on uni-dimensional mode by nature but along with that pursuing parallel activities to nurture the existing skills or develop new ones to become what he or she envisages to, will enable a multi-dimensional living. 

This could be independent or in parallel to student life or for that matter life in any of the P - Pods. In her capsule on Perennials , Dr. Lodha talks about how people live a multi- dimensional journey and also do things that make a difference irrespective of how small or large their environment is . 

The key take - away here is to stay active till the last breath. Such people are remembered long beyond. I would like to add here that let us make an effort to adapt the quality of a curry leaf (kadi patta). 

A curry leaf spreads its flavor in the container it's put into & leaves behind its flavor & essence even long after it's removed from the container. 

A book is always a one on one - The original, un-masked you with your true reflections on its context & content and the author herself. Honestly, when I read this book , I didn't feel that I was reading something.

 I felt that the author was talking to me. The beauty of this non fiction piece is that it brings you life tools with ample fluidity, so you can customize what , where and how you want to string it up. 

That's something which helps big time in both, to think 360 and get to the needed actionables. 

My personal experience is that a practicality based non fiction read like 360 Degree proves to be the strongest self care support system across walks of life. 

The hard truth of life is that people and situations come and go, but you will need you. Do share your thoughts & reflections on aditi.gosalia@gmail.com . Will be more than glad to hear from you.