You are what you do

One can’t dispute that you are what you do. You are known for your action and that is what matters in life. And manners and mores come handy as guiding factors.

One who cultivates good manners and always sticks to the accepted and adorable norms, right conduct surely follows as a natural outcome.

I attended a lecture/video show on education and holistic development recently by Dr Manishi Mishra, an expert on value-education and professional ethics.

The crux of the session was on how education can or should help one in becoming a better human being.

A better human being is one who sees, always, others in one’s own image. You maybe a great scholar with several impressive degrees but you will be known only for your human aspects, your capacity to relate with others and be one with them.

Your etiquette/behaviour should have gone drastic changes with every degree you acquired. Knowledge in itself is good but not good enough.

Whenever I think of good conduct, I think of Mark Twin, “Laws control the lesser man, right conduct controls the greater one.” This brings out the goodness aspect to be seen and followed.

To be polite costs you nothing, but its dividends come in incredibly high degrees. In fact, politeness is a way of good living; and you are doing a favour to yourself, more than to the one you are dealing with.

It is only through your good manners that many a difficult challenges come to pass as if you played a magical trick.

But, as social mores keep on changing depending on the requirements of time and other social dynamics, one has to be on constant guard and be relevant with the times.

However, within the changing dynamics, one thing should remain constant: Courteous behaviour. Amy Amy Bernstein, author of Behave Yourself, says our manners don’t change, our etiquettes change with the evolution of the self and the world around.

“Once you understand that, you can pretty much figure out the rest”, asserts Amy.