2023

If you have ever meditated, you have seen the devil – none other than your mind. It just won’t sit still. You want to focus on your breath. Yet, it will do anything but that. The mind keeps getting distracted by thoughts and daydreams. You bring it back and in no...

During my days at McKinsey, I once asked a retired senior partner about life before PowerPoint. How did they make presentations to clients? He said that they used to create presentations on big chart papers using felt-tip pens. They would have to write in big font,...

Whether it is making a presentation, talking to our boss, or socializing after work, some of us experience a serious lack of confidence or anxiety. We anticipate that we will fumble, make a mistake or do a really bad job. And when we are afraid of making a fool of...

The harder you work, the more you get done, and the more value you create. Right? Wrong! It turns out that life is not that linear. Working long hours, non-stop, is not the recipe for value creation. Nor is working without a break for months and years. Every once in a...

This is going to be controversial. But read on… By now, you must have heard this a zillion times: To achieve even your biggest goals, be it building habits, becoming fit, or compounding your wealth – all you need is consistency. When you are consistent, small...

When we think of meditation, the mind often conjures up an image of monks sitting in a buddha-like pose, with serene calm, detached from the world, mind full of lofty thoughts. And that couldn’t be farther from the truth. Meditation is not a retreat from the world....

Except for my early childhood in Bangalore, I grew up in an environment where English wasn’t used for day-to-day conversations either at home or in school. So my English vocabulary was limited mostly to commonplace words. But unfortunately, all the newspapers and...

During my training at the National Police Academy, there was one man everyone was terrified of – Mr. Anil Kumar Raturi (the future DGP of Uttarakhand). At that time, he was the boss of our outdoor training at the Academy. Which means, all the physical torture we...

Last December, a colleague and I were talking to my friend Ashish Chordia, who also doubles up as our startup coach. When we excitedly told him about the new program we were going to create (on journaling), he asked, “How long will it take?” My colleague said, “3-6...