Savipra’s Road to Intellectual Elegance
It is just about right that I chose to be in this field. It has been a longstanding interest of mine to pursue the field of Psychology. Aside from the idea of studying a person’s behavior and mental process, I have discovered more than what I asked for.
The Beginning
I have been fascinated with Niccolo Machiavelli’s The Prince, on how manipulation and influence can be used to gain leverage over other people. I was a power-hungry kid that time. I wanted to become influential and see through my adversaries’ intentions. Power was the name of the game.
My goal was exploitation. Psychological warfare sounded music to my ears, I wanted to use the power of psychology to wage war with people through the subtleties and subtext of interactions. Status games, power plays, and the intricacies that plays with dominance. All of it, I wanted to master.
Road to Influence
In the name of psychological warfare, I ventured on to discover the literature that relates to it. Persuasion, compliance, negotiation, and social influence were the ones closely to it. Kevin Hogan, Robert Cialdini, Rintu Basu, Jim Camp, and Brian Tracy were among the people I invested my time reading books they authored.
Their systems I have managed to practice overtime and apply with ease, I realized that persuading people became second nature to me. How do I go about with this? I noticed how my influence would creep as I talk and steal the hearts and minds of people I talk to. I did not desire to have people to take my own thinking, but to be in equal plain with them. I wanted to be challenged, but with the things I have already learned, I became skeptical about the intentions of people.
Road to Nonverbal Communications
I took a different path. I learned about nonverbal communication; especially body language and micro-expressions. Paul Ekman, Joe Navarro, Barbara and Allen Pease were just some of the authors I studied. I wanted to read people even when they are not talking.
Combining the skills of reading people’s body language and reading faces, opened my eyes to a new way of seeing the world. A Duchenne smile, nostril flare, upturned lip, arms akimbo, and even the slightest body movement. All was brought to my awareness in succeeding fashion. Liespotting by Pamela Meyer became the clincher. The BASIC Interview method enabled me to lead the conversation into a truthful direction. It’s not about spotting lies anymore, but heading to the truth.
Road to Seduction
With influence techniques and nonverbal communications under my arsenal, I went on to study about Pick-Up Artistry (PUA). Mystery, Style, Savoy, David DeAngelo, Ross Jeffries, Gambler, and Kezia Noble were some of the seduction and dating coaches I invested time learning. I hoarded all the reading materials possible, spent most of my time watching videos of them. Weekends were spent applying the techniques to pick-up women. Most of the concepts under PUA are based on group dynamics, evolutionary psychology, and social psychology. I managed to pick-up women, but it didn’t feel genuine to me. So, I left.
Road to Personal Growth
Though the roads seemed to have segments or different timelines of learning, all disciplines were overlapping as each became second nature to me. Every road I take, there seems to be a force within me that elevates my awareness to refine itself through continuous education, experience, and knowledge.
Personality psychology introduced me to new theories about one’s self. The idea of MBTI to Cognitive Functions made me understand that I am an Introverted Intuition (Ni) dominant; that my MBTI type code is INTJ; that I am a Number Five in Enneagram; that my primary type of intelligence is Intrapersonal Intelligence. No wonder I have this insatiable thirst to discover more about myself and to how I relate to people despite our differences. I was driven by my desire for personal growth.
Daniel Goleman, Maria Konnikova, Edward de Bono, Eric Berne, Richard Wiseman, and Mark Manson were some of the people I studied their works about. I do not call myself a bookworm, but I just love to read about non-fiction that is about personal growth. I have to add Robert Kiyosaki to the list for he inspired me to equip an entrepreneurial mindset. Learning about investing made me aware of the things I can achieve with astute financial literacy.
Road to Intellectual Elegance
The extent to how I devoted most of my youth in learning all I have mentioned backs up the idea of Autodidactism. The act of teaching oneself with or without the help of a teacher, in a continuous basis brings truth for me. All of it was self-studied. Most of the things I apply today weren’t taught in school. The Psychology that most people know are the ones that do clinical work and even counseling.
I am glad I took up Bachelor of Arts than Bachelor of Science. Although Psychology was the one I wanted, I never imagined myself catering to sensitive and dysfunctional people’s needs. I don’t see myself doing clinical work. The Bachelor of Arts in Psychology degree is more inclined to the humanities aspect than the sciences. It also opened me to a myriad of disciplines such as Humanities and Culture, Law and Governance, Philosophy, Anthropology, Business, and Economics. That kind of curriculum complemented the roads I took.
What I really see myself doing is transforming people, I can envision that I can be the best in that field. To help people achieve transformation be it training, coaching, mentoring, and consulting. I will thrive in the field of personal growth, and I can help people achieve their best. I want to deal with robust people who are ready to transition from their comfort zone to their stretch zone.
My Being is a racing engine, every aspect of my life must be devoted into improvement. I believe in Kaizen, a Japanese philosophy that is about continuous improvement. I see myself as Kaizen personified. My desire is to take people along with me in my perpetual pursuit to personal growth.
Upon discovering what Intellectual Elegance is, I came upon the realization of what can I bring of value to my family, friends, and the organization that I will soon be working with. At my highest value, I inspire intellectual elegance.
You might be wondering, what is intellectual elegance?
Intellectual elegance is a mind that is continually refining itself with education and knowledge.
From all the things I have self-studied, I now come to believe it’s not only about Psychology primarily. Psychology is a gateway to my journey of self-discovery; it has led me to building my destiny, to inspire intellectual elegance. We do not find our purpose, we make our purpose. We are the authors, the painters, the builders, the creators, the masters of our destiny. We must be formless in our pursuits, like water, continuously flowing and adapting to the ever changing circumstances. Such is the case with intellectual elegance, it is a continuous refinement of oneself with education, experience, and knowledge. Intellectual elegance is rooted in the element of change. Change is the only permanent element. As what I always like to say:
We do not have the power to prevent change, but we do have the power to set the direction of that change.
