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Rajan shares insights from his own life journey to help you build better habits in yours.
Past Newsletters
A life-lesson from meditation you will learn nowhere else
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...
Finding balance in the age of busyness
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,...
An actionable roadmap to overcome lack of confidence
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...
You need a break – here is why
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...
You need consistency – but not 100%
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...
We underestimate meditation – here is how it can change your life
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....
A practical approach to learning faster
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...
The story of the most hated man
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...
How to do in one day what may take months
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...
How to actually make 2023 different (and better)
First of all: Wish you a wonderful new year! While I may not be able to talk to you personally, I say this with all my heart: May 2023 be truly special for you. May you find success and peace. May this be the year of joy for you. 2023 can indeed be a special year. But...
How to stop making ourselves unhappy by comparing with others
Human beings are unhappy not because they have less but because someone else has more. Who has never felt envious or jealous of others? We all have. Comparing ourselves with others is a recipe for unhappiness. Yet, we can’t stop our mind from going down that path. How...
Is there a happiness ATM?
What makes us happy? This question is both trivially simple and impossibly hard. For centuries, philosophers have speculated about this but thankfully, we don’t have to anymore – research has thrown up some really specific answers in the past 50 years. But first, let...
How to cut out junk from your life
We are swimming in junk – be it the greasy food from Swiggy, mindless scrolling on the phone, or binge-watching Netflix. And it is not even that we enjoy it. I haven’t seen anyone who says, “Yay! I spent 6 hrs scrolling on Instagram.” No, they hate their life. But...
How to make each day delightful
Today morning, I woke up feeling a slightly toxic mix of sickness, low mood, and light anxiety. I guess, my Covid recovery is slower than I expected. Even the morning meditation didn’t help much – my mind was too fragmented. So I went for a walk. But instead of just...
How To Be Free
Rousseau said, “Man is born free but everywhere is in chains.” In this newsletter, I want to talk not about socio-political freedom, but something deeper – the freedom to choose how we live. Today, you live carrying a heavy burden. So do I. This burden is the...
How to deepen your meditation practice?
I recently read ‘The Attention Revolution,’ a book by Alan Wallace, in which he guides you through 10 stages of tranquility meditation leading to such mastery that you meditate for up to 4 hrs, with practically zero distractions. Even if we can reach the first 3 or 4...
Should we seek work-life balance?
This question is controversial – hence worth talking about. Let us start by dissecting it further. When we talk about balancing work and life, we assume that they are in conflict – that one of them comes at the cost of the other. And somehow, we need to find that...
How to become insanely good at anything
The solution might sound straightforward: Practice, practice, and more practice. But not so fast. It does not work that way. To convince you, let me share a personal experience. My daughter started playing the violin in 5th grade. When kids start practicing, what...
How to break out of a rut
I don’t know if you have ever been in a rut but I have. There was this one particular year in school, which I totally whiled away without studying. It was not that I was caught up in some bad habits or delinquent behavior, but somehow, I could just not break my...
I lost crores in my previous startup – lessons from my failure
What happened to me In 2012, when I quit my plush job with a billion-dollar private equity fund to do a startup, I was in a mad rush. And ironically, that rush to succeed is what cost me crores of rupees and a painful failure. To save a ton of grief and help launch...
How to do the right thing EVEN when you’re demotivated
What happened to me I love running. But I also hate running. Let me explain. Once I am done with a long run, it is pure bliss. Running is my drug (in a really good, positive way). And yet, incredibly, my mind sometimes resists getting started with the run. This...
The little compromises that kills us
What happened to me It was 31st October, 1998 at 1:30 pm. The passing out parade of our IPS batch at the National Police Academy had just gotten over. In the IPS Mess, we were celebrating the completion of our training. Yay! I was now a real IPS officer — not a...