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Today let us demystify motivation. I am not talking about the transient spike of excitement but the obsessive commitment to a goal, day in, and day out, regardless of the ‘mood of the day.’
In my IIT days, I was a total slacker, perpetually lagging in assignments, quizzes, and projects. I would neither go to classes on time nor take notes. The only time I would be focused was the night before the exams. That is when I would photocopy borrowed notes from...
In the early days of smartphone, I became an early victim of digital distraction. I was no longer able to build deep focus as I used to earlier. And I hated it. This is the story of how I got my focus back.
In 2002, I was facing a crisis that I thought would sink my career. And it taught me the futility of worrying. At that time, I was serving as the Trivandrum City Police Commissioner. The problem started quite innocuously – about 200 tribals came down to Trivandrum and...
It has repaid me more than my super-expensive MBA, my electrical engineering degree, or pretty much anything useful I have done – I am talking about the craft of writing. For more than three years, writing on LinkedIn and Quora gave me the privilege of serving...
On the 24th of March 2020, ConceptOwl, my last startup, died. I don’t remember having worked harder for anything in my life – for 5 long years, I slogged day and night to make ConceptOwl successful. And all I had to show for it was crores of losses. Yet, I was still...
I remember the Annual Sports Meet in my school when I was in my 3rd grade, as if it was yesterday. My classmates were having fun, participating in races and games. But I had no event to participate in – I did not qualify for anything. I was so skinny and devoid of any...
Until 2012, I had gotten every job I wanted, and cracked every exam I had written. And then, finally, I failed. Miserably. My luck had finally run out. What followed was years of misery and frustration. And yet, from all that pain, emerged this beautiful truth: You...
In June 2001, when I was appointed the Trivandrum City Police Commissioner, I was a disaster waiting to happen – at least according to my then boss, the Inspector General of Police (IGP) of Southern Kerala. The lessons I learned from what happened next, saved me later...
Rajan shares insights from his own life journey to help you build better habits in yours.